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

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.