Mothpocalypse!

[WingChunABQ]

My city (Albuquerque, NM) is overrun by moths. They are swarming all over this town by the hundreds of thousands. Clouds of them swarm around trees and bushes. You can't walk through a door without upsetting scores of them, which swirl around you in a flurry.

Does this happen anywhere else, or have we angered God somehow?

[GeneChing]

Post a pic, WingChunABQ.

'Old Testament' moth invasion should end in 2 weeks
Posted: April 24, 2012 - 11:28pm
By Kevin Welch kevin.welch@amarillo.com

It’s not just you.

The moth invasion is as close as Lubbock and Portales, N.M., and stretches as far as Denver, Carlsbad, N.M., and northern Nebraska.

And your neighbors are feeling it, too.

“We’re approaching threat level ‘Old Testament’ at the Wood house,” according to a tweet by Amarillo financial advisor Josh Wood. He also reports “my mid-air moth batting average is approaching .300.”

It should all be over in a couple weeks as the insects die off and the emergence of replacements slows.

“People are going crazy,” said Potter County Texas AgriLife Extension Agent Brandon Boughen. “It’s kind of comical. They are all worried they are going to defoliate their plants, but they’re just a nuisance.”

Many of the moths are the flying form of the western bean cutworm.

“Last year, we didn’t have the early moisture we had this year, and nobody noticed them because they didn’t come all at once,” Boughen said. “From spring to late summer they’re around, just not invading people’s homes.”

The mild winter temperatures accelerated their transformation underground from worms to moths.

“That’s the stage that does the damage — when they’re worms,” Boughen said. “Moths are like butterflies with long, articulated tongues they stick in flowers to suck the nectar out.”

These are part of the family of moths commonly called millers. Accounts of the name’s origin range from the fact they mill around light sources at night to the tiny scales on their wings that look like the dusty flour that covers the clothing of millers of grain.

Experts say you can’t do much except limit the light sources that attract them, including the old-fashioned tactic of putting yellow lightbulbs in porch-light fixtures.

Media reports show Amarillo’s moth conditions have been similar to other places in the western Plains and Front Range of the Rockies.

The Albuquerque (N.M.) Journal reports they are at “levels not seen since 2003.” One woman reported a “hive of moths” outside her front door, according to the newspaper.

The Colorado Springs Gazette recently featured a headline that began “Run! Hide!”

A Denver television station’s website, denverchannel.com, reported the moths’ migration to the cooler temperatures in the mountains happens every year, but warm winter temperatures have sped up the process.

[Almost A Ghost]

Here in Vegas in 2002 or 2003 we had a huge gypsy moth invasion. At one point it was so dense you could watch them burning up in the Luxor pyramid beam from miles away.

[Drake]

I love moths.

[bawang]

you should eat them.

[Drake]

you should eat them.

They are nutritious. I tend to eat things that bleed, though.