A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Striped Bugs??????

Can anyone tell what these bugs are and what to do about them, Most of them are striped, some are just solid black.

Please let me know as well I have them...and these bugs I have never saw b/4 on my parsley yellow and black, looks like a caterpillar, but is not?

Ok..I found out what it is..it is a Blister Bug Here

Blister beetles come in lots of colors, but most of them have a distinctive, ant-like appearance. The one in the picture is the margined blister beetle, and it is common in Kentucky. The larvae of margined blister beetles develop as parasites, living on the egg masses of grasshoppers. These beetles can give you blisters if you pick them up or crush them, so be careful. Blister beetles can be an even more serious problem on farms if large numbers of them are crushed and mixed into alfalfa hay during harvest. The poisonous substance in blister beetles (called cantharidin) it is as toxic as cyanide or strychnine! Horses are particularly vulnerable (they can die within 72 hours of eating the toxin), but cattle and sheep feeding on hay contaminated with crushed blister beetles are also susceptible.

Control
1) Hand Pick
Be sure to wear gloves or use tweezers as they can release a substance that causes blisters on the skin. Drop them in hot soapy water. Be sure not to touch them even when they are dead as they can still cause painful blisters on your skin.
2) Keep Weeds Low
weed around edges of your garden attract blister beetles because of grasshopper eggs. Eliminating the weed problem will help control infestation.
* A word of warning, killing them is not a good option unless you dispose of the bodies. Their poison stays in their bodies long after they are dead.

These come in the striped, solid black and also solid gray and are in most of the US and some of Canada

Thank you!!! Will do in am....Yikes

We used to call em stink bugs when we were kids. Our hands never blistered from them, but then again our hands were pretty calloused.
Our basement is full of these critters right now. I have been putting out those sticky board mouse traps, and they have not been able to do their job because the bugs have been covering up all the sticky areas of the trap!
I guess I should go ahead and spray and sweep em up and get them out of here, before the kids start playing with them.