Oh, how I remember that summer day. Who doesn’t remember the day their childhood ended? No, I’m not talking about that party during which Dennis (unpronounceable last name) and I cranked up Zeppelin and THOUGHT we locked the bedroom door, only to be interrupted several thousand times by drunks looking for the bong.
No, my childhood officially ended much earlier.
It was The Day of the Moth.
It was in our house, flapping around. Did you hear me? It was IN OUR HOUSE! It just seemed so horribly wrong. The flapping. In our house. I’ll never forget my dad’s exasperated words as I screamed and screamed: “It’s just a miller!”
A miller? Even at age 6, I was thinking, WTF? Turns out a miller is just some kind of moth.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard the term “miller” since then, but moths? Gross. I hate them so much. I recently read about a monstrosity called the Atlas Moth—the biggest moth in the world, with a wingspan of about 8 inches. It’s called “Atlas” because—oh, who cares! This moth makes me want to die. Knowing there’s a creature like this in the world? It’s getting harder and harder to find reasons to go outside.
But then here’s the thing. Moths vs. Butterflies. Who’s with me on this? If a butterfly lands on the tip of my nose, it’s magical. AWWWWW! Lookit! It’s a fairy butterfly coming to whisper a secret and then grant me a wish! But if a moth even dares to hover nearby, I revert to the screaming 6-year-old and coat it thoroughly with Raid.
I brought up my butterfly/moth issue at Duck and Wheel with String, where Lin tried to set me straight by pointing out that the only difference between a moth and butterfly is that moths have fuzzy antennae. I then took my dilemma to the Rocket Scientist, where Stephanie kindly explained that people naturally tend to like pretty things. Makes sense. She then went on to say that there are actually some pretty moths out there, but we assume they must be butterflies. Interesting! Also: false. A pretty moth is an oxymoron. Right? Because it’s a moth!
Let’s just throw entomology aside and declare all ugly flapping things to be moths and all pretty flapping things to be butterflies.
Except for those butterflies that have eyes on the wings. (screams)
Learn more about our horrible friend: The MOTH!
- Bugs and Weeds
- Atlas Moth: Mystical Creature of Mystery OR Harbinger of Doom?
- The Second Result of Google Search: “Terrifying Moths”
71 Comments
71 Responses to “I Hate Moths”
- 1 Pingback on Feb 5th, 2009 at 1:49 AM
- 2 Pingback on Feb 24th, 2009 at 2:05 PM
Ew I hate moths too! Especially when they flap flap flap right into you! Ugh.
Maggie’s last blog post..Thanks to January’s Top Entrecard Droppers!
You should read the Sloane Crosley essay “Sign Language for Infidels”; it’s a hilarious story about her loathing of an Atlas moth.
Ilana’s last blog post..Date Night at the Museum
My grandma called them “millers” too! I do not know why butterflies are so much better than moths. I sure am glad when I conducted my chrysalis experiment that moths did not hatch instead of butterflies. That would be a nightmare.
I HATE MOTHS. Actually, I hate any bug that flies around unpredictably, and you can’t tell if they’re going to fly away or land on you. BLECH.
One time, in Mexico, I looked up at the ceiling of the building I was in and I KID YOU NOT there was a moth the size of a dinner plate on the ceiling. It was brown, and orange, and disgusting.
Angi’s last blog post..Monday Brain Mush
I have a natural phobia to anything that crawls inside my home that belongs outside. However I have to say that roaches and waterbugs make me scream louder than moths.
It’s something about the fact that not only can they probably run faster than me but then they can manage a flying tackle and land on one of my extremities causing me to scream louder. Just thinking about it sends chills up my spine!
I actually don’t hate moths. I think they are quite pretty if you look up close :O) However, I don’t like anything that flits around my head and flutters past my ears – and they often do! I usually catch them in my hands and take them outside. My real hate is SPIDERS!!!!
Babs – beetle’s last blog post..My 70’s Perm Disaster
I hate most bugs, but I was willing to make an exception for moths–for a while. I kind of felt bad for them, since they were clearly the ugly cousins to the beautiful butterflies (and I’ve been there), so I cut them some slack when they flapped around me. Until they decided to eat an un-repair-able hole in a cashmere turtleneck, that is. Now it’s ON.
absepa’s last blog post..Notes from the State of Emergency
I loved the post.
Well written.
I’ll be looking for more good stuff from you this year.
