I have gotten quite a few calls about blister beetles this year. There was a newspaper article up in Modoc that caused some stir, and was picked up by a lot of social media pages. So, what are blister beetles and why do we care?

Blister beetles get their name for a reason. They contain the toxin cantharidin, which can be excreted when they are threatened, or crushed which causes bad blisters on the skin. While this is problematic they typically are not drawn to humans, and blisters can be avoided by not handling them. Where they pose a larger problem is as a contaminant of hay, where they can be crushed/killed and incorporated into a bale posing as a potential toxin to be consumed by livestock.

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