Ann wrote:
"harrison" expounded:

Ann, I'm next to Belmont where I think the lily beetle first showed up. A
good friend of mine is serious about gardening organically and she also
likes Oriental lilies. She declared war on the beetle when it first appeared
in her garden and derives great joy from harvensting that very disgusting
bug. Her lilies have survived and while they may look a bit chewed, she is
definitely winning. I will admit this takes time at least once, if not
twice, a day. Eugenia, zone 6, two towns west of Boston

They first showed up in Wellesley, I heard, in 1994. Damned things.
I know you can control them by hand-picking (yick-ptooey!) but I have
a fulltime job already G.

:-) I hear ya' there!

I've pretty much given up on lilies until
they come up with a solution that I can live with....I've heard
they're working on a predator. Between the lilies and frittilarias I
have, I don't stand a chance of hand-picking them all.

Oh yes, I'd almost forgotten the frittilarias. :-( You think I could
get all the garden writers, who wrote about the lily beetles without
once mentioning fritillarias, to pay for my brand-new, chewed-up
Fritillaria Imperialis? (which I planted to deter a mole or vole which
is eating or damaging the roots of all my other bulbs - it's like
a circle dance of predators in my garden lately! ) OK, I should
have remembered they're related - but my chionodoxas are OK, so far.

- Naomi D.

--
No more will our green sea go turn a deeper blue.
I could not foresee this thing happening to you.