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Little River, TX | The term is aggregation of blister beetles.
They are in their reproductive mode now.
Your alfalfa growing neighbors will be pleased to see you kill off the Bugs.
Alfalfa growers do not worry about the blister beetles consuming the plants but are concerned that the beetles will be killed in their hay and poison livestock.
Supposedly the poison from 55 striped blister beetles will kill a 1,000 lb animal. The gray and blacks require 200 or more beetles to kill the same sized animal.
The striped beetles are the ones with the most toxin in their blood.
For the record blister beetles spend 9 months of the year in the ground eating grasshopper eggs. They are very beneficial because of that.
When they emerge they like to gather and communicate with the opposite sex. They like to travel in large aggregations. In this mode they need energy not protein and energy is in the sugars of flowers.
Their favorite targeted plant is the nightshade family.
Some locations these critters are (mis)called potato beetles. My Grandfather did anyway.
More than likely these beetles will be dead and gone, after laying their fertilized eggs.
At one time they were considered to have a medicinal value. Then they were referred to as the Spanish Fly.
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spray blister beetles in soybeans or not?
