Pillow Talk (Almost) With…A Spined Soldier Bug

Last week, while reading in bed, I rolled over and found myself eye-to-eye (so to speak) with a spined soldier bug. Thanks to my superb Google skills (“triangle shaped bug” yielded about 392,000 results, but the first image was of my strange bedfellow), I quickly discovered the bug’s identity. Funny — it didn’t look like a soldier, nor was it spiny in any way — but it certainly was striking. It moved with what seemed to be a sense of relaxed purpose, and it’s markings mesmerized me. The photo above isn’t my best (I was really sleepy), but even so it shows the rich texture on the bug’s back and the incredible patterning on its folded wings. I look at it now, and I can imagine that I’m seeing an African mask in some gallery or museum collection. There’s an ancient, wizened quality to this bug.

Google tells me that the spined soldier bug belongs to the “stink bug” family; that it eats all kinds of other bugs considered garden pests (bean beetles, corn borers, earworms, etc.); and that one can place an internet order for 250 eggs (about $120) or 50 adults (about $150) to aid in “pest control.” Also, they apparently smell really, really awful if you smoosh them…hence the family name. (I wasn’t planning to do that, but this factoid gives me extra incentive to move with care around this insect friend.) All this useful information aside, I’m looking forward to having my own conversation with this bug one day (perhaps when I’m not drifting off in the middle of a This Old House magazine article about arts-and-crafts ceramic tile reproductions). Till then, I’ll keep enjoying this photo and my memory of watching the bug march — in a decidedly non-soldier-like fashion — across my pillow.