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I love growing lilies but these became prone to lily beetle after a couple of years. What’s the best solution to get rid of lily beetle?
Being vigilant is key to keeping the lily beetles from ruining your lilies! However, we also suggest the following for preventing lily beetle from destroying your lilies:
1) Spray with Imidcloprid and sunflower oil (or Bayer Provado Ultimate Bug Killer).
2) If you do not like using insecticides then spraying with diluted fairy liquid or crushed garlic in water have been suggested. Crush a whole corm of garlic in a small pan of boiling water. Allow to cool, strain and put in a small container in the fridge. When using, dilute three parts water to one part garlic solution. Spray often, every few days, especially when it has rained. There is a garlic product available in garden centres and stores, but this is a much cheaper alternative.
3) More recently, a customer has tried planting their lily bulbs alongside a garlic and this has been quite successful in keeping the lily beetles away.
4) Alternatively, we have been advising our customers to spray their lilies with NEEM oil to eradicate the lily beetle! We recommend using a hand sprayer with 1 teaspoon of Neem Oil (5ml) plus a small amount of washing up liquid (as a surfactant) with approx. 500ml water. So 1 part Neem Oil to 100 parts water (1:100).
Loraine Hart
