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What's eating my lilies? (Pics)

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  • What's eating my lilies? (Pics)

    One of the nicest things about this townhouse where my partner and I live is that it came with a little sliver of yard in the front and back. After years of apartment living where you could literally go weeks, if you so chose, without touching the grass or some dirt, that was especially nice. We planted a flowerbed full of lilies in the front yard and have put in some azaleas and ferns in the backyard this year.

    The first lilies we planted were these gorgeous dark red flowers that looked amazing the entire time they were in bloom. Those were the ones I especially hoped would come up again this year and so far they have... along with a problem I noticed last year.

    After those lilies had bloomed, the stalks and leaves stayed healthy and green well into the summer, when it became apparent that something was coming in the night to nom upon the lilies. This year, it appears the night nommer is back, even before anything has bloomed!

    I've looked it up online and I really can't tell what it is, even after some reading. Maybe snails or slugs? It doesn't appear to be rabbits or anything like that, because it seems to me that something that big would eat more. Anyway, since CS is -- as has often been proven -- the repository of all human knowledge, I figured someone here would know enough about gardening (and probably enough about lilies by themselves) to tell me what's eating my flowers and how to kill whatever it is.

    Here's my garden. As you can see, I have quite a few, and an interest in making sure they thrive. Note the death cactus in the background. It still lives. It still hunts the night...



    Here's what the lily plants look like after suffering mystery nommage.





    Anyone know what this might be and how to stop it?
    Drive it like it's a county car.

  • #2
    Snails and slugs leave a trail, so I don't think that's it.

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    • #3
      I don't know how to tell what it is but if the problem is mammal you should be able to stop it with hair balls. Take nylons (or hose, or sheers or whatever it's called where your at) and put human hair into it and tie into knots to make balls. Spread around the garden, (for one that size two or three balls should be lots). This should keep mammals out. You'll have to replace every month or two as the human smell fades.

      If the problem is insect the only things I know to help are bats and insecticide.
      Pain and suffering are inevitable...misery is optional.

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      • #4
        scarlet Lilly beetle

        or

        Japanese beetle
        Honestly.... the image of that in my head made me go "AWESOME!"..... and then I remembered I am terribly strange.-Red dazes

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        • #5
          Not 100% sure due to the angles from which the photos were taken, but some of the nibbles appear to be "bottlenecked" - as in the "bite" is wider somewhat inboard from the edge of the leaf than it is at the very edge. This is a sign that each "bite" isn't a single chomp (do YOU know of any creature whose mouth is gets narrower as it approaches the back?), but a collection of smaller nibbles. Highly suggestive of not being a mammal (leaf-eating mammals tend to have mouths bigger than the "bites", and a rodent would go for a part of the plant with a higher nutrient density). Combined with the lack of trails (rules out gastropods), I'd guess some sort of insect.
          Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.

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          • #6
            Possibly this critter?
            When you start at zero, everything's progress.

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            • #7
              Both BlaqueKatt and MoonCat are correct - that's the red lily beetle, the little bastidges.

              First thing to do is to go over each plant by hand (yeah, I know) and remove the beetles you see, and any eggs they've left. Don't just drop them on the ground - drown both in soapy water and dump far away.

              Also, buy a bottle of Neem Oil, mix it in a spray bottle as instructed, and spray the heck out of the plants every week, all over. It's a natural product and doesn't hurt the bees.

              Lilies are beautiful but they can be SO much work.

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              • #8
                Whatever it is, I hope it's dead. I found an insecticide derived from chrysanthemum oil, and applied it liberally earlier tonight. Supposedly, it kills 250 different pests -- including lily beetles.

                We'll see.
                Drive it like it's a county car.

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                • #9
                  I was going to say it looks caterpiller-ish.

                  Another thing you can do to deter many animals, including some insects: citrus. Keep your orange peels (or other citrus peels) and dump them on the garden with your mulch. Many things hate the smell.

                  The human hair trick is a predator-smell trick. Another way to provide predator smell is pet fur.

                  Yet another is pee. Human, cat, dog, ferret - any predator pee will do. One of the less disgusting methods for pee is kitty litter. Get a kitty litter that can be used as mulch, and .. well, do that. Put the used litter on your garden as mulch. Rain (and watering) will rinse enough of the pee out of the litter to make gardening as .. hygeinic? .. as working in healthy soil can be. (IE, not very.)

                  Many insects can be deterred or prevented by washing your plants: soft-bodied ones will be killed by the fall if you spray your plants with a forceful water jet.
                  Some oil and soap (canola oil, and standard cheap white blocks of soap) in water can be sprayed on the plants as well. I forget exactly how this works, but I think it blocks the breathing holes. Don't forget the underside of the leaves!

                  Some plants will also be good companion plants to deter (or even kill) pests; in some cases, while harbouring and encouraging useful insects. I'm not going to make suggestions; I don't know what's hardy in your local climate. Make a beeline to your local specialist garden store and ask the experts.
                  Seshat's self-help guide:
                  1. Would you rather be right, or get the result you want?
                  2. If you're consistently getting results you don't want, change what you do.
                  3. Deal with the situation you have now, however it occurred.
                  4. Accept the consequences of your decisions.

                  "All I want is a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lightning at fools." - Anders, Dragon Age.

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                  • #10
                    Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth could also help, kills athropods by scracthing their outer shells and making them dehydrate, but it works by a mechanical action not a chemical one so isn't poisonous or toxic, it's also a repellent if you sprinkle enough around, so if you sprinkle enough it should scare off all sorts of arthropods.
                    I am the nocturnal echo-locating flying mammal man.

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                    • #11
                      The weird thing is, I picked lilies to plant because I figured they'd be low maintenance. Here where I live, they're a weed, actually. Starting next month, every ditch and hillside are going to blaze orange with day lilies.
                      Drive it like it's a county car.

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                      • #12
                        Ah, but day lilies are a different species. What's in your garden is probably some breed of asiatic lily.
                        You're only delaying the inevitable, you run at your own expense. The repo man gets paid to chase you. ~Argabarga

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                        • #13
                          Finding out what's hardy in your particular ecosystem is a lot more than one species.

                          There are even plants whose common name includes 'lily' that are native to Australia;
                          and our ecology is just plain weird. (Though we don't actually have any liliums, or even any in the next taxonomy category up. We do have some - including kangaroo paw - which are in the next one up after that.)

                          As I have recommended in other threads, to find out what's hardy in your local area, wander around your neighbourhood and find plants which are common to many gardens. Or take several photographs of your garden, knowing which way is north, and a soil sample, to a local garden-specialist shop. The sort that hires people who actually know plants and gardens.
                          (And provides its staff with plenty of time to water and tend to the stock; and is willing to have a quarantine zone for sick plants to be healed, and ...)

                          Anyway.. that's my note regarding choosing hardy plants.
                          Seshat's self-help guide:
                          1. Would you rather be right, or get the result you want?
                          2. If you're consistently getting results you don't want, change what you do.
                          3. Deal with the situation you have now, however it occurred.
                          4. Accept the consequences of your decisions.

                          "All I want is a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lightning at fools." - Anders, Dragon Age.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            For those of you who might have been a bit curious as to how the lily situation shook itself out...







                            Drive it like it's a county car.

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                            • #15
                              Oooh, pretty flowers! Very nice, indeed.
                              You're only delaying the inevitable, you run at your own expense. The repo man gets paid to chase you. ~Argabarga

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