Foreign beetle creeps out Saskatchewan salad lovers

Saskatchewan seems to be suffering through a mild infestation of unwelcome and potentially harmful salad toppings in the form of big, colourful, foreign beetles.

CBC first learned of the problem when a woman in Saskatoon found a blister beetle in her spinach. The discovery, she said, was greeted with a loud scream.

• Blister beetle 101: Your guide to a bad bug
• Saskatoon woman shocked to find big, brightly coloured beetle in packaged organic spinach

Today, there's another beetle story out of North Battleford.

Stan Wasalewski told Saskatoon Morning host Leisha Grebinkski  that he was out on the tractor seeding when his wife called with news about dinner.  

"There's a bug in the salad," Wasalewski recalled his wife Janet saying.

He shrugged it off. 

"But it's a really big bug," she said. 

That beetle was still squirming around in the container when Wasalewski made it back home from the fields, so he took some pictures of it, and put the unwanted guest on ice in the freezer. That's when the research began.

Wasalewski's daughter looked up the beetle on the Internet and identified it as the iron cross blister beetle, the same type of beetle that was found in that spinach in Saskatoon. Both came in produce purchased at Sobeys.

Wasalewski said his wife was rattled by the encounter. He said they're going to change their shopping habits.

"We are kind of off store bought lettuce for now and in the fall when you have to go back to buying salad, she's not going to buy this again, she'll go back to buying something other than organic I think."

An expert says the beetle in question gives off a toxic chemical that can raise blisters on the skin. It may also cause indigestion if accidently eaten. 

Sobeys confirmed today it has received a handful of complaints about beetles in Earthbound Farms packaged greens. The company also confirmed the North Battleford complaint. That case involves the Our Compliments brand. 

"These are fairly isolated incidents," said Keri Scobie, a Sobeys spokesperson. "Because these are natural products grown outside there is the occasional time where bugs can be found in food. It doesn't happen all that often, but when it does we do what we need to do to make things right with our customers."

The spokesperson said that no products have been pulled from store shelves.