Another week… and even fewer stinkbugs. Really?! Can we trust that we have defeated this insidious enemy? Where is the “plague of biblical proportions” we were warned of?
Last year at this time, they were everywhere. Survival meant launching daily counterattacks against their dive-bombing, slithering, buzzing and intruding into hair, food, drinks, toiletries, closets, clothes… EVERYWHERE. Hours were spent spraying stinkbugs and killing stinkbugs and cleaning stinkbug carcasses, and by the time we finished, fresh enemy forces had already gathered.
But now… nothing. Patrols last mere minutes to simply sweep up a few random bodies. The new weapon of choice, a bottle filled with alcohol and eucalyptus oil, is only picked up briefly to spray a random stinkbug intruder or two. They are seemingly gone. GONE. As in there are no more. Visitors ask after them.
“Where have all the stinkbugs gone?”
I have no idea.
Of course, I have theories. Perhaps the stinkbug invaders found that we were too much effort to conquer, and so they have packed up their evil soldiers and are headed off to terrorize the next planet. Perhaps they contracted some sort of illness that we had not considered – much like in War of the Worlds – and are simply dying off as a result. Perhaps our efforts put enough of a dent in their breeding cycle – by killing them before they could breed – that they are not able to reproduce at the same shocking rate.
And perhaps, they are simply waiting…
