Noted: After Kolb told Kanarowski-Peterson it looked like blister beetle poisoning, she began picking through the alfalfa hay and found what looked like beetles. Samples were sent to PJ Liesch, an extension entomologist and director of the Insect Diagnostic Lab at UW-Madison.
While Liesch has seen blister beetles in Wisconsin yards on occasion — usually in late spring or early summer — it’s a “fleeting phenomenon” for a few days, and he’s not aware of any other cases of beetles being found in hay in Wisconsin.
“Overall I would say that (blister beetles) are not uncommon if you know when and where to look for them,” he said. “To have them occur in hay or animal feed, that seems to be a very rare occurrence.”