Garden Scally-wags

The dreaded day has come.  I have spotted my first of the nemesis that befalls my poor garden each year.  The dreaded leaf-footed stink bug has made its first appearance on one of my tomato plants.

She was just sitting there, not obviously assaulting a tomato, but I know, oh yes indeed I know.  Just like I know that this was a 'she' and not a 'he'.  There be eggs laid by that there bug and soon, much sooner than I like to think I will be seeing this:

Baby leaf-footed stink bugs who will mount a viscous assault on my poor dear tomatoes.  Woe is me.  And worse yet, not matter how valiantly I fight they will in the end win because between them, the mosquitoes and the unrelenting heat and humidity that is summer here - I will simply give up.

But not today!

"Hold your ground, hold your ground! Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of woes and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!"

So with Aragorn's monologue ringing in my brain I met this harbinger of doom.  Although  I was bare handed (and they don't call them stink bugs for nothing) I did what I had to do.  I gave that rascal a mighty thump with my index finger.  It was nearly twilight so I did not see if my blow had been a lethal one but fall she did that nasty pest.

Victory, however short lived is sweet.