Click to enlarge, if you dare.
I’ve been saying in connection with the heat that at least one good thing about living in town and two floors up is that we don’t get a lot of insects. And I usually don’t, even with the windows and balcony door open at night.
The other morning when I got out into the kitchen though, I found this one crawling on a cupboard door in the kitchen.
Instead of hitting him with the flyswatter I managed to get him to crawl onto it, and carried him through to the balcony. There he sat down on a plastic footstool and waited patiently while I went back inside to get the camera. So before we said goodbye (i.e. before I got him to crawl back onto the flyswatter and then somewhat rudely threw him out over the railing to meet an unknown destiny), I took a photo.
But he did not give me his name, and the few names that did flutter through my mind do not seem to fit when I google them.
If someone knows, please enlighten me. He was probably ~2 cm, antennae excluded.
9 comments:
WOW!!! I just took pictures of the SAME BUG!! I'm doing a whole blog post on it soon, we have lots of them. I just finished researching it. It is called a stink bug, because when it gets annoyed it sends out a bad stink. Also sometimes called Shield Bug because it's shaped like a shield. There are over 200 species of them, and they won't hurt you.
he is a shield bug, we have them here. try googling shield bugs and you will find him. he is just as pretty as my bug was a few days ago. if you mashed him he would really stink. after i typed this I looked over and redy ginny. so we both agree
Now what are the odds of that, I wonder??? Looking forward to learn more from your post then, Ginny!
Sounds like it was wise of me to treat him politely while he was still inside. (He did not give off any smell.)
Yep. It's a sheild bug - Forest Bug, Pentatoma rufipes, I think. Despite being very aware of sheild bugs - I've blogged about them too - I am ashamed (yet again) to say that I had forgotten (if I even knew) that they were also called stink bugs. They only stink if you crush them.
dear DawnTreader, here in germany south west we can see these insects, too. they are called "rotbeinige Baumwanze". the latin name is Pentatoma rufipes. greetings and all the best wishes for you!
Oops. Shield not I can spell. I just can't type! sheild.
Thanks GB and mo jour for giving the exact name. I can now add that the Swedish name is *Rödbent stinkfly/ bärfis*.
I remember stink bugs - or at least the foul smell and taste they left behind - from blueberry picking in the woods in my childhood. (Yuck when you happed to get some stinkberries...) But I thought those bugs were smaller (perhaps the blueberry loving kind is).This one seemed "huge" to me as he was crawling across the white surfaces of my kitchen cabinets. According to Wiki the Forest bug's favourite food is oak trees. I can't really recall that we have any just around here. (Although I suppose there might be some in the church yard or parks or gardens nearby.) He will have been disappointed with my kitchen cabinet doors though... Whatever they are, I'm pretty sure it's not oak!
very interesting. i haven't seen a real one yet.
Ginny's post on the shield bug is now up, too. Even if they seem to be common, I can't get over that we both came across this particular species and took photos of it almost at the same time. Since we're in different parts of the world and there are a few different kinds of bugs on this planet after all...
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