The Spider and The Stinkbug

Halyomorpha halys, also known as the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), or simply the stink bug, is an insect in the family Pentatomidae, and it is native to China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan. It was accidentally introduced into the United States, with the first specimen being collected in September 1998. They are, simply put, nasty.

Halyomorpha halys, aka, The Stinkbug

How nasty are they? So nasty that even spiders won't eat them.

We, in the Greater Pittsburgh Area, have been dealing with these nasty, odorous little pests for a few years now. Here at our house, we haven't had much of a problem with them. Every so often, we'll catch a few in our trap...or find one behind a curtain (sneaky little bastards) and pop it, live, into the trap, where it lives out a fiendish, real-life horror show of being surrounded by the corpses of other halyomorpha halys that have ended up there. I, sometimes, imagine what is going on in the stink bug's mind. "Holy Hell! Get me OUTTA HERE!", I imagine it thinking. Is the stinkbug mind capable of such thoughts, or it's imperative only to escape and terrorize it's new found homeland another day?

I, personally, have nothing against stinkbugs, I just don't want to share my house with them.

The cat won't play with them. I seem to recall her swatting one once, and trying to eat it, and then immediately horking it back out. Apparently, they taste as bad as they can smell.

Today, the young'un noticed a spider web in the kitchen window. This, in itself, is neither unusual, nor something we would normally concern ourselves with. Spiders are OK in our book. In some cultures, it's considered good luck to find a spider in your home. They also keep my sister* from visiting. They can be useful as they eat other bugs, like flies...as will our cat (because, let's face it, cats are weird). However, as the young'un noticed, the common house spider does not like stink bugs either.

As I stated, the young'un was in the kitchen, getting a cup of coffee, when she noticed the spider web. She brought this to my attention because, as she put it, the spider was destroying its own web to get rid of the stink bug.

The window, in question, was half open, as it usually is this time of year. This gave the spider a comfortable bit of space to make it's web. Being between 2 sliding windows, this gives the spider a nice, sunny place to reside, and is also a good place to catch any fly attempting to bang itself silly against what I imagine spiders to perceive as the great invisible forcefield.

Apparently, the spider has dealt with stink bug infestation a few times, as when we looked, there were 3 other dead stinkbugs lying amidst torn webbing on the sash.  None of them appear to have been eaten, in any way, shape, or form, by the spider. Apparently, American spiders find these petite beasts as repulsive as their human counterparts do.



* This is a joke. My family all know they are welcome any time, provided I am given enough advance notice to come up with a plausible excuse.