Insect Invasion on Arkansas Crops

OzarkFirst:  PERRY COUNTY, Ark. -- Thousands of insects invading Arkansas farms. Not only will they make your skin crawl,  the blister beetles and grasshoppers are doing some hefty damage to crops.

Blister Beetles amongst other insects have left a crippling wake of destruction on crop fields this summer.

Bugs on a farm in Perry County have become an overwhelming problem. There's plenty of evidence of the destructive path left in the wake of insects.

Chris Schaefers blames it on the drought. "I've seen them over the years but I've never seen them as thick as they are this year."

Schaefers' farm in Perry County grows rice, hay and soybeans.

Driving the cart out to the crop fields you have to dodge and weave through grasshoppers jumping out of the way

Once out in the soy bean field, you can see where crops used to grow.

"There used to be a stand of beans... Just look at them flying," Schaefers said referring to the insects.

Grasshoppers aren't the only insects wreaking havoc.

Blister Beetles became prevalent about 3 weeks ago. They move in colonies across Schaefer's soybean fields, leaving dead plants behind.

Schaefers pointed to an area of crops and said, "They just plum killed them plants."

The Blister Beetle may just be a small insect but when you have thousands of them in a small area, they can mow through several acres in a matter of days. Adding grasshoppers on top of that just compounds the problem.

"We're too far in the game to let them eat it up."

Schaefers' farm has a spray rig that they equip with insecticide but when extra money is already being spent on irrigation, he said, "It's just another expense that we have to put out to control them."

If they don't get to the insects early on, the amount of destruction can have detrimental effects on their overall operation.

"That's taking our profits away."

And in a year when drought continues to strike hard, having Blister Beetles and grasshoppers can destroy crops and cripple return.

In addition to the soy bean crop insects, farmers have started to see stink bugs in rice fields. While these pests may only effect farmer's over-all bottom line, it's the long-term drought that can hurt our  wallets in the grocery store.