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Can you identify this bugalugs?

Penny_ForthemPenny_Forthem Posts: 455
in Wildlife gardening
Captured (well, photographed) on a lily leaf today. Enhanced it a bit.
Initially thought it a ladybird.
Any ideas?

Beautiful North Wales - hiraeth
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  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Lily beetle!!! Aaaargh 😱

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Penny_ForthemPenny_Forthem Posts: 455
    Will do in the morning thanks
    Beautiful North Wales - hiraeth
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    I just pick them off and squash them.
  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 2,697
    @pansyface why do RHS want sightings? They have been around for decades or were we supposed to let them know back then?
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    That’s what I was going to say,  plenty here if they think there’s a decline 🤮
    They’re always in pairs,  mating,  I must have missed a few as there are a few grubs which I’ve squashed equally 🤮. They stink, 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Is it that the RHS is tracking their northern progression and/or earliest date each year?

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Yes.  Lily beetles are a recent arrival in the UK and the RHS is trying to track their spread north and east and west.

    They don't just go for lilies but also hostas and fritillaries.

    They have a cunning trick of falling off plants and lying upside down on the soil or compost below if they sense a human or predator attack.   Their dark underside makes them invisible.  If you do cach them, their carapace is very strong so you really need a good gardening boot for squishing them.

    I did love one solution I saw - arm yourself with a mug of tea and go round the host plants at around tea-time and hold the mug below the target beetle so that if you miss it it will fall in the tea and drown.
     
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    As a coffee drinker I really don’t mind giving the beetles a mug of tea 😂 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    A mug of hot water might be better. Then you can see the little b****rs in there and be less likely to absent-mindedly drink them :s
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    If it’s ‘builders tea’ there’s little chance that I’ll drink it 🤢

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





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