No Creatures Were Stirring, Except...

‘Twas a week before Christmas,
When all through the house
No creatures were stirring,
Except brown marmorated stink bugs.

‘Tis true. I was sitting at my computer trying to figure out how “Subscribe to Blog” works when an insect caromed off the wall and landed on the shade of my desk lamp.

With temperatures running 10 degrees below normal and the outside temperature registering 26.4° F. at that hour, any respectable insect should be tucked away in some protected place waiting for warm spring breezes.

The visitor, of course, was a brown marmorated stink bug. Note the past tense. I went to the kitchen for my “Stink Bug Collector,” a peanut jar that I rescued from our recycling bin and now use to collect stink bugs inside our house.

The secrets of stink-bug collecting aren’t profound: (1) Fill bottle with an inch or two of water and then add a squirt of dishwashing detergent. (2) Remove lid and slide bottle from below the bug until it touches the bug. (3) Bug usually takes evasive action by dropping toward the floor, hopefully right into positioned bottle and sudsy bath. (4) If bug evades jar and lands on floor or desk, maneuver bottle cap until bug climbs onto it and then tap bug into suds. (5) Bye, bye, stink bug.

On my way from kitchen to study with the collector, I saw one stink bug hiking on the living-room floor tile. I positioned the jar top for that one to climb on and tipped him into the suds. In my study, I nudged the bug on the lampshade from below—and it dropped into the bottle and subs. And as I turned to leave my study I saw a third on the drapery, but soon it too was swimming in the suds.

Ah, three stink bugs collected in as many minutes—nearly a whole day’s worth. My guesstimate is that we’ve collecting, or flushing, 30 to 40 a week, say four or five a day.

I’m no longer seeing them in the frigid outdoors, so where are they coming?

My suspicion is that I’ve been catching the stink bugs that sought warmth when fall temperatures plummeted by squeezing into our attic around the soffit and fascia trim on the outside of our house. Now that the attic is getting cold, they’re making their way to our warm living quarters.

Every time I think about the bottle of floaters, I think, “What is the plague going to be like next summer? What devastation will stink bugs inflict on my tomatoes, blackberries, raspberries, beans, and who knows what else?

I’ll be monitoring all kinds of gardening and agricultural sources this winter to find the latest suggestions and recommendations. I don’t want “Gardening Year 2011” to be “Year 2 of the Stink Bug Plague.”

In the meantime, I’ll keep my “Stink Bug Collector” nearby.

Try This Yummy Holiday Slaw

Looking for a delightful slaw—slightly different—for a holiday potluck or feast?

Look no farther!  The Food section of the Washington Post recently included a yummy recipe for what I’ll call “Holiday Slaw.”  Unlike most slaws, this one is served at room temperature or even warm.  But it’s “holiday” because it contains chopped dried cranberries and crystallized ginger.

Is your mouth watering yet?

I have a reason for calling this yummy dish “Holiday Slaw” and not the name printed in the Post.  The reason is that the basic ingredient is Brussels sprouts, a veggie many people love to hate.

On Saturday we visited Bill & Noelene, friends who also had seen the Post recipe and asked us to contribute this dish to their dinner: “Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Cranberries and Ginger.”  The dish was a hit.  We’ll be making it again.  It replaces roasted Brussels sprouts as our favorite sprouts recipe.

I salivate as I recommend it to you for holiday feasting—while fresh sprouts are available in the stores.

I found it more economical to buy the sprouts by the stalk—with the spouts on the stalk equaling about four and a half 10-ounce tubs of sprouts—and in far better condition.  We’ll make two dishes out of sprouts from one stalk.

If this recipe has a downside, it’s that it’s labor intensive—shredding those small sprouts.  I do it manually, which takes a half hour or so, but perhaps you have some new-fangled machine that would reduce that job to a minute or two.

When I took the label from the stalk, the brand name caught my attention: “Queen Victoria.”

That gave me an idea for a more inviting name for this recipe:  “Victoria’s Secret Slaw.”

Isn’t that a winner?

To go to the Post recipe, CLICK HERE.