A bug. A bug in a mug. Not snug in a mug - oh, enough, enough. I just wasn't very happy to have this fly onto my office desk when I was tidying it. It's not a coffee mug - more a paper clip mug, so it wasn't too disgusting, but I think it's yet another example of Union Street wildlife, of which there was plenty today. Since the temperature hit a wild 59 degrees, the squirrels were up and scampering in the walls (I always pretend that they're racoons, and indeed occasionally they may be, only at the moment they sound fairly small - just energetic). It's one of my favorite mugs - an Oxford Women Students suffrage mug: one that always makes me think that I was born out of my time, and that really, it would have been better spending one's radical youth on this, rather than occupying the Examination Schools in the determined attempt to make the university give us a student union (tidying papers in the basement last weekend, I found the roneoed days' programs for that - evening disco and all).
Ah. A Shield Bug, aka "Stink Bug." We are having an infestation of them in my house. Because I am adverse to paying someone to come in and spray my house with chemicals, I pick them up carefully from the sides (if you pick them up with thumb and forefinger over their tummies, you'll find out why they are stink bugs) and toss them in the toilet. Then I remind myself that they don't eat anything, don't destroy anything, don't reproduce inside - they just want a cozy place to stay, as do we all.
ReplyDeleteI would advise that you avoid exciting them at all (and especially avoid squishing them), as the 'stink' they emit when threatened (or killed) attracts their brethren. The best solution: grab a water bottle, let the little critter crawl in, and deposit him in the toilet (don't worry... they can survive without oxygen for an inordinately long amount of time). You will also benefit from sealing all crevices, removing any air-conditioner units in windows, and spraying a mixture of common hand-soap diluted in water along window-sills and in any areas that they've been lurking (with every step they excrete a small trail of the aforementioned pheromone). Finally, Rutgers has an entire departmental team devoted to the invasion: http://njaes.rutgers.edu/stinkbug/
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
P.S. Avoid pesticides at all costs. A house full of dead stink bugs in the roof and walls will only invite more destructive scavengers that you *don't* want (like carpet beetles).
ReplyDeleteWow. Now I know what I have, I guess. And I'll file a report with RU maintenance - or the stinkbug department (no jokes, folks) - on Monday morning. I suspect that stinkbugs are some of the milder problems of 36 Union Street. I'm very grateful for all this identification and advice ...
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