Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.1002060211080.16626@panix3.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Cyb <cybermind@listserv.aol.com>, Wryting-L <WRYTING-L@listserv.wvu.edu>
Subject: We become a new frontier (for Tom Zummer, who always asks us)
Date: Sat, 6 Feb 2010 02:11:30 -0500 (EST)
We become a new frontier (for Tom Zummer, who always asks us) http://www.alansondheim.org/stinkbug.jpg We'd been entertaining a brown marmorated stinkbug (Halyomorpha halys) for a while now - at least a couple of months. A small beautiful true bug, it had arrived near the window sill (as had others); we carefully took it into our garden and our hearts. That was the last we saw or heard of it until this evening, when it suddenly appeared, circling near the ceiling, and landing on our 1908 Chinese painting of flowers and birds. I looked it up on the Net, of course - only to find out that these insects seek the warmth of apartments during the winter, and leave their scent everywhere. Other stinkbugs are attracted by the odor, which can become overpowering and long-lasting. Sooner or later, we'd have a colony. We realized either the bug or us had to leave; Azure gently took it to the same window it had entered, and let it fly away. Now I've put up an image of the bug, a memorial of sorts. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about it: "simply jostling the bug, cornering it, scaring or injuring it, or attempting to remove it from one's house can 'set it off'"; "it can make a whole room uninhabitable until aired out, and some people are even allergic to the smell." By the way, this insect hadn't been seen in the United States before 2001; we're proud to be early adopters, part of a new frontier, friendly hosts for yet another invasive species.