The "What to do with your Stink Bugs?" Story

It was an ordinary day. Catching a few stinkbugs from around the skylight on the second-floor landing. For some reason they always seem to find their way to that area in the house. Sometimes in the evening, while watching TV in the family room, one will fly by Carol or me and land on one of the floor lamps. Up off the sofa, grab them and out the door. I have no idea where they come from, but they are a nuisance, even in the winter. Last year I started noticing signs along the road advertising stink bug removal. Seems everybody else has them and they need to be removed. They are much like the mice in our basement; you know they will always come back, but can't figure a way to totally eliminate them. I recently read an article in a magazine about stink bugs and how, in Mexico, they are ground up with chiles for taco filling. Gross! Another reason not to go to Mexico. Remember when eating chocolate covered ants was the craze? I checked online and found that you can buy quit a few insects that are covered with chocolate. Insects such as crickets, grasshoppers, cicadas and worms are all offered along with the ants. There are a few other insects that your neighbors may eat daily such as palm weevil larva that is cooked and tastes like coconut, termites which can be fried in oil and will taste like carrots, and grubs that can be found in your yard taste like peanut butter when eaten raw. Think maybe you kids have found that out already? Then I read another article about some of the most gross things that are eaten in other countries. In Cambodia, tarantulas are eaten whole-gooey center and all-as street food. In Japan, wasp larvae are cooked in soy sauce and sugar, and eaten as a crunchy snack. And, in Indonesia, they eat dragonflies and claim they taste similar to soft-shell crabs. Now that sounds like something I may have to at least try, but for the stinkbugs, they still will get thrown out the back door. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - the bugs in the photos are from top to bottom, stink bugs from Mexico, the palm weevil, termites, grubs, Cambodian tarantulas, wasp larvae from Japan and the Indonesian dragonflies.