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Lily beetle

Symptoms

Flowers, leaves and seed pods are eaten – often to total destruction – from early spring onwards. Bright red beetles about 6mm long can often be seen in the vicinity.

Cause

Both the bright red lily beetle and its larva feed on lillies and fritillaries. The larvae are orange grubs with black heads that appear in mid summer.

Harm

Plants are badly eaten can easily eventually be destroyed.

Treatment

Lily beetle is very hard to combat. The scarlet adult and slimey grub are active for such a long period, meaning that they have a long time span in which to cause damage. Chemicals have little effect and you need to spray onto them directly, so it is easier to pick them off and squash them.

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