Moths

Today, if I’d been thinking, I would have taken a picture of the monstrosity that Laura and I witnessed. We were in our dining room and Laura said “ew” and pointed out the window to the balcony. There, flapping around on the deck was a giant moth with a wing span of no less than four inches across. I know that moths can get much bigger than this but I’m just glad that there was a pane of glass between it and us.

When I was younger, I worked in a warehouse and during the Summer months I remember moths were everywhere. They were all huge it seemed. The worst part about them is that they are so erratic in flight. They would fly into us all the time when we were working and my worst fear is that one would fly right into my mouth. I know that it’s not a very logical fear, but what fear ever is.

A few years later, I was sitting outside on a hot Summer evening visiting with friends. I was wearing a loose fitting button up shirt. I felt a tingling or a bit of a burning sensation on the back of my shoulder, so I reached my hand over to feel what it was. I felt a large lump of something beneath my shirt and knew right away that it was a moth. You’ll never see anyone rip off a shirt as fast as I did right then. It left a small bump on my shoulder which led me to believe that it bit me. This didn’t help at all with my fear of them.

I really don’t mind spiders or other insects, but moths to me are just wrong. They are big, hairy and make me nervous. In reality though I know that they are quite sensitive creatures. If their wings get disturbed and the powder brushed off, they can no longer fly. One of their best defenses is two big markings on their wings which look like eyes -- that is pretty cool, but it doesn’t make me like them. I’m just glad that they are not here all year long and that we don’t have the really big ones in our area.