I’ve learned that colobus monkey’s burps smell singular and peculiarly foul. I have learned that a hose coils much easier when the pressure is released. I have learned that I have no problem hosing mice out of the gorilla enclosures. How can an animal lover happily spray a mouse around the cement floor, you ask? My answer is that if I was charged to clean the zoo’s mouse enclosure I would be sure to hose any skulking gorillas away with identical zest.
Speaking of spraying the gorillas: I have learned that our 12 year old female gorilla, Kiazi despises getting splashed with water. Despite this, she stands in the pool while we toss lunch down from the roof. Inevitably she gets splashed when a kiwi or an apple lands next to her. She shields her face in annoyance and glares at us as if to say, “Watch it, I’m standing here!”
I’ve learned through my research on palm oil that it is particularly difficult to find a good margarine without palm oil. I have also learned that one can make their own margarine with olive oil, milk, and soy lecithin in a blender. Add seasonings to taste.
I’ve learned that zoo animals can develop strange aberrant behaviors such as regurgitating and re-eating. I’ve seen Kiazi eat the same grape about four times; it was too good to eat but once. Another one is called coprophagia, and it means the consumption of feces. I’ve learned that a gorilla named Betty that used to live at the Pittsburgh Zoo would combine these two aberrant behaviors to form one really gross behavior. Super-coprophagalistic-expialadocious!
At any rate, writing about the zoo every week is unrealistic for me. However, I find the world of animals fascinating enough to research, and subsequently write about, every day. Today I decided to find out about stink bugs. Pittsburgh has been inundated with them this year and I have found them on my person more than once in the last few weeks; one flew in my mouth recently. When I was a kid, I called them apple bugs; I don’t know why. Perhaps it is because they are known to eat apples. Or maybe I just made the name up because they were an apple red and green color.
The variety that has taken over Pittsburgh is brown and is called the brown marmorated stink bug. Native to eastern Asia, they were accidentally introduced to Pennsylvania about 12 years ago and have been the bane of fruit farmers ever since.
Wondering why they were called stink bugs I asked a friend at the zoo who seemed to be somewhat knowledgeable on the subject. “Because they smell terrible when you squish them,” was the answer. To the question, “What do they smell like?“ I got the answer, “Like a stink bug.“ I fully intend to squash one to experience the stink bug aroma but I haven’t yet been able to bring myself to smash such a cute little bug. After some additional research I discovered that they can also release their vile smell purposefully through holes in their abdomen when they are frightened. The smell is actually a chemical called trans-2-decenal and trans-2-Octenal.
I caught one the other day and found a small dot on its head that I thought could be a mite hitching a ride. I picked at it for a short while but was unable to break it free. One would think that this disturbing encounter would be enough to set its off its stink but I smelled nothing.
2010 has seen a marked increase in the brown marmorated stink bug and has wreaked havoc on fruit plantations across the state. Stink bugs typically have four generations per growing season in their natural east Asian habitat, but in the U.S. they usually have just one. This year, due to the unusually early and warm spring and summer, they have been allowed to produce a second generation and this extra generation means that the state is seeing more bugs in more places than in previous seasons. Adults are living longer, depositing eggs longer and maturing more generations to lay even more eggs.
When stink bugs eat an apple they pierce the fruit’s outer surface and suck out juices while injecting saliva. The suction and saliva create a dimpling in the fruit’s surface, and rotting and corking in the flesh underneath. The fruit is fine to eat but is rendered completely disfigured and unfit to sell.
Fear not Pittsburghers, the scourge is soon to end; outside at least. Towards the end of fall they begin to search for places to hibernate. Often that place happens to be in our homes, though this can be fun towards the middle of winter. I love it when a confused bug wakes up in my house, clumsily bumping around the light fixtures. The cats love it too.
I have learned that a hose coils much easier when the pressure is released. I have learned that I have no problem hosing mice out of the gorilla ... gorillahose.blogspot.com
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