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Little River, TX | It is my observation that there is a lot of ignorance about Da Bug.
Very few Ag type Ph.d.s or Veterinarians understand the life cycle of the blister beetle, the type of damage it can do, or just what is a lethal dose. Even fewer horse owners have the slightest clue.
Then we have the horse owner with the $60,000 mare that cost $60,000 in futile Veterinarian Expenses, and their little daughter, Sweety Pie, has suffered $250,000 worth of trauma. Then their lawyer wants a Modest 28,000 sq ft, Ocean Front, Beach cottage.
Any place in the whole wide world, that has both grasshoppers and flowering plants has some kind of blister beetle. They spend ¾ of their life in the ground eating grasshopper eggs. Then they pop out of the ground to procreate. For this they require energy and look for a sugar source.
Any animal can be poisoned by them. A lethal dose is 2.5 mg's per 100 lbs of animal. A frog can eat a few and live, a chicken can eat even more and not die. Roughly 55 stripped blister beetles will supply a lethal dose for a full grown horse, or cow. The Blacks and Grays require 200 beetles for a lethal dose. The kicker is the silly horse will die from colic with less than a lethal dose. They really die from colic, not blister beetle poisoning.
We acquire BB contaminant by harvesting during the beetle season. That varies by species of beetle, but the real poisonous one comes out of the ground in mid June, is prevalent in July, and has laid their eggs by September and are no longer a factor,
The most common way to contaminate hay is the beetles goes through the conditioning rollers, or flails and their blood gets on the hay. They drop to the ground and are never seen again.
Cure is to use a non conditioning mower during the season.
The critters stay in an aggregation, some say swarm or school. So when there are any in a field the operator can see them several rounds before he gets to their location. With an equipment operator who is alive and well, they will be seen, and when the machine gets there simply pick up the mower and skip over where they are. I have seldom seen an aggregation that could not be covered by a pickup truck!
The BB really does not prefere alfalfa, but does prefere plants of the night shade family. Tomatoes, Potatoes, and Silver Leaf Nightshade. So if you are cutting a grass field, with silver leaf nightshade it is possible, but not probable to get BB poisoning with grass hay.
Another way to contaminate hay is by baling at night. The BB will put up in a windrow, their Holiday Inn, for the night. This is how we get the horror stories about thousands in a bale of hay. Shoot there can be several hundred in one flake of hay.
I have heard growers from every part of the nation insist they do not have grasshoppers or blister beetles. I understand there is one isolated valley in Wyoming that is completely BB free. Got that from a Trucker selling alfalfa hay. 
The simple truth is there is not a single alfalfa grower in the whole world who can guarantee there will never be any blister beetle toxin in their hay.
Many states have a good bullition about blister beetles. I hand out the one from Kentucky. It is no better than the information from Kansas or Missouri, but the horse people seem to think Kentucky is horse heaven.
I mostly put the blame on the horse owners. They insist on pretty and green hay. Hay that is cut in July, can cure down in two days and is baled that second night. They do not want hay from Ohio that is cut with a simple mower, laid out flat for 6 days, (is rained on two of those days) then raked on the 7 th day and baled on the 8 th day.
NHA used to supply a $1,000,000 $5,000 deductible, Product liability policy. A couple of high dollar dairy cows got hay with a mouse or snake baled up in it and got big time sick. A few non blister beetle contaminations soon used up all the money. Moral of that is never guarantee blister beetle free, dead mouse / rat free, or snake free hay.
I try not to sell alfalfa only to a horse owner who does not have brood mares in milk, is training for the professional race track or rodeo arena athletic horse. Alfalfa has more energy than the horse requires and will become fat.
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Blister Beetle Boogie
