Thank you, Kate. That is a clearer picture than the one I looked up. I could not find the bugs today, maybe the rain drove them in. I "think" what I saw looked more like a wasp, red and black striped. I will keep a close eye on my plants. One of my Stellas Ruffled Fingers is affected pretty badly, at least half of the scapes. Malaysian Marketplace too, which is looking very sickly this year. A couple of other plants have a few scapes. I did spray for the ups earlier, and the spray may have also taken care of the worst of these. I hope so, hate losing blooms!

Thank you again, i have heard plenty about thrips and aphids, but not these bugs. ANYTHING that eats day ily flowers is ugly, and pure evil!

What the heck are these ?????? OMG ! dont tell me there is some new bug to worry about ? Where is zone 7a - b Lilykate . I dont want those bugs here. Do you know the name of them ? Have you grabbed some to have them id'd by your ag people. What is the treatment for them UGH you poor girl!

Kate, what are these called? I've seen a couple here recently. I had them about five years ago and they really decimated one of the raised beds.

Debra

We have them here, showed up about three years ago. I don't know if they are the reason for our blotchy daylilies, but I have not noticed any real devastation yet--hope it never happens. You know we will try to find some kind of spray to kill them.

They are a variety of lopidea, there is another part to the name but if you look this up, it will bring up the insect. I had mentioned in another post that I had some plants that the buds just failed, before they could mature. Kate thinks it may be caused by this, and i did notice a couple of red and black insects on a plant yesterday, but was rushing so did not look close. I tried to spot them todsy, but did not find any, maybe the rain drove them off temporarily. They can be killed with insecticide soap. I was not aware of since a bug and really appreciate Kate's help. Now if it will just stop raining enough to spray.

Thanks Nancy for picking this up. I decided to post this since Nancy, Kay and I have been discussing these. Kay has not seen any yet. I am in Mississippi, Signet, and with Debra in Tennessee and Avedon, aren't you in Texas? So maybe this is a southern plant bug. I have had them since 2013 and yes I did grab some to try to get identification. I travel a lot with my job so I took them to every county ag agent I could find. No one could ID them so I took pics and sent them to a website operated by one of our state universities that answers all questions plants. An entomologist at the university emailed me with an ID. I hope Dick will see this post, as I messaged him on Houzz a couple of days ago about these. He had indicated in one of the posts that his wife, Dr. Pat, was working with some other insect specialists with some other issues and I thought this might be one they could also look at. As Debra said, these insects can destroy your lilies. They are back in force this year and I have many lilies I will not see a bloom on due to the buds dropping. As I told Nancy, the bad thing is that you may not see them, your buds begin to turn, and then they fall off. Or, as in the pic above, the bloom is deformed. If you don't deadhead, they love your messy blooms too. So I don't know how far afield they are. All I know is that they can destroy beds without your knowledge. It's not like they are huge insects you would notice and they have some kind of "sensory" feel if your hand gets close and they scurry away (unless they decide to fly on your hand or arm and bite you instead!) Sorry to be so lengthy but these are a scourge for many of the daylily gardens I know, including mine.

Kate

Kate: Pat is intrigued by the pictures. Have you written to her yet? (FYI to the readers - Pat is my wife - Dr. Patricia Henley, a member of the Scientific Studies Committee of AHS.)

Oh, so glad you saw this, Dick. No, I have not. I did message you with this info along with the name of the entomologist who first identified these for me. I do not know if he is still at the university. But I did put more info into that message. Feel free to use those pics!! I am sure a lot of people would like to know if these are regional plant bugs!

Kate

Write Pat at daylily@greenapple.com

Yes, I live in Texas, so perhaps it is a "southern bug", but these things are something that needs to disappear forever, along with all the other insects, and diseases that can ruin daylilies.

Avedon, let me show you what devastation can look like with these critters. This was taken three years ago. It is a back bed, mostly neglected I am afraid. I use these older lilies for bouquets and such. But it can be seen from one of the side roads and I like the color. This picture was taken during peak season when this bed should have been totally full of blooms.

well , as much as it sucks Lilykate it is great that you have brought this to all our attention . I would like to know even though I am no where near a southern garden but it could affect buying southern daylilies for fear to importing this pest.