Which Thanksgiving Dishes Would These 8 Pests Love?

Which Thanksgiving Dishes Would These 8 Pests Love?

Summary: Thanksgiving is next week, so the menu is at the forefront of everyone’s minds. This blog explores a fictional world where pests can enjoy Thanksgiving dishes and decides which pest would love each popular dish. Every section determines the pest’s favorite dish by analyzing its personality, habits, and preferences. The 8 pests are: spiders, praying mantises, mice, roaches, honeybees, moths, ants, and squash bugs. Pointe Pest Control provides long-term solutions for every pest problem.

Can you believe Thanksgiving is already next week? The turkey (or other meat) may be the centerpiece, but the real star of the show is the array of side dishes that decorate the table. These days, there’s an abundance of options for delicious sides. Whether you go the traditional route or put a modern spin on the classics, Thanksgiving dishes are worthy of getting a second helping and then taking some home in those plastic containers your grandma has in abundance.

All of this talk about tasty food leads us to wonder about how certain critters would celebrate this food-based holiday if they could. Which of the most popular Thanksgiving dishes would pests enjoy? We’re answering this question by analyzing the personalities of these 8 pests to determine which dishes would be their favorites if they could sit at the table.

Turkey — Spiders

Spiders have one of the most consistent diets of the pest family. Whether they hunt for their prey or wait for their meals to wander into their sticky webs, spiders dine on any kind of pest they can get their eight legs on. The arachnids need to live near a constant food source, so they’re often found near active pest infestations. They are technically beneficial insects since they eat the smaller pests, like ants and flies, that would otherwise bug us — literally.

Due to their protein-heavy diet, it’s safe to say that spiders would demolish a turkey covered in homemade gravy. They wouldn’t have a preference for light or dark meat, as spiders would be happy to eat any part of the turkey that they get. Other guests would focus on the bountiful side dishes, but the spider would be content with their plate full of sliced turkey. The spider would also enjoy the leftover turkey and gravy in a sandwich the next day, á la Ross from Friends.

Green Bean Casserole — Praying Mantises

Speaking of beneficial critters, praying mantises are monsters to any insects or small animals that get too close to them. The mantid stays in its “prayer” pose until a creature gets close enough, then it strikes with its sharp forearms to incapacitate the prey. Luckily for us, praying mantises don’t want anything to do with us and aren’t dangerous to humans or larger animals. But smaller creatures aren’t so lucky, so we understand why they want to keep their distance.

The praying mantis is usually a carnivore, but we think it would favor a certain vegetarian option. This insect would help themselves to plenty of green bean casserole after they got their protein fix from the turkey. The casserole usually has green beans (naturally), seasonings, canned soup, and fried onion straws. Mantids would love this dish not only for the savory flavors, but also for the fact that they look like green beans themselves!

Mashed Potatoes With Gravy— Mice

Mice are one of the worst cold-weather pests for one simple reason: they use our homes and buildings to escape the freezing temperatures! They’re always in search of a warm shelter that gives them the space to build nests and grow their families. Their strong teeth cut through most household materials, including insulation, walls, wood, and wiring. The wiring one is the most concerning since rodents are believed to cause about 20% of undetermined structure and house fires annually. If you see evidence of a rodent infestation, contact pest control immediately.

Mashed potatoes and gravy is, dare we say, the best menu item on Thanksgiving (unless the potatoes are bland, which is a true travesty). This dish is also the most customizable since guests can add their desired amount of butter, gravy, and other toppings. Mice would love mashed potatoes since they’re so filling and will give them enough energy for their scavenging. Mice would do the classic move of making a well in the middle of their potatoes for the gravy pool, and would happily do the exact same thing the next day when they’re enjoying the leftovers.

Stuffing/Dressing — Roaches

No one wants to think about cockroaches when we’re talking about food, but we’re bringing them up anyway! Roaches are one of the worst pests for several reasons, some of which are their massive appetites, rapid reproduction, and pesticide resistance. These pests will eat just about anything, but their favorite foods have a lot of starch and cellulose, such as cardboard and glue. Their diet is like a trash can: it will take anything and everything.

Homemade stuffing — or dressing, depending on where you live — is not trash. Stuffing is an essential dish, whether or not it was actually inside the bird. From toasty bread cubes to plentiful seasoning, there’s plenty for us (and roaches) to love with stuffing. Roaches would enjoy the starchiness of the dish and would mix it in with every other item on their plate since they love the flavor so much. They would eat a lot, but the roach would still have enough leftovers to feast on a big bowl of reheated stuffing the next day.

