Annihilated

Normally this time of year the garden is filled with swaying scented madonna lillies, four or five feet high and growing in big clumps.

This year they have been completely annihilated.

I thought at first the recent hot weather was responsible. But looking closely at the plants over the weekend I saw red beetles crawling all over them. I collected a few of them in a glass, with a bit of withered lily leaf, and brought them into the house to examine them properly.

They were a complete mystery to me. I had never seen them before. I couldn't find them in the Guardian guide to creepy-crawlies (not as you might think a survey of the New Labour project but a useful list of common insects).

It was only when I looked on the internet that I discovered there was such a creature as the red lily beetle, which has been steadily moving through the country since arriving in England in 1939.

I didn't know what to do with the beetles in the glass so I took them back into the garden and let them go.

More: http://www.rhs.org.uk/RHSWebsite/files/40/40ae74b2-f5cd-4ac5-9520-139cb2b7cf1b.pdf