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.
‘NATURE’S BEST HOPE’ is the title of University of Delaware professor Doug Tallamy’s new book, and the subtitle reads like this: “A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard.” In other words, you and I are nature’s best hope. Our actions count, and they add up to counteract a fragmented landscape and other challenges to the survival of so many critically important native creatures and the greater environment we all share.
Doug Tallamy’s 2007 book, “Bringing Nature Home,” has been for many of us a wake-up call into the entire subject of the unbreakable link between native plant species and native wildlife, and now with more than a decade of additional research insights, he goes further.
(Stream it below, read the illustrated transcript or subscribe free.)
Good heavens, the lily beetle comments sound like something out of a bad horror
movie. Hope I never see one.
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!
reminds me….what to do about asparagus beetles??
i have tried picking them off into soapy water but the population does not slow..
Hi, Sharon. Some info on asparagus beetle is here.