Cranberry Sauce — Honeybees

Bees are one of the most beneficial pests around. They pollinate our plants and create delicious honey — don’t worry, there’s plenty for them and us — from the nectar and pollen. These eusocial insects protect their colonies by tending to the queen, making enough honey to feed the entire group, and defending the hive from potential threats. They can only sting once because their stingers are barbed, but the venom that they inject makes it count.

Cranberry sauce is a pretty polarizing dish. Some use it to balance out the saltiness of the other food items, while others leave it out in favor of the after-dinner dessert. Whether your table has canned or homemade sauce, one thing is for sure: bees would devour cranberry sauce. They would like all of the other Thanksgiving dishes, but bees would favor this sweet concoction. The insects would be happy with either canned or homemade sauce. They would give themselves a giant serving of cranberry sauce just so they could have some sweetness in every bite of food.

Rolls — Moths

There are two main ways that moths act as pests to us. The first is when they flutter around our porch lights and frequently sneak inside to swarm our ceiling lights. This is more of a nuisance than a real problem. That comes with the second way, which is when clothes moths chew jagged holes into our clothes. These ones are harder to find since they prefer the darkness of our closets and dressers. All moths can also aggravate our allergy and asthma symptoms if their dusty wings are in the house for too long.

When we think of which food moths might like, our minds immediately go to fluffy dinner rolls. Bread is a tasty side to any meal, but there’s nothing like enjoying a buttery, soft roll with your other Thanksgiving dishes. Moths would be happy with whatever type of roll is served, whether it’s from canned dough or Grandma’s age-old recipe. The moth would be considerate by just taking one roll for its first serving, but they would happily take another each time the basket is passed around. They might eat 7 rolls in one night, but who keeps track on Thanksgiving?

Sweet Potato Casserole — Ants

Ants are quite the persistent pest. Once they find a safe food source, they will be completely relentless as they lead the rest of their colony to it using pheromones, or scent chemicals. Worker ants are responsible for feeding their entire colony — often numbering in the thousands — so they need to find a source that’s sustainable. If that food happens to be in our kitchens, it will be nearly impossible to stop the flow of ants entering your home without professional treatments.

Sweet potato casserole isn’t the star of Thanksgiving dishes, but it’s popular enough to warrant a space on our list. It’s usually a mixture of sweet potatoes and popular baking ingredients that are combined, baked, and then topped with mini marshmallows. This dish would be music to the ant’s ears! The insect would enjoy the earthiness of the vegetable and the sweetness of the marshmallows, so it would eat slowly to savor the dish. Other guests would be helping themselves to the savory dishes, but the ant would happily dish up more of this sweet casserole for each serving.

Pumpkin Pie — Squash Bugs

The squash bug feasts on any squash-like produce, so pumpkins are right up their alley. This is one of the more destructive garden pests since it feasts on all parts of a plant. The bugs are either gray-brown or dark gray with black and orange stripes. They start feeding on a plant as larvae, when they drink the sap from the plant’s leaves and stems. This eventually kills the plant if the pests are left alone, so keep an eye out for dark bugs crawling all over your produce.

If any of the Thanksgiving dishes is made for the squash bug, it’s pumpkin pie. The other pie offerings — pecan, apple, chocolate cream — would be enticing, but squash bugs wouldn’t be able to resist pumpkin pie. The pest would help itself to a hearty slice with plenty of whipped cream, and wouldn’t care if the pie was homemade or store-bought. When the host asks if anyone wants to take the half-full pie tin home, the squash bug would volunteer without hesitation.

We’re Thankful For Efficient Pest Solutions

This holiday is about eating homemade comfort food with the people you love, not about sharing your Thanksgiving dishes with hungry pests! At Pointe Pest Control, our team provides a customized treatment plan that targets the pest problems at hand. We inspect the area for any evidence of pest activity, then use our findings to determine the long-term solutions that should be implemented. You’ll have enough guests this holiday season without inviting a family of pests into your home. Contact us for a free quote on our dependable services that will keep the pests off your Thanksgiving table this year!

Citations

Calder, B. (2023, February 6). Rats cause house fires. Automatic Trap Company. Available at https://www.automatictrap.com/blogs/rats-trapping-college/how-rats-cause-house-fires (Accessed on November 6, 2024).

Here’s Illinois most popular Thanksgiving side dish, according to a new survey. (2022, November 14). NBC5 Chicago. Retrieved November 5, 2024, from https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/heres-illinois-most-popular-thanksgiving-side-dish-according-to-a-new-survey/2995520/