August 06, 2009

Another way to get rid of lily beetles

Joyce sent me an email with her solution for killing lily beetles. She says it works on both the adults and the larvae.

She takes one cup (250 mL) cooking oil, 1/2 cup (125 mL) Sunlight dish detergent, puts them in a one-litre bottle and fills it up with water. She sprays the insects directly and reports that they die within seconds.

I haven't tried it myself yet, but if I did, I would be watching to see if there are any negative effects on the plants too. While this spray sounds like it certainly would kill just about any insect on contact, it might be a bit intense for at least some plants.

If you try it, let me know what kind of results you get.

And thanks, Joyce, for sharing your spray recipe with me.

17 comments:

Flowers said...

Thanks for sharing the tips to get rid of lilly beetles. It looks perfect. Nice blog

Janet said...

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you, Flowers. Let me know how this spray works out for you.

Digital Flower Pictures said...

We use soap all the time to kill insects but at a lesser concentration. It appears quite deadly to a variety of bugs.

Jacob said...

Hello.
I have seen your Blog... It’s too informative. There are many posts which are really too Good and very useful.

Janet said...

Digital, I think it takes a stronger concentration for lily beetles. They're tough.

Thanks, Jacob.

sunduvan said...

There are organic spray available. My experience with my garden was they will go away without killing them after you spray the organic repeller

Janet said...

Sunduvan, which spray are you using?

Couch Grass said...

Lily beetles are truly a nuisance in the garden and these tips are awesome. Thanks for sharing the information.

Kris said...

Useful tips. Nice blog.
http://gardeningfactsandtips.blogspot.com/

Janet said...

Thanks, Couch Grass and Kris. :o)

gardener said...

I enjoyed reading your earlier posts. I hope you pick up the blog again soon. I have blog about home gardening too, same like you, I love gardening so much.

fatmagülün suçu ne said...

thank you

S Robertson said...

Insects have a system of tubes, called tracheae, instead of lungs. These tracheae penetrate right through the insect's body. Air enters the tracheae by pores called spiracles. These spiracles are found on each side of the insect's abdomen.

The oil and soap will clog up the holes and should do the trick.

Danf things just keep coming back.

TheGardenCloche said...

I'll have to give that a try. Sounds super simple.

Jeff
TheGardenCloche.com | The Garden Cloche Source

trellis said...

Nice tip. I will have to use that this spring.

SepticTank.co.uk said...

What a great site. Keep up the good work

buy ghost chili said...

Thanks for the info was looking for this :)