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Post by heavyhitterokra on Sept 7, 2020 17:17:20 GMT -6
!!! ATTACK OF THE BLISTER BEETLES !!! There are about 250 varieties of Blister Beetle. They travel in huge hordes in late Summer and their poison is potent enough to harm the garden, as well as the gardener!
Blister beetles are a common field and garden pest best known for the blister-raising secretion they release when injured or crushed. This secretion contains cantharidin; a very irritating and harmful substance. Cantharidin is a chemical used to treat lesions caused by the pox virus. In fact, cantharidin is so effective at destroying human tissue that it’s used in a variety of wart removal products.
Catharidin is toxic to humans, pets, and livestock alike. If blister beetles are found to be in large enough numbers while baling hay, their poison can persist within the beetle's bodies long after they are dead, and any hay that they infested will be toxic, long after the grass has been dried, baled, and stored for winter. Horses are particularly susceptible to the beetle's poison ... Depending on the type of beetle, as little as four to six grams of this dead insect's tissue can be lethal.
Blister beetles travel in groups of several thousand individuals, with a collective weight so great that a person can observe noticeable bending of saplings as the beetles congregate along their branches. They sometimes cover entire power poles found along their path. These beetles can decimate a crop of potatoes, tomatoes, or most crop they choose to attack within hours after their arrival.
This morning, my garden was invaded by tens of thousands of these insects! They were so thick out there that the very ground was alive with them, causing an illusion that seemed as if the soil itself was moving. Since I'm Certified Organic, I hurried to the house to mix up some organic insecticide and sprayed them with a healthy dose of 5% Pyganic-Pro; a potent insecticide made of Chrysanthemum oil. I used about 2-gallons of this mix on them before they finally stopped moving; each time, giving the spray time to take a toll on them before making another pass.
The original horde of beetles was a tight mass, about 20' feet by 20' feet square, but I managed to spook them by having to walk through the middle of them to get out of the garden and that caused them to split into three or four groups before I could return with the pump-up sprayer. Because of this dispersal amongnst three different rows of vegetables, it took an extra long time to track down and kill most of them.
The very sight of that many bugs on first glance was so overwhelming that by their shear numbers, I thought there would be no end; but I finally got the upper hand and in time, and with much persistence, I was able to kill the better part of them. I stepped on and squished wriggling beetles for nearly an hour after I began spraying them. Though I believe I got most of them, I'm sure some managed to escape into the weeds before they were entirely finished off. I suppose that means I'll be in for another round of these pests in the future ... But, hopefully, not in the very near future.
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Post by rdback on Sept 7, 2020 17:49:30 GMT -6
The first thing that comes to mind is....WOW!
Best of luck fighting those little devils.
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Post by macmex on Sept 8, 2020 4:44:08 GMT -6
I've had success with NEEM, but I have to spray them and then just leave the garden for the day. The reason being is that NEEM doesn't outright kill them. It makes them stop eating after an hour or two and then they die within a couple days. If I stay in garden I cannot help but start killing them by hand, which often ends in a nasty burn.
It seems that this area is the world wide epicenter of blister beetles. I have NEVER seen them in such numbers anywhere else.
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Post by macmex on Jul 11, 2022 9:33:23 GMT -6
While Ron is dealing with hordes of grasshoppers my grasshopper population is slowly increasing. What worries me more is that I have seen blister beetles in increasing numbers for the past five days. Saturday afternoon I actually encountered a horde of them and spent about 15 minutes killing them.
This is a black blister beetle. We also have brown striped ones.
I should make a disclaimer: I'm incurable when it comes to grasshoppers, Japanese beetles and blister beetles. I can't help but kill them by hand. I just pinch their heads and let them drop. But this is risky business with the blister beetle. It's all too easy to accidentally grab the wrong end and get caustic fluids on ones skin. Saturday afternoon I had a bucket of water with me and I rinsed my hands every few moments.
This is a blister caused by the caustic fluids which these beetles exude.
I have never seen the fluids but about 9 hours after contact, if I haven't washed them off, this is what appears. It doesn't hurt until the blister breaks. Then, wow! It hurts for a couple of days.
Regardless of what I do, I've noticed that I go through about three weeks of devastation by blister beetles, every summer. Then... they just seem to go away until next year.
