Can you sift them out with some 1/4 inch hardware cloth?

That would be my suggestion as well. Soil sifters are available to purchase with variously sized screens. Or they are pretty darn easy to fabricate yourself. Handy for various other chores also.

Even an old kitchen colander would work.

You could dump bulbs and soil in a lidded bucket, top up with water, ignore till they've started to decompose and chuck the whole lot on the compost.

This is a tricky one!

Here's a photo of one of the smallest bulblets.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d152/ISO1/P1000096-a.jpg

As you can see, it's just under 1/4" and would slip through a sieve. But it's the earth itself that's the problem; it's damp, 'heavy' and lumpy, and contains small stones. I could try just digging a hole and burying it, but fear that loads of shoots could start appearing next year. Of course, I could then treat the growth with Glyphosate, but it would prove difficult within the confines of a crowded border.

As we're fast approaching winter, it's not possible to spread the soil out and dry it out. Also my wife wants a 'quick solution' for it!

It's not as if there's a ton of the stuff, so maybe the qickest (and easiest) way out would just be to dump it on a local skip.

Mike,

I agree with pippiemac. Drown them. I have a tiny spring bulb that I bought so long ago I don't remember what it was... but it loves my climate and has multiplied by the zillions.

Every once in awhile I really need to get rid of some, but I'm not willing to loose soil and add to the landfill. No way are they going to compost reliably. So in the fall I dig out what needs to go, dump them in a big old galvanized tub, move it to the working side of the house out of public view, and I walk away. The tub fills with rain water, the bulblets rot, and then sometime when I'm thinking of dealing with the garden in late winter or early spring, I tip the tub on it's side and let it drain for a few days.

Come a nice day all goes either spread anywhere on the garden where it gets churned in a bit with existing soil. One could add to the compost pile but I don't want to deal with the extra weight to move round. There are usually plenty of outer shells of the bulblets left but they disappear with any soil turning.

Doing this then it's cold avoids any smells or bugs since it's all refrigerated. ;)

OK - first a bit of translation might be handy. Your 'arum lily' bulbs look to me like wild arum, jack in the pulpit, cuckoo pint, lords and ladies or whatever other common name you might want to call them ie Arum maculatum, not the big white Zantedeschia aethiopica US readers might be envisaging. They are British natives (unless these are Arum italicum, which is grown in gardens for its leaves) and are hard to eradicate. If you only have a couple of buckets the best solution is to sift them. 'Hardware cloth,' I have discovered after some years on these forums is wire netting. And for US readers the 'skip' referred to is a dumpster. For all the effort I'd probably just dump the earth. I have the same problem with lesser celandines which are evn worse.

I think the poster is looking for a way to kill the plants without having to remove and sift all the soil in the area where they are growing?

In situations like these, I am not opposed to using a herbicide. Glyphosate will kill bulbs, but use it carefully, applying only to the foliage as it emerges. Use a paint brush for careful application.

Here is a link that might be useful: killing bulb like plants

joepyeweed: We have, actually, dug up the plants and, hopefully, cleared out all the remaining 'scraps' that may possibly regrow. The earth we have came from the bottom of the hole, plus what was clinging to the actual plants.

I am problably incorrect in describing them as 'bulblets', which, from memory, are produced above soil level. So what we have could be very tiny tubers in the making.

As for drowning; no, the wife won't stand for containers of 'rubbish' lying around. Like I said, she wants a 'quick solution'!

Mike - you might find the link interesting. Arum maculatum is a plant with an interesting history as both a food stuff and as a starch. It's a pain in a small garden but you have to admire its versatility .... and the resourcefulness of our ancestors.

Here is a link that might be useful: Portland Sago and other products.

"killing bulb like plants" I had hoped to find a way to kill wild Garlic.
I try to stay in the organic garden way of weed control.
Every time I pull up a little garlic bulb/bulblet, I mash it on something to kill it. You guessed it, I will be at this for years to come.
You have the answer, if it was easy it would not be called work.

My advice is to incinerate the bulblets and all the soil that came out with them. Do NOT drown and put into compost!!! Whatever you do is futile anyway. I have been battling for years with no success. They spread everywhere.