As I write this, there’s a bush bug* on my desk. A few minutes ago (as the photo above attests) it was performing calisthenics on the rim of a drinking glass; now it’s burrowing under an envelope. I don’t like having bush bugs around, but as I tend to keep the windows open, I expect that, from time to time, insects will land on my desk. Some of them will stay only a few moments, like the moth that alighted on my credit card statement a while ago, then flew off within seconds, perhaps appalled by my credit card balance (or, more likely, in search of better lighting). Others, like this bush bug, will stick around for a while. This fella (gal?) has been here since this afternoon.
As I said, I’d prefer if there weren’t a bush bug on my desk. Nothing against bush bugs personally: it’s just that I like to reserve the space on my desk for things like MacBooks; bottles of Vitamin B12 tablets; bank statements; cordless phones; notebooks; cans of canned air; stray dollar bills; flash card readers; blocks of Post-It notes; trade paperbacks; grey sleep masks from some airline (still in their plastic wrapper; what the hell are those doing there?); camera-battery chargers; letters from newly re-branded airlines with frequent flyer cards glued to them; glue sticks; iPods; glasses cases; nest-like tangles of computer cables; small, elegant-but-sensible-looking Swiss watches; whirring external hard drives (one in the process of cloning the other); ceramic pencil holders; and, of course, microphones and mixers (how else is a podcaster supposed to practise her craft?). And let us not forget wine glasses.
But about my having nothing against bush bugs: I said that to be politically correct, of course. I actually dislike bush bugs quite intensely. The problem with bush bugs, however, is that once you disturb them, they emit a strong, Durian-grade odour which most people (myself included) find very unpleasant. An odour that takes hours to go away.
I look at my bush bug now, at rest on the sleep mask’s plastic wrapper, its antennae no longer making the frantic waving motions of a few minutes ago. So perhaps it is sleeping. Perhaps it is even dying (as there was no entry for “bush bug” in Wikipedia, and since I don’t know the scientific name, I have no idea what kind of lifespan these creatures have, and even if I knew–how old is this one? How close to the end of its natural life?).
While the bush bug rests, however, I continue to compose this post, undisturbed but for those moments when I glance over at the bush bug to check out its latest antics. And the only reason I’m even looking at the bush bug is because it’s the subject of this post. I’m 99% sure that by tomorrow it will be gone, either to bush bug Valhalla or back out the window to a more suitable habitat (like, say, the bush). And besides, it is only a tiny thing.
*a kind of beetle brown marmorated stink bug (Halymorpha halys) (thanks, Vernon)
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…we have them too! They are called “chinche de monte,” they are sooo stinky 
Georgia..the charming creature to which you refer is the brown marmorated stink bug…or Halyomorpha halys the very name of shich in either English or Latin says it all.
Comment by Vernon 03.25.07 @ 3:00 pmA lot of thoughts on such a tiny creature. Good thing you don’t visit my apartment too often G, what with the geckos, praying mantises, millipedes, congorees and the occasional iguana that find themselves there.
Incidentally, did the bush bug go? (Just be glad it wasn’t a bed bug, of the Spoileresque variety.)
Comment by Jonathan 03.26.07 @ 11:30 amAs my mind’s not much bigger than the bush bug it’s not difficult to weave lengthy narratives, Jonty!
I have the other critters around here too, actually. Some of CFR’s better posts have been written by the iguanas who hang out on my desk.
Comment by Georgia 03.26.07 @ 12:27 pmOso – I guess this could have been worse. You could have gone for the other word instead.
Comment by Georgia 03.26.07 @ 5:17 pmLeave a comment
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