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from the forum: lily beetles, anyone?

May 20, 2010

WHAT’S YOUR TACTIC FOR DEALING with lily beetles? The topic resurfaced (as it had a year ago) in the Urgent Garden Question Forum the other day, and member DogRiverVT was thinking of pulling the plants all out. Yikes! Neem oil? Hand-picking the bugs or larvae? Any other ideas? Please come share your pain or better yet, secrets to your lily-beetle victories.

{ 4 Comments }

Comments

Tammy says:

May 21, 2010 at 8:37 pm

Good heavens, the lily beetle comments sound like something out of a bad horror
movie. Hope I never see one.
Judith says:

July 5, 2010 at 1:39 pm

Lily beetles are truly disgusting, they also affect my fritillaria meleagris. I try to knock them off into a container of soapy water but the little devils drop down and disappear under the mulch so one has to be quick. I had read somewhere about spraying them with Windex, apparently it doesn’t harm the plants. Haven’t tried that one yet. I basically don’t grow lillies anymore because it’s so hard to keep on top of these beetles but I’m not quite ready just yet to throw in the towel with the fritillarias!
Sharon says:

April 28, 2011 at 8:53 pm

reminds me….what to do about asparagus beetles??
i have tried picking them off into soapy water but the population does not slow..
Margaret says:

April 29, 2011 at 6:16 am

Hi, Sharon. Some info on asparagus beetle is here.

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