I have read that one of the way in which they have spread is on the bulbs themselves, so I gather that it's possible for them to go that far down (my bulbs are usually several inches down). But I have also read that they are usually only found in the top inch or two of soil... I have only ever found one beetle in the soil (it was pretty obvious, with its bright red colour), and it was only a half an inch deep. I only remove the top two inches of soil, but I do 'look around' a bit deeper.

They still occasionally make their way into my yard though - the neighbourhood has tons of lilies and the beetles have been established around Montreal for over 50 years so there are also tons of beetles. Removing (or sifting) the soil won't solve the problem, but is another tool in the war :-)

BP

I never knew the beetles had been around such a long time

They sure are a huge job to control.
Bonniepunch what is going on at the Montreal Botanical Gardens just now
Thinking to take a drive there next week

diane - The beetles have been around the Montreal area for that long but they didn't spread out until fairly recently - there was another, bigger, introduction several years ago (I can't remember exactly how many years - ten to fifteen I guess?). I don't have too much of a problem with them, but I do patrol every day and I only have a couple of dozen lilies (and they're in pots so I can easily lift them up to look closely).

I'm not too sure what's going on at the botanical gardens plant-wise right now, but they have their Chinese lanterns up. They're always amazing (it's usually packed on the weekends though). I'm pretty sure their dahlias should still be putting on a good show, and it's possible the lotuses are still looking good. We normally go almost every weekend, but this summer has been chaotic (DH has been dealing with medical problems and we had a not so minor disaster in our bathroom), so we have only been a couple of times :-( If you do drive up and want a 'tour guide', give me a shout - I'm more than happy to do so!

BP

Thanks for your reply Bonnie. I'm going to dig some of the soil this weekend and see what I find. I'm sure it can't hurt to try to see if I can eliminate some more before winter sets in.
I did move some lilies to pots last year and I'm hoping they are okay. I will sink the pot into the ground over the winter and take it out again next spring.

I'm doing mine this week too, while the weather is nice - how much it helps seems to be debatable, based on what I have read, but it sure as heck won't hurt. They should be fine overwintering like that - it's basically how I do mine and I've never lost one because of the cold (squirrels on the other hand...).

BP

It sounds like an Asian Lily Leaf Beetle infeststion.

These little buggers wiped all our lilies except for daylilies.

I tried Rotodone but didn't keep at it. We eventually got rid of the lilies.