Jan asked how I feel about our moths. I'm so glad she asked.
We have a boatload of miller moths every year, not because I keep a bug-friendly house. No, it's because we are in their migration path. And it isn't the first time our house has been in the path of swarms of insects that are on their way somewhere else. In Dublin we sat smack dab in the middle of the ladybug migration path. I'll bet you didn't even know there was such a thing as a ladybug migration.
Now, it's true that having large quantities of ladybugs in your house is not that pleasant. They are *not* cute. And when they get stressed (like when they hear a vacuum approaching) they bleed yellow blood as some kind of weird defense. But that's about it. And then they are gone in two weeks.
The problem with the moths is that they think the house belongs to them. As soon as you sit down in the evening to read a book, they join you, flapping around the light and dive-bombing your book. They also like to hide in the folds of towels and jump out into your hair just as you reach for the towel. Oh yeah, they also like to hide in the toes of your shoes, but they don't always escape before you put your feet in. What's really annoying is that they die wherever and whenever they feel like it. You are forced to spend a significant part of your day (for a month, btw, not two weeks) vacuuming them up because if you wait for the dust-to-dust part of death, you're going to have a rancid-smelling house.
I don't like miller moths. And I'm not alone. A woman wrote an article for our local paper in which she described in gory detail the methods she has devised to murder the moths that enter her house. Durf thought she sounded sick and insane, but I'm not so sure. The water boarding torture chamber she built looks like just the ticket.
Colorado score: -1
Ladybugs are kind of cute, but not 200 of them jammed together in a corner. That's just disgusting.
ReplyDeleteTwila has a sensitive nose, that's certain. That she can smell moth death dust should give you a clue. It would probably violate blogspot rules to tell you the things she's said about some of my smells.