How to catch lily beetle

Hello

Well, cos the weather has been good I have been gardening non stop, including my own garden so today's post is a gardening one, just for  a change.

I love lillies, I mainly grow them in pots at the front of the house so that their scent is around the front door but have a few in the back garden.  Last year the ones in the back garden got lily beetle, for those of you who don't know what they look like, here's a picture.



In all my gardening books, they tell you to pick them off and dispose of them (they mean squish).  What the books don't tell you is that they are devious little gits.  Being red they are so easy to spot, they sit quietly on your lillies for all to see, they are telling the birds with their red colour to leave them alone cos they probably taste horrible.  But, and there is a but, as soon as you touch the plant they drop like stones belly up in the soil, their   bellies are the same colour as the soil so are impossible to see even with my glasses on!  So to catch the little blighters make sure that you put a hand below it before you attempt to get hold of it with the other, this way if it drops before you get it, it falls into the hand below.  There was a programme about them on the telly and the expert said that they also have an alarm call which warns the other beetles so they all drop at the same time.  They over winter in the soil and emerge when the weather get warmer so now is the time to be on the hunt for them.  When their grubs hatch on the plant they are covered in a brown slime so they look like a messy bird poo, make sure that you remove (wear gloves) these as well otherwise you will have no lillies left, between the grubs and the beetles.  On the plus side, they don't move around much so once the hand is below them, they are easy to catch, they are extremely red so easy to spot (unless you are colourblind).  I haven't got a clue how they got in my garden, I have been growing lillies for years without any problem, none of my immediate neighbours have lillies, I presume they fly but haven't seen them doing it.

Years ago, I taught Buzz to sniff out slugs and snails for me so in the summer months when its dark we go out on slug hunts. He is really good, when he sniffs one out, he stares at it until I get it and then hunts for the next one.  He also finds other creatures for me, frogs, toads, hedgehogs and once even a ferret that had its head stuck in the fence.  Buzz never touches them, just lets me know they are there by staring at them and then looking at me until I tell him he's a good boy and make a fuss.  The lily beetles are so tiny, I don't think that this will work for them!

I haven't got a photo of Buzz finding a snail for me but I do have one when he "found" next doors pig, it was at the other side of the fence, Buzz is fascinated by it

Happy hunting

Cheers
Sharon