{"id":19546,"date":"2018-10-29T10:25:56","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T10:25:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=19546"},"modified":"2018-10-29T10:25:56","modified_gmt":"2018-10-29T10:25:56","slug":"lily-beetle-spotting-prevention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/pests-problems\/lily-beetle-spotting-prevention\/","title":{"rendered":"Lily Beetle Spotting &#038; Prevention"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-19548\" src=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/220px-Scarlet_lily_beetle_lilioceris_lilii.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"440\" height=\"294\" \/><\/p>\n<p>What has got 6 legs, a head, 2 eyes and red wings and\u00c2\u00a0 is not a dice game of Beetle. It is the red lily beetle <em>Lilioceris lilii<\/em> that consumes large quantities of one of our favorite plants.<\/p>\n<h3>How to Spot Lily Beetle<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Adults are 8mm long, bright red with a black head and legs.<\/li>\n<li>Eggs are 1mm long and orange-red, found in groups on the underside of lily leaves and they hatch in around a week.<\/li>\n<li>Larvae have orange bodies with black heads but are normally covered with their own slimy black excrement.<\/li>\n<li>The fully grown larvae are 8-10mm long.<\/li>\n<li>At the pupal stage they lie in the soil.<\/li>\n<li>Both the adults and larvae can defoliate lilies and fritillaries in short order.<\/li>\n<li>Leaves get ragged and black gungy deposits can be seen on infected plants.<\/li>\n<li>The red beetles easily fall off leaves and hide in the soil when gardeners try to remove them by hand.<\/li>\n<li>The beetle was initially confined to south east England but has spread north.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>The Lily Beetle Cycle<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Adult lily beetles emerge from the soil from late March to May and feed on\u00c2\u00a0 foliage between May and\u00c2\u00a0 September.<\/li>\n<li>Adults feed and lay eggs on the underside of leaves of host plants from late April until early September.<\/li>\n<li>After about two weeks, when the larvae are fully grown, they pupate in the soil. Two to three weeks later new adults emerge.<\/li>\n<li>The beetles overwinter as adults in sheltered places, often in the soil but not necessarily near lilies.<\/li>\n<li>This non-native pest became established just before the second world war.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Prevention, Predators and Parasites<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Red lily beetle overwinters in soil, leaf litter and other sheltered places so good husbandry can help.<\/li>\n<li>Small infestations can be picked off by hand. There is some pleasure in squashing a red beetle that has caused your plant so much damage.<\/li>\n<li>There are some parasitic wasps but probably not enough to help your lilies survive.<\/li>\n<li>The RHS to which I am indebted for this advice say <em>&#8216; Pesticides are likely to be more effective on larvae than adults<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Heavy infestations which are impractical to remove by hand can be treated with pesticides<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Organic insecticides containing natural pyrethrins\u00c2\u00a0 Several application of these short persistence products may be necessary to give good control<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Synthetic pyrethroid pesticides such as lambda-cyhalothrin (e.g. Westland Resolva Bug Killer), or deltamethrin (e.g. Sprayday Greenfly Killer) can be used<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>The systemic neonicotinoid insecticide acetamiprid (e.g. Bug Clear Ultra) can also be used&#8217;<\/em><\/li>\n<li>In my experience it is wise not to expect miracles with chemical treatments and beware they can kill pollinating insects.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What has got 6 legs, a head, 2 eyes and red wings and\u00c2\u00a0 is not a dice game of Beetle. It is the red lily beetle Lilioceris lilii that consumes large quantities of one of our favorite plants. How to Spot Lily Beetle Adults are 8mm long, bright red with a black head and legs. Eggs are 1mm long and orange-red, found in groups on the underside of lily leaves and they hatch in around a week. Larvae have orange&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/pests-problems\/lily-beetle-spotting-prevention\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pests-problems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19546"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19553,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19546\/revisions\/19553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}