Saturday 7 July 2012

In which the red beetle meets its match.

Anyone passing by knows how much I love my teenytiny garden. When Kez was here last week we found what we thought was a rather pretty little beetle and didn't think anything more about it. Took piccies, continued with the Door.

See, quite cute in a beetly way. But bloody hell these things are a nightmare - they decimate lilies in particular, and several other plants. They also seem to happily munch on anything nearby.
Red Lily Beetles - do check your plants and get rid of them before they do this:

See? I have lillies planted near this and the bloody things have had a real feast.
I found one beetle this morning happily tucking into a lily plant:

This is now an ex beetle.
Squished.
Stamped on.
Gone.
I googled and became lost in a world of red beetle destruction. General opinion seems to be to hell with organic, nuke the little gits.
I have been out and sprayed and sprayed but only have cheapo Wilko spray, will do for now. There are a lot of recommendations for this spray

So that's next on the shopping list.

The weather here in the UK has been dire to say the least. Peeing down mostly, muggy as hell. Today here in this part of Yorkshire it is sunny and warm, I took a risk and bunged a load of washing on the line so it will pour down no doubt.
I checked the plants this morning after putting the washing out and the poor things were half drowned. These are pretty substantial sized planters:
Poor things! Have emptied them as best I can but it's going to take several days of sunshine and warmth to dry them out again. It's so damp I found a bloomin toadstool!
It is Silverstone Grand Prix this weekend - the qualies have just been halted because of the rain. Piccies from yesterday look like this:
and todays commentary seems to be more of a wet shirt competition, they look drenched!
I love it when it rains, makes the race even more exciting. I love the racing so much and cannot even drive ....
What else - I finished my first ever sock but all is NOT well. More to come about that little fiasco tomorrow I think when I have pondered what to do. Pah.
And the Door colour has been chosen, more on that too (exciting eh)(waddya mean no??).

I have this to sort through. Sums me up perfectly.
Toodles.

3 comments:

Tiddy and Charlie. said...

Wilko spray worked on my lilly beetles :o) Shame they are so pretty,lol c x

sulkycat said...

I tried Wolko spray and picking the nibbled leaves, I think it's worked!

Tiddy and Charlie. said...

Keep an eye though though, as the little blighters may have left some eggs in the soil that will hatch out in a few weeks. I had a few latecomers, but another spray sorted them too.c x

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