The Backyard Zoo

by Jim Dunlap

"Blister Beetle"

What bugs you? Well I'll tell you what bugs me. I see a lot of bugs. What bugs me is that it seems to always be the same kind of bug. I don't know what kind of bug it is. Now that really bugs me. Wouldn't that bug you? Is this whole thing beginning to bug you?

First I called, waded through extensive menus, and then had meaningful conversations with two different answering machines. Then I emailed and waited, and waited. There was no response from my list of experts. Ah, the Internet and then the reference books. What is it about the bugs I find that there never seems to be a photo of the one I have in my hand?

I play horseshoes, so close means a lot to me. I am calling it a blister beetle. He is one inch long, has a black head, a pumpkin orange thorax, and black glossy wings. Granddad calls it a potato bug because it is often found on potato plants. This beetle is so named because if handled roughly they emit a strong acid secretion that will blister the skin, and is more irritating than this column. This beetle has a very complex life cycle. The larvae are parasites and attack the eggs of cicadas, wasps, and grasshoppers.

Blister beetles are brightly colored and so easily spotted by insect-eating animals, but the acid secretion has unpleasant effects on any animal that tries to eat him. Thereafter the predator will remember that the blister beetle is best left alone.

And then there's my friend Ralph. Ralph is a two-pound African bullfrog. I admire that frog because he eats what bugs him.

Editor's Note (Sid): I read that Blister Beetles are a problem because they can be found in alfalfa fields.  The problem isn't what they do to the plants, it's that their toxin doesn't lose potency after they die and is potent at a wide range of temperatures.  They can be ground up with the grain as it is harvested for feed, and 50-100 ingested can make sick or kill a horse.

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