Painful introduction to blister beetles for West Kelowna man

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Photo: Contributed Photo: John P. Photo: John P. Photo: John P. Photo: Pixabay

A West Kelowna man had never heard of a blister beetle, but he has a painful sore on his foot after a close encounter with one.

John P. says he stepped into his shed last Saturday morning when he felt something under his foot. When he lifted his foot, a black beetle scuttled away.

He thought he might have been stung by a mud wasp, but when he went online to do some research, he realized it was more likely that he had encountered a blister beetle.

John says it wasn't until several hours later that the top of his foot started to itch.

"I didn't think anything of it. Sunday morning, I had a huge blister on the side of my toe and on the top of my foot. By Monday morning, the full thickness of my skin was peeling away all over it," he explained.

John says his wife works at the hospital and showed a colleague the photos. "He went, holy cow! That's a blister beetle. I've never heard of one in my life."

Castanet shared John's photos with Claudia Copley, entomology collections manager at the Royal BC Museum.

She says what John encountered was likely the short-winged blister beetle, which is common in southern parts of Canada and the northern half of the United States.

The female blister beetle is much larger than the male and has a large, cumbersome abdomen.

"If they are bothered, they can emit oil out of their joints, and that oil is quite toxic and not good for your skin," said Copley.

She points out that the beetles won't attack unprovoked. She suspects John was unlucky enough to step on the bug, and that's why it emitted the oil that appears to have left a painful welt on his foot.

"I haven't seen them very often myself, but I have seen them in places where there's a really healthy population of native pollinating insects, native bees," said Copley.

She says the beetle's larvae will climb onto flowers, emitting the smell of female solitary bees. Male solitary bees are attracted to the flowers, and the larvae climb on them. When the male mates with a female, they climb on her. They then eat the bee's larvae.

While that might sound alarming, Copley says the short-winged blister beetle has been part of the insect ecosystem in North America for many years, and a healthy native bee population can easily coexist with the beetles.

She notes that the Okanagan has the highest concentration of native solitary bees in Canada, at 30 percent.