Grog’s last blog post..The NSA-The New Thought Police
I don’t mind moths but I do like butterflies better. I have had several moths in my house banging their little bodies against my lights but I have yet to have a butterfly do that. Obviously butterflies are not only more attractive than moths but they are smarter too. This is usually not the case in humans. I also enjoy watching the cat chase them.
I don’t get the image of the meat…please explain.
Jen’s last blog post..Happy Groundhog Day
I HATE moths and butterflies, they are all UGLY and CREEPY. In fact, this post makes me scratch! Okay in photographs, some butterflies have pleasing colors, but THEY are NOT pretty.
Moths disgust me!! I run from butterflies and if there is a moth in the house, that’s an automatic 911 call! I just might have nightmares tonight. Sorry for the intense comment, I just have to get my aggression out when people start praising those ugly *** things with wings. WTF?
Seriously, a Miller better only be a beer in my house or “y’all gone make me lose my mind up in here, up in here. Yall gone make me act a fool, up in here, up in here.” Who sings that rap song? If I have to go sit in the corner, just let me know.
Neither particularly bother me. Both are effectively harmless and, as I mentioned, many moths are quite pretty (including, in my opinion, the Atlas Moth you showed, JD). Feel free to chalk it up to my being an intrepid and sciency Rocket Scientist if you want and I won’t mention my terror of spiders and spiderwebs (spiders BITE, you know), cockroaches running over an extremity, or sharks (even in public pools).
Did I say sharks? I meant sea kittens, of course.
Stephanie Barr’s last blog post..Some of our African American Astronauts
P.S. I like the butterfly cut pork chops.
Stephanie Barr’s last blog post..Some of our African American Astronauts
Its all branding. Why did they have to give them a different name? A name that suggests someone was cut off and snatched out of their shoes by a pitiless creature just as they were going to exclaim “MOTHer of God what is that?”
If only they’d called them ‘night butterflies’.
I’m surprised you didn’t put up the bermuda shorts of the moth world (both in color and SIZE, the Luna Moth. You know. The one with the mascara brushes sticking out of its head.
*shudder*
Shieldmaiden96’s last blog post..Getting all up in it
You may like this story then. Saw an older moth flapping around in my daughter’s room. Thought I’d be humane and catch it and release it into the wild. I cupped it in my hand and very gently tossed it out the window… When a blue jay shot out of no where, grabbed the senior moth and took it to the roof opposite our house and began to play with it. He’d drop it, moth would roll down the roof, blue jay would retrieve it’s quarry, chomp on it a bit and drop it again. Over and over and over. Fascinating and grotesque. I probably should have flushed it down the toilet.
Hi JD,
well, i am not terribly afraid of moths. i really hate spiders, they do bite…back in the eighties, i had a spider bite on my upper lip, just under the nostril. delightful! it spread and made a lovely sore about an inch wide. it looked like my coke sniffing had gotten out of hand…well it did, but that’s another story. i kid, i kid!
anyway, you may want to check out mothra, she’s a friend of the earth and battles godzilla. she has starred in many fine films. ;o)
oh, and ollie always looks like he’s sad or doesn’t like his situation. he was watching all the dogs walk by at the agility trial. he’s really quite happy.
hugs,
puglette
Puglette’s last blog post..Agility Saturday
I think there’s some distinction between hamsters and mice, too. But it isn’t that one of them is hairy. Anyway, butterflies are quieter than both hamsters and mice and their waste products much smaller.
Prefers Her Fantasy Life’s last blog post..Just What The Doctor Ordered–A Bit of Celebrity Stalking
Maggie: Right! If they’d just keep to themselves, I wouldn’t mind them so much. FLAP!
Ilana: HA! That’s where I read about the Atlas moth! Her collection is pretty funny, and I loved the Atlas moth story.
Daisy the Curly Cat: Oh, I don’t even like to think about that! If I’d been there, I would have screamed and screamed.
Angi: It’s the unpredictable factor that skeeves me out the most. I had to take a shower just after reading the words “moth the size of a dinner plate.” The fact that it was on your CEILING???? Did you demand a new room?
Singular Girl: I hate crawly bugs, too (especially the big shiny ones), but moths are worse for me because they can fly at you. Brrr. Now I have chills too.
