Friday, June 22, 2012

Blister Beetle Infestation


We woke up Tuesday and went out to make our usual rounds of animal pens and gardens. In the new garden we noticed something scurrying across the ground and noticed all the leaves were gone from about 20 of the potato plants in the new garden. On closer inspection the above beetle is what we found. Known as an army beetle or striped blister beetle. These things were moving across my garden like a small army eating everything in their path. There were maybe a thousand of them. I have never seen anything like it in all my years of gardening. I mean it was literally like the biblical plague of locusts!!


The bad thing about blister beetles is that they have this effect on humans above and below are pictures I found of blister beetle reactions. They do not even have to bite as crushing them causes a reaction. 


Blister beetles are also harmful and even can be deadly to some livestock. (especially horses) Usually found in alfalfa fields and we buy alfalfa hay for our rabbits and get goat barn litter for our compost that has alfalfa hay in it. So I would say one or the other was infected. 

Usually I try to keep my pest control to organic methods but I knew that with record heat and drying winds that if they stripped this garden it would more than likely never survive. So with such odds and such a bad infestation we decided to spray with Liquid Sevin Dust. The good news is that being such a young garden it will be quite a while before we harvest anything from this garden thus reducing our exposure to the chemicals but it still breaks my heart that after years of not using this method to go back to it. 

I am hoping that one spraying will be sufficient but just in case I am going to mix up some of my garlic bug spray to keep on hand.



Unfortunately this is how part of my potato row looks now. Pretty nasty bugs they were.  They were quick too as this was all done in one morning.

Anyone else out there having problems with bugs this year?

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter  

18 comments:

  1. Oh My. Sometimes you just have to take drastic measures. We understand that.
    Stay safe and many thanks for sharing the info.

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  2. I've never seen these little guys and hope I never do. That looks as bad as poison ivy! We're having problems with what I think is mosaic virus or leaf curl virus. I had to pull one of my beloved tomato plants because of it two nights ago. I'd be reluctant also, but I wouldn't beat yourself up about using Sevin. Sometimes organic remedies just don't do the job.

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  3. Oh My Goodness! Yes, I too would have resorted to "help". We've had some weird weather here and I know that means we'll end up with some kind of strange "bug" infestation...that seems to be the way it works...I have a stash of Sevin "just in case". I have not had to use any "chemicals" for several years, but I'm afraid this may be the year for an exception.

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  4. I would have freaked out.
    Need to remember Sevin, but only in an emergency.
    Glad those were pictures you found, at first I thought it was one of you got hurt.

    I'll pray your garden recovers, CQ. ♥

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  5. I thought you might find this article helpful if you get anymore http://www.motherearthnews.com/ask-our-experts/control-blister-beetles-zb0b08zblon.aspx

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  6. The same thing happened to our potatoes. Those little critters appeared over night and did alot of damage. I didn't want to resort to the seven dust either.....but had toget them bad boys out the way.

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  7. how did you treat the rash and blisters on the skin?

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  8. Our cabbage and brocolli are practically decimated! Cut worms and slugs because we've had so much rain! We even found cut worms by the corn this morning. I'm really worried. This year might just be one of the worst gardens we've had in years - of course the year we need it most in years. Ugh!

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  9. These have appeared in my garden as well in eastern Wisconsin. So far just one potoato plant looks like yours. I've been trying to figure out how to get rid of them without the risk of blisters. I too, try to go organic and usually just pick the bugs off before they get too bad, but might be getting something more drastic. Did the Sevin work to get rid of them?

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    1. It did. What we did was shake the plants and they would runb out and then we would actually spray the bugs themselves as opposed to the plants. I see very little damage from them now so yes the sevin did work : )

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    2. I did break down and use the Sevin on the potatoes since they had taken out nearly a third of my crop and it worked for the blister beetles quite well. Dug the plants this weekend and while I've had better, it was a respectable harvest for the year considering many of their leaves were gone a little early. I had squash bugs kill off my pumpkin plants and now that I've removed any squash related plant, the nasty things have moved on the my yellow beans! I can't wait until next year, and it sounds like a lot of others are in the same boat. Though I've never seen so many black and yellow spiders - they are probably the only ones enjoying the extra bugs this year. I leave them alone to do their work catching as many bugs as they can.

