On Sun, 30 Jan 2011 18:48:05 +0000, Jeff Layman
wrote:

On 29/01/2011 17:36, Jake wrote:
(snip)

As a
precaution, if you don't mind chemicals, find some Provado Ultimate
Bug Killer - look for the trigger spray version, not the aerosol
simply because of cost. Then when your lilies start to develop
foliage, give them a spray LATE IN THE EVENING.

Due to the idiotic brand naming of many insecticidal products, Provado
Ultimate Bug Killer concentrate and aerosol do not contain the same things..

The concentrate contains only thiacloprid, whereas the aerosol contains
imidacloprid and methiocarb. I found the original Provado
(imidocloprid) to be pretty ineffective against lily beetle, so turned
to the aerosol product. This worked - and continues to work - but I
have stopped growing lilies because it is a waste of time trying to
fight lily beetle in the south-east. Even if thiacloprid was effective
on its own, I would not waste money using it against lily beetle.

Thanks Jeff. Here (touch wood and thus far and all that) the trigger
version has done the trick. I admit that I hadn't read the "contents"
so didn't appreciate the difference between aerosol and trigger.

Must research on whether anyone has done any research on resistance of
the little red blighters to insecticides. It may be that down south
they've developed a resitance that's in the future here. If it turns
out in the future that I need the aerosol product to control then a
couple of hundered lily bulbs will be destined for the compost heap.

Cheers
Jake