Stink bug roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping...

[Ashful]

So, I'm down to the last 1/10th of a cord of wood at the house, planning to move another cord up from the wood lot tomorrow. The pickings are getting slim, as I'm finding a lot of what's left up at the house was split too big to season in the time I had. So, I'm sitting here waiting for a fire to take off (slowly) again, with splits that were too big and wet, when I smell what really seems to be the odor of a dead animal.

This wouldn't be the first time we found a dead mouse in the basement, but I hadn't noticed the smell when I went downstairs to fetch wood, and it really seemed to be coming from the area around the wood stove. With this particular load being so extraordinarily slow to take off, I began envisioning a dead animal trapped in our flue pipe, when I saw it... a dead stink bug, laying belly up on top of the stove. He must've fallen off a split when I was loading thru the top-load door this morning, and he was just lying there, roasting.

Let me tell you, if you think squashed stink bugs smell awful, you haven't experienced anything until you try roasting them in your living room!

 

[EatenByLimestone]

LOL! That'll get you up faster than the smell of fresh coffee! I hope you burnt him to a crisp inside the stove.

 

[Ashful]

Of course! Grabbed the ash shovel, scooped him up, hit the foot pedal to open the top-load door on the Firelight 12, and dropped him in.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

ahh, the aroma of fresh baked "stinkbug"

 

[MDFisherman]

I have been noticing a lot of stinkbugs clinging to the firewood as I bring it inside. I try not to smush them, but I do open the door and in they go!

I figured they would have all froze by now

 

[mfglickman]

Ewww. I've been avoiding a bunch of splits in the woodshed that look like they sat directly under a mouse/bat nest for the past month or so - covered in poop and I don't want to even touch 'em. No doubt DH will bring them in and toss them on the fire w/o even noticing.

 

[Valhalla]

Once you burn it, only the memory remains. So, go ahead and do it!

 

[bag of hammers]

Mouse houses are very common in the stacks here. I think this is one of the drawbacks of stacking rows close together (makes a nice shelter for them). But on the upside, they still burn (they go right in the stove), the mice can keep the dog entertained for hours, and I'm much happier having the mice set up shop way out in the stacks as opposed to in / around / under the house, etc.

edit -- "they still burn" referring to the splits, not the mice

 

[brenndatomu]

Guess they don't call 'em stink bugs foh nuttin, huh?!
Recently, I brought in a days worth of Oak splits. One had a mouse nest on it, I shook off the mouse nest outside next to the wood pile. I had noticed a lil mouse pee smell, so the split that had the nest right on it went directly into the furnace. Well, apparently they had "marked" that whole part of the wood pile, 'cause when I went down to load up before bed, the wood had warmed up, and the whole basement REEKED of mouse pee!

 

[Prof]

We have a bunch of lady beetles in the house that end up on the stove every so often. They seem to stink the most when they get caught on some of the decorative cast iron on the door. They look like little kernals of popcorn.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

i actually think these bugs hibernate, was cleaning out part of the garage the other day after it had started getting cold, i moved a rag that had been laying on my back workbench for a while (weeks) and there were a whole pile ofthese things under it. i think they find places they are insualted somewhat and hunker down for the winter there

 

[CenterTree]

Anyone know how many BTU's in an average stink bug?

 

[weatherguy]

Guess they don't call 'em stink bugs foh nuttin, huh?!
Recently, I brought in a days worth of Oak splits. One had a mouse nest on it, I shook out the mouse nest outside next to the wood pile. I had noticed a lil mouse pee smell, so the split that had the nest right on it went directly into the furnace. Well, apparently they had "marked" that whole part of the wood pile, 'cause when I went down to load up before bed, the wood had warmed up, and the whole basement REEKED of mouse pee!

I've got news for you, our whole stacks are covered in mouse pee, they make nests and climb all over the wood dribbling as they scurry along,

 

[n3pro]

I've cremated a few stink bugs inside but never outside . . . yet. They are strange creatures. I've thought they were dead many times yet they just never seem to die. I've seen them on their backs looking dead, poke them, knock them off, whatever they don't move but as soon as they are inside in the warm they start to get reactivated.

 

[Mary Briggeman]

We have two cats, one of which loves to chase stinkbugs - the other is bored to tears by them because they don't move fast enough to entertain her. We're afraid that the one that does like to chase them will eat them since she eats every other critter she catches. So far, we've always managed to snatch them away from her before she gobbles 'em up, mostly worried about having a stinky cat than any harm that might come to her from eating one. I do wonder how many she has eaten when we're not home to stop her!

 

[brenndatomu]

I'm thinkin let 'er eat one, likely the last one she'll eat! yuck...pooey! (might make for the stinkiest hairball EEEVER though! )

 

[firefighterjake]

Happy to say that here in Maine we don't have these stink bugs . . . I think . . . at least I've never heard of them.

Sadly, we do have black flies to contend with in the Spring . . . and these are the bane of my existence . . . at least until it gets too hot for them and they retreat to the deep, dark woods.

 

[Valhalla]

One (1) stink bug, seasoned = 0.000001 BTU +/-

 

[Prof]

Well, since it is already cooked, here is an idea:

http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=136847

 

[Ashful]

I would be happy to pay a luxury tax, to have other people eat my ration.

 

[Swedishchef]

Wow. Crunch crunch!

 

[BrotherBart]

Mouse houses are very common in the stacks here.

They used to be here too. Then one day the Woodpile Panther came around. Haven't seen one in five years.

 

[Ashful]

Same here, Bro. Bart. I am not a cat lover, and will never own one, but I always seem to have at least one neighbor with an outdoor cat. They're always prowling my stacks.