Carolyn the bug guru answered this on FB! It's a blister beetle. Those of you that have them don't squish them they will give you blisters. According to Carolyn they demolish tomato plants quickly. When I googled blister beetles it says they eat bee's and grasshoppers too. They are covering this plant. I would say there is one per leaf so I am going to attempt to murder the whole lot of them in the morning :)
A hungry one. Sorry, that isn't funny when they attack and destroy to that extent. :o(
ReplyDeleteThey are gross and luckily this is a volunteer plant in my cantaloupe patch, so it's going bye bye in the morning :)
DeleteHope you find out since we have them also.
ReplyDeleteIt's a blister beetle. Google it. Nasty critters
DeleteI do not know, but I have seen them before.
ReplyDeleteThey certainly are eating your vegetation.
Maybe you should call your county master gardener.
I am sure that they would know and be able to tell you what to do about them.
Good Luck:)
If you see them again don't squish them, they will give you blisters. I asked Carolyn this evening on Facebook and she knew exactly what they were, blister beetles. She's a genius :)
DeleteAllow Amaranth or what is commonly called pigweed to grow and the blister beetles will go after that before every other plant. I had them back in 2012 when it was so dry I was able to keep ahead of all the Pigweed and they ate the bottom leaves off all my tomato plants. As it turned out that was actually a good thing because I always have a problem with tomatoes growing along the ground but these beetles are never a problem for me if I leave them Pigweed to chew on.
ReplyDeleteBlister beetles. Our version is lighter in color with stripes the length of the body. I saw them out around the amaranth like PP says but had them on tomatoes one time.
ReplyDeleteGolly, I hope you can get rid of them some how.
ReplyDeleteLet us know how you exterminate them!
ReplyDeleteNot sure if you use pesticides on your garden or not but seven spray works miracles on these critters...We dont use pesticides very often, but before we will lose a crop we use the seven...its the lesser of all the other evils out there in pesticide world.
ReplyDelete