Recognize and fight successfully

the essentials in brief

• Lily-winged beetle is a lacquer red beetle with a 6-9 mm tall, slender body, 2 long antennae, 6 black legs and agile flight ability.
• A lily-chicken larva is orange-red, 4-8 mm long and encased in a brownish poop sack.
• Biological control agents are: showering, collecting, soap-alcohol sprays, tansy brew, Rock flour(€ 12.33 at Amazon *) and Algae lime.

Recognizing lily chickens - profile and way of life.

A bright red beetle crawls up Lilies around, the hobby gardener rings the alarm bells. The lily chicken has arrived with an insatiable appetite for lilies of all kinds, imperial crowns, checkerboard flowers, lily of the valley and even chives. How you can recognize lily beetles and larvae is illustrated by the following profile with facts about appearance and way of life:

Have the compact facts aroused your interest in further information? Then please read on. The following sections take a closer look at the appearance and fatal lifestyle of lilies:

Appearance beetle and larva

The red wings are the hallmark of the lily chicken

The hallmarks of lilies are red, rounded wing-coverts, epic long antennae and a slim build. The shiny wing covers have tiny dimples and border on a bright scarlet pronotum. As a contrasting color scheme, the head, antennae, underside and legs are pitch black. On closer inspection it can be seen that the long antennas are made up of eleven segments.

The orange-red body of a lily-broiler larva is hidden under a brown covering of feces. Only the head protrudes from the poop sack. In this way, the larvae are well protected against predators and the blazing sun, so that they can continuously feed on leaves, shoots and buds. Incidentally, the beetle larvae produce the faecal umbrella themselves. For this purpose, the anus is shifted towards the back.

way of life

At the beginning of April, lily chickens crawl out of their winter quarters in the ground. Starved, the beetles devote a few weeks to extensive regeneration feeding in order to gather strength for the upcoming mating season. As if the pests were aware of their signal color, they like to hide under the leaves or in dark leaf axils. When danger threatens, lily beetles fall back on the ground to hide their bright red wings.

Reproduction

Female lily beetles lay a total of 350 eggs two weeks after mating. The lady beetles place the 1 mm small, orange-red eggs in packets with an average of 12 eggs on the undersides of the leaves along the central ribs. The larvae hatch within 6 days, wrap themselves in their excrement sack and start a feeding orgy on the host plant. After two to three weeks, the fully-eaten larvae and their padded shell drop down to pupate in the ground. The metamorphosis to the finished lily beetle is completed after two weeks and the vicious circle begins all over again. In this way, lily chickens produce up to three generations per year between April and September. The picture below illustrates the cycle of spoilage in one Imperial Crown:

Damage image

Because lilies can hide well and melt backwards into the ground in case of danger, damage caused by eating is often the only indication of the presence of the pests in the flowerbed. Pitting corrosion in the leaves and plump buds that do not open but rot are the first indications. If you pick up suspicious plant leaves, you will discover orange-red egg packets or larvae in their brownish droppings.

Digression

Six legged chicken

Fight lily chickens naturally.

Lily chickens should be controlled promptly before they cause any major damage

In the near-natural garden, poison and chemical agents for the control of lily chickens are not allowed. Anyone who is familiar with their refined, sophisticated way of life can defeat lily beetles and their brood with home remedies. The following table lists biological control methods that destroy beetles, larvae and eggs:

The following instructions explain in detail how to use these home remedies against lily chickens correctly. How to destroy voracious lily beetles, larvae and eggs without a chemical club:

Shower off

A vigorous shower against lily chickens has proven to be a natural remedy from the very beginning. Shower infested plants with as sharp a water jet as possible, especially catch voracious larvae that fall to the ground with the sticky excrement sack. With their short stump legs, the beasts cannot find their way back to the forage plant and starve to death.

After the shower, check the leaves on the underside again. If stubborn egg packets can be seen at this point, tear off the sheet or wipe the clutch with kitchen paper.

Shake off

Early risers among the hobby gardeners have the best chances of killing numerous flighty, adult lily beetles. In the early hours of the morning you can shake off the cold-hardened pests from the plant leaves. Before doing this, spread a close-meshed net or a disused curtain on the floor. Lilies always fall on their backs. If the black underside points towards the sky, the pests are bare eye hard to find.

Soap-alcohol solution

With a biological spray, you can control beetles and larvae in one go. You already have the ingredients for the following home remedies in your pantry. How to do it right:

1. Heat 1 liter of water in a kettle
2. Dissolve 1 tablespoon of pure curd soap in warm water (do not boil)
3. Stir in 15-20 ml of spirit or ethanol
4. Let the solution cool and pour into a spray bottle

Spray the plant infested with the lily-of-a-kind on the lower and upper sides of the leaves, including the shoots and leaf axils. Repeat the application every 3 to 4 days until no more pests are seen.

Important note: Recipes for biological sprays with the fatal dosage of 200 ml alcohol, 1 tablespoon soap and 1 l water are circulating on the internet. With this high-percentage brew you can reliably destroy lily chickens AND lilies in one fell swoop.

