This bug really stinks.
Don’t accidentally step on a bug called the Halyomorpha halys. If you do, your running shoes will smell awful. When crushed, the bug emits an odour even worse than a skunk’s!
That’s probably why the bug is more commonly known as the “stink bug.”
There are more problems with the stink bug than just its odour. It also eats fruit and vegetable crops. In fact, it’s such a problem for farmers that researchers in the United States have spent nearly a million dollars to figure out what to do about it.
Until recently, the stink bug has been living – and bothering farmers – on the east coast of the U.S.
However, last week someone spotted a stink bug in the Greater Toronto Area. Square One shopping mall in Mississauga, to be exact.
A Western Ontario University student, who has been studying plants and animals that live in southern Ontario, noticed the stink bug at the mall. He said he also saw one last year around this time.
Mississauga’s pest control office says they haven’t had any other complaints about stink bugs, so it’s not likely that the bugs are going to pose a big problem any time soon in Toronto. But it’s something that farmers may want to keep an eye on.
In the meantime, people in Mississauga may want to consider this: in some parts of the world, the stink bug is considered delicious. It’s pounded together with spices, chillies and herbs and eaten as a side dish with rice. Yum.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
Writing/Discussion Prompt
Create a recipe featuring the stink bug as the main ingredient.
Craft the journey that the stink bug could have taken from the east coast of the United States to Mississauga.
Reading Prompt
According to this article, workers at the pest control office in Mississauga and farmers in America and Canada dislike stink bugs because they ruin vegetable and fruit crops and they smell bad.
Retell this story from the point of view of the stink bug. Try to convince your audience that you are not a threat.
Primary
identify the point of view presented in a text and suggest some possible alternative perspectives (OME, Reading: 1.9).
Junior
identify the point of view presented in texts; determine whether they can agree with the view, in whole or in part; and suggest some other possible perspectives (OME, Reading: 1.9).
Grammar Feature: Dash
Look at the dashes in the following sentence: “Until recently, the stink bug has been living – and bothering farmers – on the east coast of the U.S.” Why do you think the dash is used?