Babs – beetle: I think I hate moths more than spiders, again, because they flap and fly and flutter. YOU TOUCH MOTHS? I can’t even imagine.
absepa: HA! I will join you in your Moth Battle, and together we will defeat them FOREVER. That’s just another reason to hate moths—because of them, we need mothballs, and they STINK!
Grog: Why, thank you. More good stuff on the way, I hope!
Jen: Yeah . . . why don’t butterflies bang into lights? Obviously they are quite a bit smarter. If you drag your mouse over the photo, the title might give you a clue. Or I could just tell you. In my graphics program, that was the first picture to come up under the search “butterfly.” Butterfly-style pork chops. I just had to use it.
Natural: OHGOD that’s funny! Very intense, man. OK, I had to Google those lyrics, so I know the answer: DMX! I hope you don’t have nightmares tonight. I’m pretty sure I will.
Stephanie Barr: WOW! That is some sea kitten there. Ooh, but spiderwebs are so pretty! And what about Charlotte and her web? As for sharks in public pools, this is nothing to joke about. It could happen. (thanks for getting the butterfly pork chops!)
Shieldmaiden96: Heh. That’s what Stephanie Barr (Rocket Scientist) said. Butterflies just have better PR. Every instinct I possess tells me not to Google “Luna Moth” . . . AAAAHHHH!!!
Hutch Foster: Aw. Now you’ve made me almost feel sorry for that moth. A toilet flush-down would’ve been quicker, I suppose. Or a coating of Raid.
Puglette: Thanks for easing my mind about Ollie. I just wanted to make sure he really liked his beautiful new coat. And Mothra! I’d forgotten all about her! I guess that’s proof that moths can’t be ALL bad.
Prefers Her Fantasy Life: Well, if it’s between a mouse/hamster and butterfly, yes, I’ll take the butterfly. As long as it doesn’t flap into my face and take me by surprise.
Personally I am not a big fan of bugs., they are like “eewww” to me
Boris Said’s last blog post..Boris Said Daytona 500
Actually I would be freaked out by anything in large numbers. If there are more than a few. and they were around me, I would definitely be doing the spacky dance!
Babs – beetle’s last blog post..Look what we got!
Geesh, I just posted a picture of a cute little kid with a butterfly on his head and all these folks freak out! WTF?!!! Are you scared of unicorns and rainbows too?!!! I never knew people were scared of these little things.
I raise monarch butterflies each summer, and my kitchen is loaded with little containers holding caterpillars at every instar stage from egg to chrysalis (moths make cocoons, butterflies make a chrysalis). Once a caterpillar escaped and made his chrysalis on the bottom of Joe’s chair. Poor guy wasn’t allowed his usual chair until the butterfly hatched about 10 days later!!!
I just don’t get being scared of this little things, but then again, I’m terrified of monkeys and clowns.
Lin’s last blog post..O-mazing!
*shudders* Moths…. hate them so much. I hate all bugs. I really hate those flies that buzz around your house and drive you to the point of insanity, and then just when you think you can catch them, they fly away again. Why do stupid house flies get all that surrond sound vision? Why don’t people have that? Oh, well. I’m getting off topic.
That moth must of been a very bad experiance for you. Moths are just ugly, wannabe butterflies. Oh, I hate caterpillars too.
Regan’s last blog post..Memes
My parents were driving at night in Arizona and as they were driving, they crossed this dark patch in the road. The road began making a strange crunching sound. My father rolled down the window and discovered he was going over a huge flock of tarantulas.
It did not take long to roll his window back up or drive on. I’ve never read or heard elsewhere about this kind of behavior for tarantulas, but it was something they never forgot.
Stephanie Barr’s last blog post..And More of our African American Astronauts
I never asked if it was near Roswell.
Spiderwebs ARE pretty, but walking through one you didn’t see, not so good. And, down here we have brown recluse spiders (which don’t make pretty webs but do lurk in dark corners and shoes and stuff and have a truly nasty bite that makes your flesh rot) AND black widow spiders.
And I’ve had spiders crawl over me several times. It completely freaks me out.
Stephanie Barr’s last blog post..And More of our African American Astronauts
I know it’s not a really scary movie, but The Mothman Prophesies really freaked me out. Regular, flappy moths are bad enough, but how about supernatural, all knowing moth people? Weird… and all those moth people legends.
Tim’s last blog post..Use A Double Jogging Stroller To Generate Web Traffic
Hating moths too. Every May of the year here in the Philippines, these icky little creatures swarm the country.
Argh!
