YORKTON - This week, our chat will be like a garden salad: a few different ingredients!
The other day, someone was asking me about the red lily beetle. Have you seen any on your lilies? This invasive pest arrived in Eastern Canada in the 1940s and has been making its way west since then. It is now in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and working towards Alberta.
This beetle will attack any lily, (except daylilies). It is extremely disappointing that it even attacks the wild western red lily, our province’s emblem flower. As if the poor plants are not endangered enough from diminishing habitat and other factors.
What do the beetles look like? At a quick glance, they might look like lady bugs without the dots. Their undersides are dark colors, making them very difficult to see when they hit the ground trying to evade gardeners! So be careful not to kill the good lady-bugs in your enthusiasm to protect the lilies! We want to do all we can to keep ladybugs in the garden.
The adult lily beetles lay rows of eggs on the underside of lily leaves. The larva feed on the leaves, stems, and buds of the lily, then fall onto the soil, grow into adult beetles, and the cycle starts again.
So as gardeners, what do we do to keep our lilies safe? This is one of those problems that require us to be checking the plants almost daily. Picking the beetles by hand and squashing them seems to be the best control; yes, I know how you feel, but nobody ever said that gardening was always pretty! Sometimes we have to do what we have to do for our plants. Now this is interesting: I have even read that using a shop-vac works ( no kidding!) because they move very quickly but can’t outrun the machine!
In chatting with other gardeners, sprays and pesticides bring only minimal success; the ugly fact is that the larva are covered in fecal matter, so the pesticides don’t even get a chance to reach the bug. Diatomaceous earth will not be effective for the same reason. As always, be careful of using pesticides, they may be bad for the good bugs that we want to keep in the garden. Are you ready for battle with the beetle? Good luck!
And now, speaking of those beetles, here’s one other garden-chat observation . When you hear the words “companion planting” you might automatically think that there is a magic planting pair that will keep any pests away. You know how they used to say that French marigolds will keep away cabbage worms? There are loads of reports ( some slightly factual and some just garden yarns) of planting certain things with certain things for a better garden. But one of the important things about companion planting is not always about pest control, but that having flowers by vegetables will attract pollinators to the garden, which may well increase yield. It makes sense!
Thank you to our friends at YTW for their fine work. Visit the Yorkton Hort society at www.yorktonhort.ca and have a great week!
