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| | Lily beetles are quite attractive and sometimes even mistaken for ladybirds. Not so! The bright red beetles can cause a lot of damage with a wide range of plants in the Lilium family and also on Fritillaria imperialis - Crown Imperials.
Whilst the adult Lily Beetle might look attractive, its larvae has the disgusting habit of covering itself in its own excrement in order to avoid detection and therefore being a meal for birds etc!
The tell tale signs are the chunks eaten out of the leaves of lilies and Fritillarias. Both the adult beetle and also the larvae are voracious feeders ion the foliage and also the flowers of such plants. The larvae in particular can strip a plant of foliage and flower within a couple of days if unchecked.
Whilst the Lily Beetle larvae will munch away all through the day - hidden in its covering of dung - the adults are normally to be found in the evening or early morning.
It
is a good time for physically removing them and dispensing
as you wish - as long as it is terminal!
An old gardener friend take delight in late evening of wandering through his Lilies and Frittilarias - picking the beetles off and then squashing them between two thumb nails!
They are not an easy pest to treat with chemical or other sprays - though the larvae can be controlled with Provado as a spray..
Convallaria plants (Lily of the Valley) are also prey to the Lily Beetle pests, though we have no knowledge of any other plants being affected by the Lily Beetle - Lilioceris lilii to give it its proper name!
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