There have been a number of posts on this in this forum - check them out. The consensus is that nothing works short of squishing them. I have been doing this for almost 2 months (since the snow left) My first foray netted 50, today only 3. They love fritillaries. I have only found a few eggs and scraped them off with my fingernail - no larvae yet. The vigilant approach to killing the adults seems to be paying off - there are far fewer, and I guess I will just keep this up. Even with this full frontal assault many of my large and small fritillaries and the outer leaves of the emerging lilies have feeding holes in them. They were vigorously reproducing a couple of weeks agao so I would check carefully for eggs now.
Good luck.

My friend and I were discussing this recently .. she had heard that using the powder that you put on roses helps control them. She is trying this method this season. Has anyone else tried this??

I was speaking with a Lily grower a few weeks ago. He suggested Rotenon (powder). I haven't gotten out to get some yet.
Because I have a gardening neighbour who gave me a can of Doktor Doom Plant Insecticide. This is totally organic derived from the Chrysanthemum plant. I sprayed my Fritillarias and the red beetles fell off immedately!! So I went around and sprayed all my true lilies.
Last year was the first year I've had these red lily beetles (in 14 years of gardening). They are so disgusting. They eat the foliage of lily plants (not daylilies thankfully!) and the larva look horrible. I was ready to pull out all my lilies last year from this desvastation. I'm glad I didn't get around to it then, but I sure hope this stuff continues to work and that I can keep their damage to a minimum this year.

Where would one get this Doktor Doom? I have had these beetles for the past two years, and am ready to get rid of my lilies, much as I love them. I just cant seem to keep upp with them by picking them off.

Regular Raid works very well too, you will have to spray twice, once when the beetles first show up (I see them in my garden before the lilies start emerging) and about three weeks later.

There is product called Neem. Although it is not advertised as a pesticide, it is useful in controlling Lily Beatles. This is an oil and needs to be sprayed onto the lily every ten days and certainly after rain. I work at a nursery that sells it and it is shelved with the pesticides. In the U.S. the company that produces this product is allowed to claim its use as a pesticide but this isn't the case yet in Canada.

I use this product and it works for me.

I read in May's Canadian Gardening...the Mailbox section where someone uses rose dust to keep the lily beetles off the plants. She waits until the plants are about 8" tall and then dusts the underside of the leaves.
Worth a try.

Neem oil was being touted this year as useful to eliminate Lily beetles, but on another thread here we had some responses saying it isn't so. I have some, would try it, but my plucking seems to have worked. In the last week I have killed only 3 beetles and found one patch of eggs. There are few holes in the leaves also.
For those of you who think its too much effort - I definitely do not have all the time in the world, but I have accomplished decimation of the buggers with just a walk around the garden every day (which we all do), and I have a LOT of lilies. I'm a proponent of this because I prefer to use no pesticides in my garden - my phlox gets mildew and so do my roses, but not much :), and they still flower beautifully.

Thanks to all who responded! Recently I spoke to a very informed horticulturist who told me to use Neem oil or horticultural oil and saturate the soil around the lily and as the beetles emerge they pick it up on their bodies and it kills them in short time. I suppose Rotenone would work well too. Liliana

I found some red lily beetles in my garden for the first time in the summer of 2003. I contacted the University of Rhode Island who has been doing extensive research on these voracious lily eaters. They were astonished to hear that these new imports had travelled as far as Ontario so quickly.

I would caution that we do not react by poisoning our environment, and possibly impeading the development of a natural predator. Remember Australia's rabbits? I have found that patiently hand-picking these easily spotted critters is the absolutely best way of dealing with them. Everything we put into our gardens ends up in our drinking water, so think twice about recommended chemical solutions.

Those Rhode Island researchers aren't up on their lily beetle knowledge if they thought the buggers had only recently spread to Ontario! They were first introduced in Montreal some 60 years ago and have been spreading since! They've been in Ontario for decades. They've been spreading faster in the last ten to fifteen years because there've been many new introductions.

As for neem oil being effective - it should help, at least as an antifeedant, but I'm willing to bet that the strength of the various products on the market differs quite widely (it's relatively new here, and not under any kind of quality control or regulation). Which is probably why some people find it works like a charm, and other people find it a waste of money.

So far so good for my lilies - I have yet to find one!

BP

We have been in this area of Nova Scotia for 12 years and this year is the first that I have seen them. We have quite a few oriental and asian lilies in our garden and were at a loss of what to do as they are being eaten. Will have to try and find that Deem Oil. We have been getting so much rain lately I am not sure how well it will work though.