Joe, aphids are never good but if it were me I wouldn't get too uptight about it at this point and time of year. Here's why. Aphids can't spread a virus if there isn't any to spread. Knowing you, you keep a pretty close watch over your lilies for a virus so I doubt if you have any infected plants, at least not any that show apparent symptoms. Second, viruses don't spread throughout the plant at the snap of a finger. they travels slowly. At this time of year, a lilies metabolism is slowing to a crawl which would slow down the virus travel even more. And, in a couple more weeks you'll be cutting the stems anyway. BUT, HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW WITHOUT ANY NEGATIVE IMPACT WHATSOEVER: Cut all the stems on your mature size plants off now to the same level you normally would later and throw them in the garbage. Don't worry about bulb size--they're done growing for the year anyway and it won't hurt them a bit. Don't believe it? Last year I ran an experiment on 2 Anaconda and 2 Moonlight cut early on Sept 16th. They were dug in early Nov. and compared to 2 control bulbs of each which were allowed to go uncut. There was no noticeable or even measurable difference in bulb diameter of those cut early and those that weren't. What about performance? The cut early test plants were then planted in a row in a 1-2-1-2 pattern. This past summers height and bud count were, for all practical purposes the same. The only way I could tell what was what, was to look at the label. This would leave you with only your youngest, smallest plants and this years seedlings to deal with--and I think you can handle that
