Asiatic lilies: Borer damage: Cut stem?

Forgive me if this has been asked before but I didn't see such a heading on the forum. I have determined that my asiatic lilies, now beginning to bloom, are suffering from borer damage: stems and leaves browning from the bottom up, leaves brown and limp now covering up to half or more of each stem. VERY unsightly in a highly-visible bed. I'd love to cut the stems off but I'm afraid I will "starve" the bulb for next year and have little of no flower production. But the affected leaves are so limp and brown I can't think that they are doing much for the bulb.

This is new to me in this strange weather-year on the Cape--10 inches of rain in June, now record-setting heat. I had never seen it before or I might have done some preventative maintenance earlier in the season. Anyway, does anyone have any advice on whether I can or should cut off the stems now?

Thanks in advance.

A lot of my smaller lily leaves were stripped and tops cut off by rabbits. The bigger stalks were left alone and are blooming like crazy. Next year I will have to put some kind of guard around them to keep the rabbits at bay. Here are the developing stems with the smaller stems with leaves and tops cut off and the final result of the bigger stalks in full bloom.

Your damage may be due to so much rain? I would remove the unsightly leaves since it sounds like they are beyond helping the plant.

I think you are right on two counts, hcmdole: the overabundance of rain has created a great environment for the borer-critters to wreck their havoc on my lily-stems AND I should go out and remove the ugly leaves right away. I guess I will just have to live with the denuded lower stems and not cut them down. Thanks for your answer.

With so much rain, you may have a problem with the fungus Botrytis. Treat with a fungicide / copper sulfate. Remove all affected foliage and discard ~ do not compost.

Thank you, Moby. Good advice. By chance, I just purchased some copper sulfate "dust" yesterday to sprinkle on my tomatoes, since Late Blight has just been seen in my state (Massachusetts). I will sprinkle it over my lilies. Thank you!

Maybe you could give the bulbs a little extra bone meal and fertilizer scratched into the soil? That is my plan since I cut back due to red lily beetles.

Outlaw, I hope you are using spinosad.

What is that? I plan to get some neem oil?

It's also known as Captain Jack's Dead Bug. It is a bacterial insecticide for any type of beetle (if I understand correctly). Start in the spring and spray the soil to keep the larvae from hatching and climbing up the lily stem for dinner.

First year in the past 4 or 5 that some of the lilies have had whole blooms. Yay!
Marcia

I will look! I tried lowes today but I didn't see anything that looked like what I needed.

Around here all the garden centers/nurseries carry it in both ready to spray and concentrate. I think the spray bottle is about $9 give or take and the concentrate $17-19. If you google captain jack's, you'll know what the package looks like.

I've never used Neem Oil but I think it may do approximately the same thing. I did not want to spray an oil on with a sticky residue near herbs or other edibles.