This Thanksgiving My Family Gave Thanks For Stink Bugs

Last Updated on August 25, 2023

My mom was trying to be creative with her Thanksgiving dinner so she made a butternut squash soup with a drizzle of syrup, dash of cinnamon, and a quick sprinkle of a few pumpkin seeds.

It wasn’t until everyone was seated and waiting to be served that my dad walked into the kitchen and was like, “What’s in this? Are they all like this one?”

My mom replied, “Why, what’s wrong? That’s my butternut squash soup!”

Laughing, my dad responds, “I’m looking at this bowl thinking it looks like a dead stink bug fell into it.”

My mom stops what she’s doing and says, “Oh my god, you’re right.”

They’re just pumpkin seeds, we swear.

But there was no time for any of us to change anything. Every bowl of soup had already been poured and prepared and now it was time for us to carry them out. And so we did. One by one, we handed out bowls of soup with what looked like dead stink bugs floating in them.

My mom stood up at the head of the table to apologize for her flawed plate and made it clear that the dark green semi-submerged seeds were in fact pumpkin seeds and were not dead bugs.

I suppose pumpkin seeds do resemble stink bugs

The dinner table was immediately swept away in hysterical laughter following her clarification. It was pushed even further when one uncle admitted that he had noticed something in his soup but wasn’t sure if he should say anything.

Following that unplanned incident, everyone sat down to enjoy their soup worry-free. Except, for whatever reason, the subject of stink bugs carried on. Wonderful, I thought to myself. Stink bugs are my number one fear and now I get to hear everyone talk about them as I’m trying to enjoy my favorite soup.

Somehow, none of this surprised me. My number one fear would be the main subject of our Thanksgiving dinner.

I hate stink bugs so much. Especially stink bugs in-flight. The loud buzzing noise they make as they fly gives me goosebumps and makes me want to dive to the floor. They’re such careless flyers and I feel like I remain standing up, one of them is going to blindly fly right into my face.

This is a stink bug with its wings out.

Also, I discovered this Thanksgiving that my fear is not irrational after all! My uncle told us all the story of how a stink bug flew into my little cousins eye and actually left a bruise mark under his right eye. Ouch…

Ugh they. are. so. gross. I hate stink bugs so much.

I just went to my professor’s office hours the other day and I saw one climbing on the wall behind her. I was trying so hard not to let her catch my gaze shifting as I watched it slowly climb higher and higher.

When we were all done chatting, I thanked her and very swiftly exited the building.

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