A week or so ago, my classmate Kristin talked about Stink Bugs on her blog. I was surprised (and a little relieved in a weird sort of way) to know that I wasn't the only one in our class who 1) has been finding stink bugs in her home, or 2) is afraid to kill them because of their unfortunate name. Around the same time Kristin was writing this post, I discovered a stink bug lounging on my laptop when I came downstairs to work on schoolwork. My first line of defense, the indoor cat, was no help at all and just looked at the bug and started playing with my pencil sharpener. I ended up scooping up the bug on a piece of paper and running out to the driveway with it. There may have been some shrieking involved, but it's all a bit of a blur.
In general, I'm one of those weird people who doesn't like to kill anything, even stink bugs, without a really good reason for it. Am I going to eat the bug after I squish it? Good heavens, no. My usual M.O. involves scooping up and throwing out. The one time I ever played camp counselor, the girls in my cabin got a kick out of my extermination method for some cave crickets that had found their way onto one of the girls' beds. (Cover it with the trash can, slip paper between it and the bed, tape the paper to the trash can, run far from the cabin, and release. Process also involves shrieking.) Hey, the rest of the week was cricket-free so something went right.
On top of just not wanting to squish a bug, I also think said bug would have to be more useful outside of my house anyway. Out there are birds and plants (and bats!) who would benefit from an insect's presence in my yard. In the house, all we have are a couple of humans and the indoor cat, none of which need the bugs for our immediate survival. Share the wealth!
And so, I support insect repellents for inside your home. But not just any repellents. As I mentioned yesterday, bugs that have eaten insecticides are probably one of the major reasons for bat decline, and bees and birds aren't faring too well from it, either. There are little plug-in things for electrical outlets that send out a high-frequency wave thing that makes bugs just not want to come near. That's good repellent: no deaths or harmful chemicals involved.
Also, my mom has tried this herb cocktail that she says has helped keep the bugs out of the house. Once our herb garden begins to thrive this spring, I plan to take some cuttings and scatter them around my desk and see how I rate it. But if you want to try it yourself, this is what she uses:
- Pennyroyal
- Painted daisy (pyrethrum)
- Santolina
- Cedar
- Lavendar
- Peppermint
- Rue
In short, I don't think it's asking too much to want the bugs to stay out of the house. I do think it's wise for bugs to be all over the place outside. But just in case they do get in, I don't want to kill them for the invasion. I just want them to think that, just maybe, it's a little more pleasant on the exterior side of the doorjamb.
Well, now the two bugs that are the bane of my existence here in VA have been mentioned in these blogs - the stinkbugs and camelback (cave) crickets. My last house was infested with the latter. I am typically a relocater of insects myself (spiders, well, if they're not encroaching on my personal space, I just leave them be, or relocate outside), but with an all-out infestation like I've experienced with the stinkbugs, I've become callous and cruel and down the toilet they all go. When we first started seeing them, I did take them outside, but as their numbers increased to near-Biblical proportions, I changed my mind. If you were to find more than a stray, errant bug, would you still take the time to relocate them all? Just wondering.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that with an infestation, I would not try to relocate them all. My goal is to avoid infestations (I guess that goes for anyone!), but when my best friend and I had cave crickets all over our first apartment, we called in the exterminator. We never saw the dying crickets come crawling out of the woodwork, but we also never saw a live one sitting on our silverware again, either.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, that experience, I think, is what made me anti-extermination chemicals. Imagined or not, I thought I still smelled those fumes for a year after the event.
I like to think I'm a "give all life a chance" kind of person, but when a pest infests a home, like when cave crickets were all over my first apartment, or if ants set up shop in a house, I hypocritically tend to put humans before the pest and get rid of them all. If they would drive me out of my home otherwise, then there's no choice. Then again, I wonder what if other animals had this view toward humans.