Those nifty red lily beetles reached my gardens two summers ago. I have been handpicking them ever since. I hear neem oil is an effective deterrent for them. How is it used? Is it safe?
I grow quite a few lilies and handpicking takes a lot of time, and the plants still look like hell, all chewed up. If there is a better way, please tell me about it!

Neem oil works best on soft bodied pests, maybe if you spray when the beetles are just babies. I don't have any experience with that kind of bug. I do use Neem though and it works great on most pests, the instructions are on the bottle.

You might try Pyola - a phrethrin based insect spray. I used it last year with great success. Saw a huge reduction in bean beetles. Gardens Alive! sells it. It destroys adult insects, larvae and eggs.

Gardens Alive, when I tried to order from them wouldn't mail to us "Ontaioians". Check out Safer products, they have just about any thing and are sold in Can Tire, Home Hardware etc. Hope the pests don't make it to zone 4b!

Omemee

I think the neem would work best on the larvae of these lily beetles. They look like tiny blackish slugs with alot of mucus about them. The have huge appetites, and seem to prefer a dampish areas over the dry -- the lilies I have at my mother's garden haven't been hit yet, but the lilies here were heavily damaged. I hope to be out and about tomorrow and I'll check out the Safers stuff.

Hey Omemee!
Are you from the the little town of Omemee, just north of Peterborough Ontario?

yes! actually it's west of Peterborough east of Lindsay.

Okay, so I'm the passenger in the car who's keeping the kids from killing each other! My mother-in-law worked at the Regal plant for years.
Are you interested in driving down and getting free plants? See the post to Elfie and littlefrog in the OG Forum!