Invasion! Part 3 - June 19, 2012

(Continued from Part 2)

As day three of the striped blister beetle invasion began, I left for work with a new plan of action. We had achieved a small victory the night before, when I had found an old bag of Bug-B-Gone dust. Even though it was at least five years old, the dust had effectively put an end to the attack on our pepper plants.  So the plan was to buy another small bag of the dust (the active ingredient was permethrin) and treat the rest of the garden.

But even though I had decided on this course of action, it nagged at me throughout the day.  In general, I don't like pesticides, and try to avoid them if possible.  So what if there are a few worms in the corn?  I can spare a few kernels, right?.  Tomato worms?  Just keep an eye out for the signs of them, then pick them off and feed them to the pet oscar.  Squash bugs?  Spray some water on the base of the plants and pick them off as they crawl up the stems (squash bugs really can't swim, and seem to hate water!).

So the decision to use the permethrin on the garden triggered a case of guilty conscience. I remember swarms of June bugs (Cotinis nitida for those who are curious) on the corn tassels every summer when I was a kid.  This year I haven't seen a single one.  Nor have I seen more than a dozen honeybees this summer, although like the June bungs, the bees were always busy gathering working the corn tassels.  Where are the dozens and dozens of lightening bugs, which always punctuated the evening twilight with their flashing messages?  I found myself thinking "Do I really understand the broader impacts of using that pesticide?"  I was pretty sure the answer to that was "no."

Nevertheless, I found myself asking what choice do I have? On the way home that evening, I stopped at the Feed and Supply store and picked up a bag of "Garden, Pet, and Livestock Dust."  I took a plastic peanut butter jar out of the recycling and we drilled some holes in the lid.  I filled the jar with the white powder and walked around to the okra.  I started to gently sprinkle the dust on the leaves, covering the beetles.  Just as before, the beetles ran for the safety of the corn.   Only this time, I stood ready with the poison, and I spread it around the bases of the plants where they had taken refuge.  I then spread a 4" wide strip of the dust down the row between the corn and the beans, then lifted up the bean plants and sprinkled the dust on the ground and on the base of the bean plants.  The beetles ran for the corn, but had to cross the treacherous white line I had drawn in the dirt.  I emptied the jar, and left the dust to do its dirty work.

The carnage.

The next evening, I walked through my battered garden.  It seemed eerily quiet, but maybe that was just my conscience blocking out the sounds of everything around me.  The signs of the war were everywhere.  Dead and dying blister beetles lay in great piles.  The poison had done its job.  But here lay a dead tiger beetle, a beneficial and gorgeous predator Tetracha sp. (possibly Tetracha virginica).  Another dead predator, a spider, over there.  Numerous black Carabid beetles, also predators, also lay among the dead blister beetles.  


Sadly, I turned to leave the garden.  As I looked down, I saw a single solitary blister beetle walking across the ground at my feet.  I bent down and took a photo of the pest.  Then I stood up, raised my foot, and stomped on him.