Tansy broth

Tansy stock is a great home remedy for lily chickens

In the organic garden, tansy brew is certified to be highly effective against lily beetles. The weeds can be recognized by their yellow cup-shaped flowers from June to September and bears the appropriate second name vermin weed. Tansy as a broth proves its effectiveness against lily chickens. That is how it goes:

1. Collect 30-40 grams of herb and flowers
2. Pour 1 liter of water over them in a cauldron
3. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 20 to 30 minutes (please stir every now and then)
4. Remove the mixture from the heat and let it steep for 24 hours

Sieve off the plant remains and fill the tansy liquid into a spray bottle. Mist infested lilies, imperial crowns or chives repeatedly until no more beetles or larvae can be seen. As an extra tip, we recommend drying part of the tansy harvest so that you are prepared for another attack of cunning lily chickens in the next spring Garden soil have overwintered.

Organic powder

Covers a very thin layer of algae lime or Rock flour endangered plants, lily beetles turn away as soon as they approach. Existing lily chicken larvae lose their appetite when the fine-grained powder grinds between their teeth. Pollinate potential forage plants of the pests regularly above and below the leaves down to every dark leaf axil. This works extremely well with a powder syringe. To ensure that the organic powder sticks to the underside of the leaves, fill a nylon stocking with algae lime or rock flour and pound the plant tissue.

The following video presents useful tips & tricks for the natural control of lily chickens in the garden:

Predators versus lilies.

In the natural garden, the consistent avoidance of pesticides is rewarded with a colorful mix of hard-working beneficial insects. Green dry stone walls, blooming wild fruit hedges and hospitable nest boxes invite numerous predators of the lily beetles. Insatiable lilies and larvae have bad cards wherever these natural enemies feel at home:

• Hedgehog
• Parasitic wasps
• Predatory beetle
• be crazy
• Shrews
• Birds

With this large contingent more diligent Beneficial insects in the garden, most pests have little chance of developing into a nuisance.

Preventing lily chickens - tips & tricks.

Insatiable lily chickens don't just fall from the sky, they crawl out of the ground. Effective prevention methods start with this behavior. How to stop a lily beetle plague with natural means:

Dig up

Digging up in spring is the end of wintering lily chickens

As soon as the garden soil has thawed in the spring, dig the soil two spade deep around. On this occasion, you not only prepare the soil perfectly for the coming planting season. At the same time, you destroy a large part of the lily beetles that winter in the ground.

Mesh

Cover the earth with a close-meshed net. In this way you prevent the lilies from crawling out of the ground and looking for forage plants. Because the wetted garden soil is not a feast for the eyes, spread a thin layer of bark mulch or pine bark on the protective net. All lily species love it when they have a layer of mulch at their feet.

Clear away autumn clippings

Following the Perennial cut Please do not leave any clippings in the bed in autumn. Lily chickens and numerous other pests, the dead leaves are a welcome hiding place and winter quarters.

Scatter coffee grounds

Lily plants want a slightly acidic soil with a pH value of less than 6.5. From the end of March / beginning of April, regularly sprinkle thinly dried coffee grounds on the root disc to keep the soil acidity level. For lily chickens that leave their winter quarters or their dollhouse in the ground, a confrontation with coffee does not end well. Even the smallest amounts of caffeine are poisonous for the pests.

frequently asked Questions

We discovered lily chickens in the house. What to do?

Lilies or imperial crowns are popular, long-lasting cut flowers for the home. It is not uncommon for a magnificent bouquet of flowers to have several bright red lily chickens in its luggage as stowaways. Immediately quarantine infested plants and flowers by isolating pest victims from other houseplants. Collect or shower the red beetles. Then dust the top and bottom of the leaves with rock flour or algae lime. Alternatively, you can use the soapy and spirit solution or tansy sauce recommended in this guide as a biological spray.

Are Lilies Poisonous?

No, lily chickens are not poisonous. However, the voracious larvae wrap themselves in a shell of feces. This is not only repulsive, but also unsanitary. For this reason, we recommend spraying infected plants with as sharp a water jet as possible. Larvae that have fallen off can no longer find their way back to the host plants and perish. You can safely collect isolated red beetles by hand.

I don't like to touch lily beetles while picking them up. What can I do?

Pick up an old newspaper that you bring to one funnel(€ 4.58 at Amazon *) turn. Go to the infested plants early in the morning with an old container. Slide the funnel under a cold-stiff red beetle. The lily beetle slides into the collecting container like on a slide.

How can you prevent lily chicken infestation?

Lilies overwinter as beetles or pupae, mostly deep in the ground or under plant leaves. By digging the bed two spades deep in early spring, you can catch the pests in their winter quarters. If you put in the bedding soil, beetles crawling out of the ground will not get to their host plants. A thin layer of bark or pine bark makes the unsightly protective net invisible. We also recommend that you dispose of plant residues on the compost after the autumn shrub cut and not as Mulch(€ 13.95 at Amazon *) to let lie.

Tips

Gardeners who are close to nature warmly welcome bright red beetles with dots to their green realm. They are useful ladybugs, whose Larvae eat large numbers of aphids with ease. Fatally, ladybugs sometimes do not display points and become innocent victims of being mistaken for lily chickens. However, lily beetles are significantly slimmer than spherical-round ladybugs.