What the hell are these that have destroyed my lilies?

[overthinkersanonnymus]

I think I they're alive? Like some sort of larvae??

Help 😂 What can I do!!

Lily beetle larvae. They’re disgusting. Wipe them all off with kitchen roll, boak, and bin it. They turn into hungry bright red lily beetles which munch your plants. You need to sneak up on them and pick them off. They sense your approach and fall off on their backs to land on the soil, and they have brown underbellies so you can’t see them. Hold a bowl under them when you go to pick them off. Keep vigilant!

🤢🤢

I hate them and go on a hunt every morning and evening. I hold a tissue under the leaf, knock them off and squash. Shame really as they are rather beautiful.

I fear your lilies are done for, for this year. If you only had a bit of the brown stuff, you could wipe it off, but you have so much, it'll be a thankless task.

You needed to stop the orange beetles laying their eggs, a month or so ago, by doing as other described - but it is the larvae that eat the lilies not the beetles, and they are busy doing that now.

@MmePoppySeedDefage I think you may be right 😞 I did see the red beetles a few weeks ago and thought I was doing a my bit for nature!! But these things have fully destroyed my lovely lilies. There was always two together as well so they wee clearly using my lilies as some sort of orgy pad!!

I will be out there morning and night next year keeping the buggers off.

It's not too late, do it anyway, otherwise next year will be worse! Lily beetles are ravening monsters...

Lily beetle larvae are some of the most disgusting things ever. That black glup is their shit, that's their cunning disguise. When you clean them up, you might want to wear gloves!

I completely agree! Blasting them off with the hose is satisfying but you need to squash the beetles/larvae. This year I used Bug Clear; I refuse to sacrifice my few lilies yet again- these beetles have decimated the plants every year despite trying my hardest 🤬

I don't feel so bad about the box tree moth destroying my hedges now. It seems it could be worse 🤢

Shit covered bastard grubs. Lily beetles if you must use their polite name. Luckily your lilies aren't beyond hope, you just need to remove the larvae and any red beetles before they polish off the lot. As a PP says, that black stuff is indeed larvae poo. For some reason they have evolved to grow up caked in it. Just get your marigolds on, have one bowl for water and one for used paper, soak pieces of kitchen roll, wipe off what you can and repeat. Change paper regularly as they can be small and you want to be sure not to move any to other leaves. Bin or squish them and squish any adults. We have tried to be thorough and some of the fuckers have still managed to breed and create big holes so just do a big sweep now and try to stay on top of them. Mine still flowered last year despite being eaten to shreds so all is not lost.

I'm considering pulling my lilies up, I can't keep up with the beetles

Omg 🤮🤮🤮

I actually got some on my hand and the smell was absolutely disgusting.

Normally I'm live and let live, but I really dislike fucking lily beetles and their shitty offspring. (That sentence was purely descriptive btw).

Well I've gone out with the hosepipe today and blasted the fuckers off what's left of my girls.

Dirty horrors 🤮

Funnily enough this year we haven't had any of them. Usually MrPSD has a great time squishing the Orange Bastards, but he had none to go at in 2023.