lily leaf beetle

Looking for Volunteer Gardens in Connecticut

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Lily Leaf Beetle Biological Control 2016 – Looking for Volunteer Gardens in Connecticut 

lily leaf beetle
Photo: Donna Ellis

Researchers at UConn are conducting a lily leaf beetle biological control project during the summer of 2016. If you grow lilies in Connecticut, have a minimum of 12 plants in the lily family (e.g., Oriental lilies, Asiatic lilies, Turk’s Cap lilies, or Fritillaria) in your garden and have lily leaf beetles feeding on them, we would like your help. We will be introducing two species of beneficial parasitic wasps in June and would like to collect lily leaf beetle larvae from May through August. The parasitoid wasps attack lily leaf beetle larvae, and over time these natural enemies will disperse from release sites and begin to spread through the state to reduce populations of lily leaf beetles. The wasps were first introduced in Connecticut in 2012 and have also been released in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, where they are establishing and starting to impact lily leaf beetle populations. Please contact Gail Reynolds, Middlesex County Master Gardener Coordinator (gail.reynolds@uconn.edu; phone 860-345-5234) if you would like to participate in the research project. Information on lily leaf beetle biological control is available on the UConn Integrated Pest Management (IPM) website – click here for a fact sheet and an infographic on the project.

Did You Know: Lily Leaf Beetle

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A Sustainable and Viable Non-Pesticide Alternative

Donna Ellis
Extension Educator Donna Ellis releasing biological controls.

Release and monitoring of two distinct biological control agents (the parasitoid wasps Tetrastichus setifer and Diaparsis jucunda) for biological control of lily leaf beetle began in Connecticut in 2012 under the direction of Extension Educator Donna Ellis. These beneficial insects have also been released in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.

In 2014, there were 15 new research sites. Five were release sites and eight served as control sites. A total of 1,257 wasps were released during an eight-day period in June in the towns of Haddam, Portland, Branford, New Haven and Middletown. In the three years of the project, control and release groups have been located in all eight counties.

2015 included additional release sites and continued sampling. Middlesex County Master Gardener Coordinator Gail Reynolds developed a presentation on the Lily Leaf Beetle research that has been given to an advanced Master Gardener class, a local garden club and others. A fact sheet, an infographic on lily leaf beetles, and other educational materials are available at www.ipm.uconn.edu

Lily Leaf Beetles – Help with our Research!

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Your Help is Needed For Our Research Project!

adult lily leaf
Adult Lily Leaf Beetle

Researchers at UConn are conducting a lily leaf beetle biological control project during the summer of 2014.  If you grow lilies in Connecticut, have a minimum of 12 plants in the lily family (Oriental lilies, Asiatic lilies, Turk’s Cap lilies, or Fritillaria) in your garden, and have lily leaf beetles feeding on them, we would like your help.  We will be introducing three species of beneficial parasitic wasps in June and would like to collect lily leaf beetle larvae from June through August.  The parasitic wasps attack lily leaf beetle larvae and over time these natural enemies will disperse from release sites and begin to spread through the state to reduce populations of lily leaf beetles.  The wasps were first introduced in Connecticut in 2012 and have also been released in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, where they are establishing and starting to impact lily leaf beetle populations.  Please contact Gail Reynolds (email gail.reynolds@uconn.edu; phone 860-345-5234) if you would like to participate in the research project.

 

To see what lily leaf beetles and their larvae look like, visit:

http://web.uri.edu/biocontrol/lily-leaf-beetle-photo-identification-guide/

 

Photos: Donna Ellis