Lily leaf damage

I'm going to post this here and in the peony forum. I've got this weird damage to the leaves of my lilies, peonies and to a lesser degree, daylilies and bearded irises. I've had lilies and peonies for several years and have never seen this. The damage seems to be only on the surface of the leaves. This is wide spread, in several different beds and seems to have occurred almost overnight. I can find no sign of any bugs except that these small flies are on some of the lilies and the peonies.....anyone have any ideas??
Thanks,
Vicki

another lily leaf

Peony leaf

damage to lily bud

these tiny flies are on some of the lilies and are all over the peonies

This message was edited May 16, 2006 10:46 PM

I think there's your answer. Mix up some dishsoap and water and spray your plants and see if they'll go away. If not, try something stronger. Do this early morning or in the evening.

The flies are eating the leaves???
Do you have any idea what kind they might be? They're bold little things too, they sat right there while I took the pics, I was almost touching them.

Haven';t a clue. Saw some flies myself today on some late tulips. I noticed a lot of flies last summer and they were biting ones. They bothered me more than the squeeters did. I think I'll do some spraying too.

Vicki, do you have any Maple trees nearby? When they shed their 'helicopter' seeds I end up with a lot of pits and scratches on most of my plants.

Not sure about your buds though ~ that looks like something else.

Looks almost like they are sucking plant sap. Something else that could spread a virus????

Have you had hail in the recent past?

I was thinking hail too until I saw the flies. Could they be some kind of hover flies munching on aphids or white flies or something?

No Maple trees near by.

I looked all over the plants and I don't see any insects or droppings or carcases anywhere, except for 2 ants on that lily head with the flies. If they flies are eating some mystery bad guy they're doing a great job :-)

I'll check with the neighbor to see if we've had any hail recently that I may have missed. I wonder if hail damage would take a few days to turn the white color? I just know those leaves didn't look like that Sunday morning when I was cutting blooms for the house, I didn't notice them until I got home from work Monday evening and took those pics. I did go out and look again just now and there are some tears in a few lily and peony leaves and the damage, especially on the peonies, seem to be on the top layer of leaves, not down in the inside layer of leaves.

We've had a lot of wind and I noticed a bunch of my daylily leaves are split, I had just assumed it was the wind but if we had hail, that could do it.

Will do some checking with the locals and I'm going to see if I can go by the extension office to see what they think.....I'll let ya'll know if I find out anything.

Thanks!!!!

I believe the mystery has been solved!

The neighbor said last Thursday afternoon, about an hour before I got home, we had so much pea sized hail that her deck was white!!! I work 10 miles down the road and we never had a hail stone fall at work but I do remember it storming that day because when I got home there was the most brilliant rainbow over the back field.

Glad they're not being eaten by anything but I can't figure out how I didn't see those spots until Monday, I walk thru my gardens every day!! They were like neon signs Monday when I saw them. I wonder if it took that long for the damaged areas to start dying, the spots are all turning a brownish/tan color now.

Here's that rainbow

WOW, that's stunning! Glad you solved your mystery.

I think the flies are simply attracted to the damaged buds where the plant tissue is rotting.

I thought it was pretty cool, I don't think I've ever seen one so bright. It looks like it had been a double rainbow, I caught the last remnants of the second one in this pic (left side above the bright one) to have seen that would have been spectacular!

I bet you're right, I'm glad the hail wasn't bigger or I'd have a mess for sure.