Home invasion!

(This is what he--she--it? looked like--pic from this admirable site , which helped me confirm my suspicion.)

Now, imagine that person with fairly bad eyesight and an overactive imagination sees--black, small, multi-legged things a-crawling on the lacy curtain of her front window. Imagine a squeal somewhat like that of a small child confronted with a purported bogeyman, combined with a dread fascination. 'Tis not a cockroach--of cockroaches, my urban rowhome-raised self has been well-apprised. It buzzes, but it's obviously a beetle, and not any sort of fly, again, being a native of a large metropolis, I am aware of all manner of flies--why, during a trash-strike, the horseflies grow to three inches long (mental image courtesy the Dead Milkmen--one of my favorite smells).

In that continuing sense of fascination and maybe even scientific curiousity--or even the tendency of a person owning certain territory to know just what thing has invaded my space, I closely eyeball the slow-moving thing. Any roach would move far quicker upon sensing a judicious eyeballing than this insect. I pluck it from its lace-curtain perch with a tissue and squish--the time-honoured method of insect home-invasion assassination--but I have since seen others--

And my knowledge of bugs leads me to suspect--though I can't smell anything untoward when I SQUISH-'EM, that these are stink bugs, having seen pictures before, and being acquainted, after a fashion, with many things zoological, of a tiny and creepy nature. As noted, my Googling thereof yielded confirmation. I note their advantages:

They are slender, and easily insert themselves in any aperture: the space between screen window and sill is space enough--

Yuck! But their motivations? Change of weather? Shelter?

But why do they want entry--especially when, with spritzes of Raid ('though "Stink bug" does not appear on the label--I reason, it is adequate poison for small, creepy things), and tissue-squeezings, and lashes with a long-handled duster, I have expressed that this territory is no safe space for crawly critters? It does not seem to me that the change in the weather from summer to fall is likely--as fall has--other than somewhat coloring the leaves and making them litter my driveway-barely occured, it being in the upper 80's Fahrenheit and sweaty. To my mind, happy bug weather--not crazy, let your buggy behind think my casa is yo casa kind of weather.

But nonetheless, they (like, four, five of 'em, so far) have turned up in my house. Confidentially, this means war.