So stink bugs have become very numerous in our area, and even now in the dead of winter, I seem to find one or two in the house every day. But I’ve always been careful to send them outside unharmed, partly because of their eponymous reputation, and partly because I’m just such a nice guy I don’t even like to hurt a bug :rolleyes:
But last night I grabbed one in a paper towel and inadvertently squished it. To my surprise, it gave off a very strong smell of Cilantro, so strong it made my hand smell like it even through the layers of folded up paper towel.
I know a lot of people hate the taste and probably the smell of cilantro, but I expected some kind of horrible smell. I used to be a cilantro hater, but I’ve acquired the taste to some extent, and the stink bug cilantro odor was almost pleasant.
Since it seemed so weird, I googled it in case I was having smellucinations, and it is a thing. In fact, I read that a winery had to learn to live with Cilantro notes inttroduced into their wine because it was impossible to harvest the grapes without collecting a few stink bugs as well. Stink bug wine, yummy …
I thought that was well known. Stink bugs don’t so much stink as they are overpowering. Some cheap dish soap smells like them as well. They also claim that the aversion to cilantro is genetic. I am not so sure about that. The first time I had it, I spit it out and got mad at the person (my mother) that gave it to me. However, I kept trying small amounts of it over time and learned to like it now. It still tastes the same, I just know what to expect now.
Yeah, I figured it was a MPTEBMKUN (Mundane Pointless Thing Everybody But Me Knew Until Now). But I don’t remember ever seeing many stink bugs around until the last year or so. I think I saw on the local news there’s been a stink bug invasion in our area.
News to me. The stinkbugs I’ve had the misfortune to smell have all been much more fecal in odor (and no, I don’t think that cilantro tastes fecal). And even among those who despise cilantro, the most common description of the flavor is “soapy”, and nobody cares about soapy smells.
We once sat down to a very nice venison stew. There was a plate with cilantro and parsley that we each used top garnish our bowls, using small kitchen shears to snip the greenery. After we each garnished our bowls, my gf noted half of a stinkbug on the plate.
I turned on the dining room light (we often eat by candlelight) and we began searching our bowls to see who got the stinkbug. After a few minutes I gave up looking and started eating. A minute later my gf followed suite. I often wonder which of us ate half a stinkbug.
Yeah, my first thought was, “You must have different stink bugs than we do.”
They smell like nothing remotely herbal to me. I don’t know how I’d describe it, exactly, but I’d be much closer to ‘fecal’ than ‘cilantro’ on the scale. And GOD is it overpowering and lingering.
They may be a different kind-- I think I heard somewhere they’re an Asian breed of stinkbug that’s invaded. I guess it’s appropriate that an Asian stinkbug would smell like one of the flavors of various Asian cuisines.
I thought that stink bugs would smell like skunk. You know, that they would stink. But to me they smell like fresh cut grass. (I still suck them up in the vacuum when I find them. I haven’t yet gotten over being dive bombed in the shower.)
What?? We have lots of stink bugs, and I like cilantro and get it whenever I can – extra if I’m applying it myself. I like a good tablespoon or more of shredded cilantro on my burrito.
These smell NOTHING like each other to me. I would describe cilantro as a soapy herbal scent, perhaps a bit like Latakia tobacco. And I find stink bugs have a medicinal or etherial odor which is strong, considering their size, but not really stinky. It’s more distinctive than anything else.
I think the ability to smell chemical compounds is conferred genetically, and if we could do all the testing required, we would learn each of us has a broad spectrum of chemicals we don’t detect and another that we do. And that our spectra are different. I’ve heard some foods tend to be liked or disliked on the basis of specific chemical detection abilities, which I think is why I find cooking green beans stinks up the entire house but I like Limberger cheese.
Interesting, that article says these bugs were first brought into the US in 1998.
The stink bugs I was imagining when reading this thread were the ones I’ve smelled my whole life - the first ones I was old enough to remember would have been from the mid 1960s. The ones I’ve always known are shaped like the one in the picture, but green. Also, someone mentioned them coming indoors, and I’ve never encountered one indoors.
Western PA here. They have been a plague unto us lo these many years. And did I mention they attack you when you’re in the shower? Where’s Lucas the Spider when you need him?
I hate coriander and have always described it as tasting the way that stink bugs smell. People have always given me side eye and asked whether I regularly eat stink bugs so I am very glad that you have validated my description, thank you OP
