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Red Lily beetles

bluebird819bluebird819 Posts: 5
in Problem solving
RHS are doing a study into these bugs and I found one in my lillies. One tiny bug has totally destroyed my lillies ???? pictures can be found here http://ukgreenfingers.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=16185 If you find them please submit a report to rhs here : https://www.rhs.org.uk/science/help-our-research/lily-beetle

Posts

  • Tropical SamTropical Sam Posts: 1,488

    I have these for the very first time. I hope to have caught them early. I killed 5 adults and all the eggs I found. They were on fritillaria imperialis. I had wondered why they looked poorly this year. I have logged the find in the above.

  • bluebird819bluebird819 Posts: 5
    I have 2 or 3 individual black dots on 2 of the leaves of the plant I found the bug on and unsure if I should remove or not as unsure if these are the eggs or something else

    Thank you
  • YviestevieYviestevie Posts: 7,066

    Have a few small holes in my lillies but I suspect that might have been snails.  Haven't seen any beetles this year.  Had them the previous two years though.

    Hi from Kingswinford in the West Midlands
  • paulk2paulk2 Posts: 184

    I came across an adult lily beetle this week (on a lily leaf) and picked it off by hand and killed it.

    I have 5x pots with lilies and only one seems to be have been affected. There are no signs of eggs or other adults on any of the plants: does anyone know if it is usual to get a single adult or is this just the start?

  • paulk2paulk2 Posts: 184

    Thanks Gertie grass for the very useful info. I've just had a look in the soil in the pots and couldn't see anything untoward at the moment, but I'll keep looking on the leaves and in the soil.

    I've subsequently also found this...

    http://www.gardenersworld.com/blogs/gardeners-musings/dealing-with-lily-beetle/3425.html

    which worrying says "lily beetle not only crawl but fly": I was hoping that they could only crawl!

     

  • paulk2paulk2 Posts: 184

    I've found another adult lily beetle today and disposed of it, but also found ~8x leaves with ~10x mini red eggs on each leaf which weren't there yesterday (also disposed of). Luckily all of this is on the same plant as before and hasn't spread to the other pots yet. The eggs were very small and not covered in their own excrement - I found it easiest to hold the pot up into the light and then could easily see the eggs.

    Does anyone have any idea how many eggs a typical adult would lay as I'm thinking ~80x eggs in one day might be too many for 1x adult?

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