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VA Tech Experiment: Polar Vortex May Decimate D.C. Stinkbugs In 2014

Posted by timothy on from the literal-not-metaphoric-ones dept.

barlevg writes "Each fall, a team led by Virginia Tech Professor of Entomology Thomas Kuhar gathers brown marmorated stink bugs from around campus and plops them into ventilated and insulated five-gallon buckets designed to simulate the habitats in which the bugs naturally wait out the winter. While previous lab tests have shown the insects capable of surviving chills of -20 C, last month's polar vortex proved too much for the little guys, with only 5% surviving the sustained cold conditions. This suggests that the DC area's population of stink bugs and other overwintering insects should be much lower come spring than in previous years."

4 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Hurray? by kylemonger · · Score: 3, Funny

    Who's in favor of more stinkbugs in the spring?

    1. Re:Hurray? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Politicians eat stinkbugs

      I KNEW they were cannibals!

    2. Re:Hurray? by Rob+Simpson · · Score: 4, Funny

      Great, so all we have to do is release wave after wave of Dobermans...

  2. Re:decimate means to reduce by 1/10 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    [disclaimer: I'm not the OP you responded to.]

    While I agree with what you said, I think it's important to note that the guy you responded to might have been advocating the S.I. units of slaughter:

    micromate = kill 1/1000000
    millimate = kill 1/1000
    centimate = kill 1/100
    decimate = kill 1/10

    dekamate = overkill by 10x
    hectomate = overkill by 100x
    kilomate = overkill by 1000x
    megamate = overkill by 1000000x

    oh, and don't forget the binary versions:

    kibimate = overkill by 1024x
    mebimate = overkill by 1048576x
    gibimate = overkill by 1073741824x (aka instagib) :^D

    p.s. I hope they at least dekamated those stink fuckers.