Lovely Bones

What is lovely?  A lily leaf beetle.  Slim, shiny, red, pretty, its offspring will eat your Asiatic lilies down to the bone.  I was able to ward them off successfully last year without pesticides or losing plants.  This is the time of year to do it: Check all your lilies early in the morning, looking for the red beetles.  If you find one, crush it.  Look especially at plants with holes in the leaves.  Next, and most impostantly, check the undersides of EVERY SINGLE LEAF.  If you find red eggs, looking almost like flying fish roe, but smaller, that's them.  In fact, any eggs you find I'd be cautious about, unless they're ladybugs or mantids.  If you find such a leaf, pull down gently to remove it.  Dispose of completely.  (I use my garbage disposal.  Do not compost!)  Keep this up daily - it doesn't take long - or risk the larva hatching and devouring your entire plant to the ground.  Oh, and that pretty adult?  The larva crawl around in their own excrement to keep predators at bay and look like slow-moving bird droppings.  Pleasant, I know.

This has been a Public Service Announcement.