All week, there have been the usual radio news reports about moths as these pesky beasts which just gnaw on your stuff. Woman's Hour has done it; the Today Programme did it this morning... (although Carolyn Quinn did say moths just gave her the creeps, rather than that she'd beat them to death for the sake of her cashmere sweaters, which is, frankly, one better than Woman's Hour).
As the nice entomologist on Today this morning said, there are 2, or maybe 3, species of moth in the UK which chew yarn/clothes; and we have 2-3,ooo species of moths harmlessly flying around, day and night, minding their own business; some of them will come in to see what we're doing if we leave the windows open and the lights on... Strangely, so will local teenagers, but we don't instinctively try to slaughter them with a rolled-up newspaper...
Let's have a look at a few I've seen flying round the village this summer (not my photos)...
A Hummingbird Hawkmoth [seen feeding on the trumpet vine on the guesthouse opposite]
A Silver Y - dozens in the garden any fine night. No prizes for how they got their name.
A cinnabar moth; another day-flier and seen at the station yesterday morning.
Let's hear it for the other 99.9% which give us colour, and beauty, and biodiversity...
Here endeth the lesson.
5 comments:
I had a wonderful moment which really brightened my comute to work a couple of months ago. I stepped off the bus at the junction of High Holborn and Southampton Row. On the pavement was a stunning lime hawkmoth - huge, with pink and green wings. I picked it up and put it on a nearby tree, which I then realised was actually a lime tree!
Ah, you must read my friend Dave's blog, http://themothman.blogspot.com
He just found a very pesky moth, apparently, but most are beautiful and, as you say, harmless. Didn't Kaffe Fassett do needlepoints of moths?
Susan Duckworth did a fabulous jumper with moths on. If I *ever* get brave enough to tackle intarsia that's the design I'll go for!
I love moth larvae: my favourites are privet hawkmoth
ones. I've also popped a chrysalis in a jam jar, then released the adult some time later. Very exciting
Hi - Thanks for visiting my blog. You have a few lovely posts here which I've had a quick look at. I'll come back and have a really good browse in the next day or two.
Did you know moths hate cloves and conkers, so the moral of the cashmere sweater story is probably to store conkers in the same drawer as the sweaters!
Sue
I love moths. I've kept silkworms a few times and always feel sad as the moths' lifecyle draws to an end.
Speaking personally, I'm much more likely to set about a teenager with a newspaper . . . aren't they the biggest pests in the house. They may not eat wool, but they eat anything else that's not nailed down!
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