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Post by woodeye on Jul 11, 2022 9:53:40 GMT -6
I've never had them bad for 2 years in a row for some reason. It's been several years since I had a battle with them, they invaded my tomato patch. I blamed it on the fact that I used hay for mulch, but I'm not sure that was the cause.
The black ones are the most prevalent, I've seen a couple this year. I have seen a few of the brown ones before, but it's been years ago. But I never touch them, I'm a sissy I guess but they just weren't ever one of those things that I was comfortable messing with. I really didn't know that they would cause such bad reactions on the skin, so I guess my shyness about never touching them was a good thing.
Thanks for the info...
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spike
New Member
Posts: 39
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Post by spike on Jul 16, 2022 19:26:16 GMT -6
Oh Lord honey!! That would cause me to move
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Post by macmex on Aug 1, 2022 6:03:57 GMT -6
Well the numbers kept rising until... this weekend I walked out in the garden and found the feared swarms. They had destroyed a couple of plants before I found them.
1) The swarm had hit one of our ICB container gardens, devouring all of the leaves from about 4'X4' of beets. Fortunately, the beets were ready for harvest and they didn't eat the roots. I pulled them after dealing with the beetles.
2. They devoured one of my Frank Thai Hot pepper plants, which had been luxuriously large and healthy the day before.
3) They ate a couple AfricanX Okra plants. Interestingly, they didn't bother the Stewarts Zeebest. I would have expected the opposite.
4) They defoliated a number of tomato plants.
I've struggled with my memory and organizational skills lately and couldn't find my NEEM oil. But I grabbed a spray bottle with permethrin and went on the attack, trying not to spook them too much, so I could hit thick swarms. I was pleased to see that permethrin actually killed them pretty quickly.
I've been working on my reaction to these pests. I generally struggle to get photos of them as I'm too worked up, in the moment, to take time and do it. (How can I take pictures as my prize pepper plants are vanishing before my eyes?!) But I have been trying to take a few breaths and be more deliberate. For one thing, nothing I do makes a whole lot of difference. That evening, for instance, as I weeded and filled a wheelbarrow with weeds for my rabbits and goats, I found thousands and thousands of blister beetles dispersed among the weeds. I'd far rather let the garden go for now than douse the whole thing indiscriminately with any insecticide.
Here are a couple of observations I've made:
1) Blister beetles show up every year, here. I see stragglers all spring and summer, dutifully killing them as I find them (by hand picking).
2) Their population always explodes during the hottest, driest part of the summer. This is when it's so hot that when I go out there I am able to actually work for only about 50% of the time. The rest of the time I'm recovering from the heat, either in the shade or in the house. I'm most inclined to despair at this time, yet I've learned that there is no option other than to yield to the extreme heat. To do otherwise is to risk my life, and, I accomplish very little when I push the limits. I've learned that I can do only a little and then I MUST withdraw. This hold true with blister beetles.
3) Every summer, just when I think the garden is doomed... they just kind of ... disappear. I guess it's their life cycle. Though this year I think I may have figured something out. It'll take a few summers more to confirm or disprove this hypothesis. When we got several days of rain the blister beetles seemed to disperse. Is it the rain? Is it just time, in their biological clock, that they cycle out for the season? (Or will I go to the garden tonight and find they're back!) I guess I'll just have to keep observing.
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Post by woodeye on Aug 1, 2022 9:14:41 GMT -6
macmex, so sorry to see this happen to your plants. I have never had the brown ones like that all over my plants. I have seen the black ones get all over my tomato plants, but that is all they ever got on. Strange!
bon, hope you can salvage your potato crop...
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 1, 2022 9:56:57 GMT -6
George,
Thank you for taking the time to get a photo of this phenomenon. I've seen the brown, striped blister beetles (AKA Army Bugs) so thick that the weight of their swarm bends small saplings over as they move through the underbrush systematically devouring everything they come into contact with. They will instinctively climb anything that's in their path. I've seen power poles and highline wires covered with them as they migrate through, leaving the ground bare in their wake. Like you, in these times of crisis, I tend to go into emergency management mode, and taking out time to go grab a camera is not on my list of priorities at that time. Thank you, for making that a priority, so the rest of us can better understand and identify these things.
