Lily Beetles! Seek and destroy before they destroy your lilies! Their offspring are disgusting creatures who look like bits of bird droppings on the leaves as they cover themselves in their own excrement. The lily beetle will fall to the ground upside down if disturbed - then you wont see it because it will blend in with the earth. Use a tissue to remove and squash the larvae but , before you do that, quietly place something white - paper or tissue - around the stem of the plant so that the adult shows up when it drops. Good luck!

If they are bright red and longer and slimmer than ladybirds, then they deffinitely are lily bettles.

A tip: My Nan always had trouble killing them just by stepping on them. You need to make sure they are well and truly dead.

Hmm, Alex, I disagree with your description of lily beetle - they're scarlet red, and quite square compared to a ladybird, being as wide as a large ladybird all the way down their bodies, not slimmer than ladybirds.