After standing in disgust and surprise for a second, staring at a smeared 50 cent piece of the guts on my shirt, I ran up to the house to douse loads of water on my eye. My husband stared blandly at me, and commented, "Don't you think you are being a bit overdramatic?" Ugh! This was gross, I couldn't help it! I then gathered my courage, and went back out to the field to harvest some summer squash, only to find I was having a bit of trouble seeing and my eye felt very strange.
I made my way back up to the house to have a closer look at my eye. Staring back at me in the mirror was a picture of some horror show! The white part of my eyeball had swollen up and was threatening to envelop the iris of my eye. The nurse on call at my doctor's office, suggested that someone should probably take a look at it.
So I drove myself to the ER (at this point, the kids were in bed, and someone had to stay with them). Finally, a little after midnight, I headed back home with some lovely steroid/antibiotic eye drops to be used every 4 hours while awake for 4 days.
I spoke with other local farmer's the next day and yes, they had all experienced the eyeball squirt and one relayed a story about the guts making it right into his mouth. Unfortunately, for me, I had some sort of allergic reaction to larvae bug guts hitting my eye. Go figure.
As for now, the beetles have slowed down their chomping of my potato plants, and the ones that are still out there, are welcome to continue feasting. I am taking a break from diminishing their population.