These are the dreaded Lily Beetle. Squash them. But hold your other hand beneath them before you pinch because they have a defence mechanism. They drop off the plant and land upside down. Their underside is black so you can't see them. I would not spray dish liquid on plants. I doubt it would bother the beetles but it might bother the lilies.

Dish soap or even proper insecticidal soap has no effect on lily beetles. Hand picking as described by floral is very effective for adults but won't control the larvae. Recommended control products are neem oil and spinosad, both of which are considered "natural" controls.

Thank you for the info on lily beetles.

I had a terrible time with the red lily beetles last year. My husband and I hand picked them off and scraped off the larvae, for weeks it seemed. Now in my zone 5 my lilies are not even a foot tall and the red beetles showed up yesterday. Neighbors are telling my husband to forgo the lilies this season by cutting them off at the ground completely so that the beetles do not have food this season and presumably disrupting their cycle would mean no beetles next season. But I hate to chop down all my lilies and I imagine that would also be the death of all those bulbs. Any experience with this?

Chopping off or removing the top growth early in the season will not kill the bulbs. They should come back fine next year however unless you control the beetles NOW, they will be back as well. They are very likely munching your neighbors lilies also :-)

Thank you. My husband is convinced (by the neighbor) that lilies are their single food source, so that cutting down the lilies would eliminate them from next year. What is it they're not realizing?

They also eat fritillaries.

Thanks. I actually just read up on them a bit. They sound like a gardening disaster. I will work on picking them all off and trying to keep my husband away from the pruners.

I have been informed by garden centers the neem oil was reclassified and is not longer available. The recommended Mallathion. It worked The best thing is as long as it does not freeze it will nor go bad. It can only be bought at garden centers.

Here in Canada the average person can no longer buy neem oil. Walmart, Canadian Tire stores, TSC Stores and Home Hardware had never heard of it and all garden centers agreed on the reclassification. I read the cautions on
Malathion and it is VERY dangerous but THE only thing available that would work.

I am surprised that neem oil is not available. I just bought a bottle last week at our local garden center. I planted some lovely bulbs last fall, they were coming up well and then......the lily beetles arrived. I have been spraying them with an insecticide, seems to be working but I got the neem oil which I am going to try in the hope its less toxic. I do try to avoid chemical pesticides/herbicides as much as possible, but sometimes it can't be helped. Hopefully the neem oil is a safer, effective option.

Yes I was very surprised as well. glad you were able to get some. Malathion is very toxic. but it does work. so instead of spraying all season twice should do it. It worked the first time. I am sure some eggs and larva will have to be dealt with. Happy gardening and hope everything goes well.

For the past few years, I have sprinkled talcum powder around my plants as they emerge in the spring. Big container of unscented baby powder lasts a long time and it works.

There is an idea worth considering. It has to beat worrying about that poison. Thank you very much for that info.

Thank you Keith, that is helpful information which I will try next spring. This season I have been vigilant picking larva and bugs off my asiatic lilies and I have controlled the situation so that there has been little to no damage on my lilies and they look nice this year as opposed to last year when they look devastated and couldn't be enjoyed at all. Having said that, there were some lilies that I just pulled out of the ground completely because the larva seemed unbeatable, but mostly I have won the battle this year. I will try the talcum powder next.

I have used food grade diatomaceous earth sprinkled on and around my plants in a similar way to Keith's talcum powder. This seems to be a bad year for bugs, our snowless winter I think being at fault. The diatomaceous earth does work well, I used it in my veggie garden which had an insect problem that the DE seems to have taken care of. If you look for diatomaceous earth, be sure to get the kind labeled : "food grade", not the stuff you use in pool filters. Food grade is a natural product, safe to use in the garden.