In years past, I've sprayed them with Pyganic-Pro 5% which is made of chrysanthemum oil mixed with water. The chemical compound is called Pyrethrin. The key difference between pyrethrin and permethrin is that pyrethrin is a completely natural substance, whereas permethrin is a synthetic substance that is made in laboratories. Both pyrethrin and permethrin are important as insecticides. These both help in controlling insects in industrial and domestic environments, but pyrethrin, being made from concentrates of chrysanthemum is non-toxic to humans or pets.
Here's a link to the Do My Own Pest Control website where I buy Pyganic-Pro. www.domyown.com/pyganic-pro-p-1335.html
There are lot cheaper brands out there, but I've not tried any of them, so I can't personally recommend them, not knowing how they work. However, I can vouch for the fact that Pyganic-Pro will knock them out on contact and it's non-toxic to humans or pets. I feel confident harvesting produce bare-handed the day following application. I can't say the same for other products used for pest control.
Also George, thank you, for making and including the observation of the time of year and the weather at the time of these attacks, so the rest of us might have opportunity to load a pump sprayer in advance, to have handy in case we encounter a swarm of our own.
In the future, if we all make it a point to log in here to record the dates of observation of these hoards, I think we will be able to refer back to this thread to better anticipate the date of future arrivals and become better prepared to fight these pests, (both camera and poison in hand).
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Post by macmex on Aug 2, 2022 10:22:25 GMT -6
Last night I had precious little time to go out to the garden. I did not see any blister beetles when I did. They might have been there but where I didn't see them. I did take a couple photos of pepper plants which they hit the day before. They actually missed a plant, which was off by itself.
These others looked just as good the day before.
I believe they will recover, though the damage is ugly and extensive.
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Post by woodeye on Aug 8, 2022 7:17:27 GMT -6
A few black blister beetles moved in on some of my tomato plants, found them this morning. I ruined their day for them though, but that's what they get for trying to ruin mine. I flicked them off the plants and stomped them, didn't want to take the chance of getting blistered. Not that many of them, probably a dozen, so hopefully I got the problem nipped in the bud. Will watch for them closely now...
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Post by macmex on Aug 8, 2022 7:36:35 GMT -6
I'm still seeing them, especially the black ones. I see individuals scrambling through the weeds while I'm weeding, but the swarming activity and damage remains abated. I'm thankful for this. Still, for me it's almost a matter of principle to kill the stragglers when I run across them.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 17, 2022 12:03:19 GMT -6
Plague on plague? I was talking to our County Agent yesterday. She told me, "The good thing about blister beetles is that they eat grasshopper eggs." That got me to thinking, I've had a plague of grasshoppers this year, does that mean I'll have a plague of blister beetles next year?I did a little research and the answers are disturbing to say the least.This is an excerpt from a larger article by Tri-State Livestock News. (It's a well written article, worth reading).www.tsln.com/news/blister-beetle-population-up-due-to-grasshopper-infestations/#:~:text=Female%20blister%20beetles%20lay%20clusters,and%20winter%20in%20those%20pods.It’s been said that following a grasshopper infestation come the blister beetles. That’s accurate, according to University of Wyoming’s Extension Entomologist Specialist Scott Schell.Female blister beetles lay clusters of eggs in the soil in late summer, and those hatch in about 12 days and go on a search to invade the grasshopper egg pods, eat the grasshopper larva and winter in those pods. The following summer they enter the larval pupal stage, emerging in late summer as active blister beetles.“The more grasshopper egg pods there are, obviously the more blister beetles you will have,” Schell explained. “In many areas, this is their second bad grasshopper year so the threat was there this year for haying and will also be there next year.”
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Post by hmoosek on Aug 17, 2022 12:59:11 GMT -6
I saw a blister bug the other day, it was in my pea bucket. I wasn’t sure what it was at first till I grabbed it, luckily I got rid of it quickly.
Pea Bucket made me laugh after re-reading. I should have worded that differently. Bucket of peas, Good. Pea Bucket, bad.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Aug 17, 2022 13:17:01 GMT -6
That does sound like plague upon plague, heavyhitterokra. I’m not even sure what else to say.
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