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resist.
• This is where the party goes awry. Maybe it is the prolonged, confined space of the tunnel. Maybe it is the taunting from the caterpillars (they are pests, after all). Maybe drinking the fermenting excrement flips a switch in our little friends. We may never know. But as the beetles merrily wade their way through those tunnels, they turn from gentle poop-eaters to savage murderers, and kill the caterpillars right in their home.
• In truth, this is one of the benefits of picnic beetles. Some turn predatory and eat some severe pests of crops. The flip side is when the beetles are a nuisance for humans trying to enjoy an after-dinner cocktail on the veranda or when we try to grow fruit.
• Picnic beetles are often blamed for damaging fruits like raspberries, strawberries, and melons. The reality is that these beetles are generally regarded as secondary consumers of these fruits. Typically, some other event damages the fruits, and the picnic beetles arrive to join in the festivities, only to be accused of starting the hoedown to begin with.
• Nevertheless, few people want to accidentally pop a beetle into their mouths, so once again, picnic beetles are demonized for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In truth, this is sort of the story of the picnic beetles' lives: always being turned into bad guys when they are just looking for a good time.
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• Jonathan Lundgren is a research entomologist at the USDA-ARS research facility in Brookings, SD. Although interested in all aspects of insect biology, he specializes on reducing crop pests through the use of beneficial insects.
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