Gross! I Ate This Montana Bug in My Stew.

I ate this Montana bug in my stew. Yup, that bug most of us are thinking about right now. Every fall it comes about our place in abundant numbers causing no real problem except nuisance and a stink if you smoosh one or, a really nasty taste if you get one in your stew. Gross! I ate a Montana Western conifer seed bug.

I’ve heard them called Cone and Stink bugs, but they don’t spray anything stinky ever, and they are mistaken for Kissing bugs that bite, but they don’t do that either. Fakers. They even look a bit like a Hornet with a yellow abdomen when they open their wings, and that freaks you out if you don’t see them coming. What they do, is taste NASTY when you eat one in your stew.

I thought it was getting safer to grab a bite to eat without the irritating lil’ buggers buzzing around as it seems they've been starting to make their way into cracks and cardboard winter hiding places as the temperatures have been dropping.

Except for my stew invader.

Tucking into the first spoonful of my much-anticipated homemade beef barley vegetable stew and, Bingo! Crunchy pine sap flavor! Mmm, mmm, Gross Not good.

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I knew what it was immediately because it was not the first time that had happened.

My first experience with “Stink Bugs” in my stew happened several years ago when I grabbed some for lunch, where that bug came from, during the making of that stew or before the microwave reheat, I’ll never know but I chewed on it before a thorough inspection revealed the nastiness and its western conifer seed bug origins. So, call me a pro and Montana connoisseur of Beef Bug Stew.