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    3. My garden is full of toads and snakes. Seems the toads are there for the bugs and the snakes are there for the toads : )

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  10. This very thing just happened to me this morning! Overnight, an army of these bugs completely stripped several of my tomato plants, all of my pepper plants and nearly my whole row of beats!! I have never seen anything like this! They even stripped the weeds I had neglected to pull. I could see hundreds and hundreds of them scurrying around in my garden....like an army! Like you, I have always tried to keep my gardens organic. It broke my heart to see the damage this morning. This was actually the most beautiful and lush garden I've ever had.....until the heat wave here in Kentucky hit....and then this! I realized the infestation was so severe that I would need to resort to something strong. I ran to the garden center and picked up a well known brand which contains malathion. I've sprayed everything down so hopefully it will take care of the problem. Woe is me :(

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  11. This summer with the heat and the drought, it has been just awful. We have had swarms of cucumber beetles and corn rootworm, squash bugs and vine borers seem to never end, and now, as I went to clear an area of my garden for fall planting I am finding blister beetles (3 varieties in fact) on all my flowers. Wasps are attacking my Valencia peppers, Japanese beetles have devoured my French baby green bean plants and are finishing off the marigolds. Rabbits ate my carrots and are actively eating my Rugosa Butternut vines. Lettuces have bolted, I have had to harvest my fennel bulbs early due to bolting, and late frost wiped out my pears and plums. Voles even ate my tulips. The only things that seem to have escaped the horrific conditions have been my 64 tomato plants (though, watering has been expensive and the harvest has been well below normal due to the extreme temperatures killing their ability to pollinate), my red pepper varieties, my flat Italian parsley, and two varieties of bunching of onions (though the other two had a sad performance).

    I have almost never had pest problems in my garden and now it is like the plagues this year. We tried crushing the bugs, spraying with neem, using soapy water, and even did a garlic/milk mixture that helped early in the season. Now, the problems continue to persist and we are considering the same actions. I am leery of even attempting to do any fall planting.

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    1. I am so on the same page! Like you I have never had problems like i have had this year. Rabbits are everywhere in numbers like I have never seen. We have had blister beetles, cucumber beetles, stink bugs, squash borers and aphids by the tons. There are just some days when I feel like going and buying a gallon of some sort of insecticide and just coating everything. Ugh !!

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  12. I would like to suggest using the mechanical pesticide diatomaceaous earth (D.E. for short. There are two kinds of D.E. and it is IMPORTANT to get the right one. One is used for swimming pools and is NOT the one to use because it would be toxic. The one to get is FOOD GRADE Diatomaceous Earth (sounds like Die ah tom A she us). You can buy it off the internet. You will also need a powder mill to use for spreading it in a fine dust. It is non toxic and can be used mixed in food for humans and animals to kill internal parasites as well as being spread in the environment to kill unwanted garden pests without poison. When creatures with exoskeletons get the particles in their joints it acts like shards of glass cutting them and causeing them to bleed to death. D.E. is the powdered remains of ancient diatom skeletal structures. I recently treated my hen house and some tiny chicks that had a lice infestation from a bag of chick feed that had lice in it. By the time I realized it, I had lost 6 of 7 little chicks. The one that got the D.E. is lice free and thriving. I treated her Momma, too.

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  13. Woah these beetles are serious hazard to one’s health! On the first sign of infestation, one must take drastic measures to control these swarm of harmful beetles. I had an infestation of Clothes Moths before, and though they don’t sting like beetles, they chew away on our clothes and furniture. When I called in for professional help, it took them 2 days to clear our home of these pesky moths.

    Lucile Lynch

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