Boris Said: They are like “eeww” to me, too. No, more like “EEEEWWWW!”
Babs – beetle: Ohhhh. Can you imagine a swarm of moths? Giant moths? Spacky dance? We need a video. Will Mo do it?
Lin: Butterflies I can handle, altho I’m not sure how I’d feel about a kitchen full of chrysal . . . i? Better than a kitchen full of cocoons, that’s for sure. You are right to be scared of clowns.
Regan: GRRR! Those flies! So annoying! And caterpillars kind of creep me out, but at least they can’t fly. That reminds me: I just don’t see caterpillars any more. What happened to all the caterpillars of my youth?
Stephanie Barr: Oh. My. God. That’s something out of a horror movie. At least your dad didn’t get out of the car. C-R-U-N-C-H! Yikes! I’m throwing up now. I’d probably be a lot more wary of spiderwebs if we had those brown recluse spiders around here. I don’t know of anyone in my circle who’s ever gotten a spiderbite. WHEN did spiders crawl over you?
Tim: Oh man. I’d forgotten about The Mothman Prophecies. That was a kind of creepy movie. And you’re right: All-knowing moth people are scary. Where do they come from? WHY are they?
Ranran: Eww! How long do they swarm for? A month? All of spring? Are you forced to hide in your basements?
Actually, brown recluses don’t really build webs, per se. And, to the best of my knowledge, I’ve never had a brown recluse crawl over me. But Lee did find a spider that had a bajillion baby spiders on its back and we were picking baby spiders off of us for weeks. Spiders run rampant down in these parts and, though most are harmless, I’ve never had pesticides take ‘em out.
I haven’t had a spider run over me since I lived in my crappy rental house, but it happened frequently there and drove me crazy wondering how to protect my kids. We also had a big banana spider build a huge web on the side of our house here. They kill bugs of the flying variety (like bats) but it was still unnerving to have that next to the garage. Check out wikipedia for more on banana spiders.
Stephanie Barr’s last blog post..And More of our African American Astronauts
Hey JD,
~ Steve, the jacket-less trade show guru
I don’t mean to defend moths (though someone needs to stand up for them). They ruined an expensive suit jacket of mine (it didn’t fit anymore because I’ve gained weight, but that doesn’t matter). Anyway, our local zoo had a temporary butterfly/moth exhibit where they had a bunch in a tent and you could walk around among them. There is something called a Luna moth that is simply amazing. Hard to believe it’s a moth. Anyway, maybe you need to confront your fears and walk through an exhibit like this? Or not…
Trade Show Guru’s last blog post..Trade Show Zombies
Video coming up!
Babs – beetle’s last blog post..Look what we got!
That “Miller” is disturbingly fuzzy. But did just remind me I need to get moth balls or cedar or something for my sweater drawer.
lizriz’s last blog post..Merry Christmas and Good Solstice to you.
I always though of moths as sad butterflies with no friends. We have a lot in common!
Tiggy’s last blog post..Hog – A Tale for Groundhog Day
Here it it! One Spacky dance video :O)
http://is.gd/ina0
Babs – beetle’s last blog post..Look what we got!
So, do you freak right out at the Lunesta ads?
Jenn Thorson’s last blog post..Office Pranks, Pens, and the Shrinkwrap Trap
I dislike moths too. To me they are like dirty butterflies. Lol!
Lola’s last blog post..Cabin Fever Margaritaville Carnival Feb 16-22
Moths don’t bother me much although it kind of makes me feel used when they flap towards my porch light. Are they paying my utilities? No. So why are they enjoying my light?
We have these ugly brown crickets that live in the basement. They have calves like Schwarzenegger and when you walk in the room they hop up to my eye level and then quick scurry back into the basement where they know I will not come after them.
I thought crickets were cute like grasshoppers before I moved into this house. Oh, how wrong I was!
Tracy’s last blog post..This is just to say I have eaten the haggis that was in the can
Stephanie Barr: Another reason to like living in the boring ol’ Midwest. I’m probably wrong, but I really don’t think we have any deadly spiders in this area. BABY SPIDERS! Yuck. Please see Babs’s comment below and the link to her Spacky Dance. And you KNOW I had to look up the banana spider. OHSOGROSS! I knew from the name it would be bad.
Trade Show Guru: You’ve given me an idea for a post—about confronting fears and why I don’t recommend it. Walking thru a tent of moths . . . hmmm. Yeah, let me just think about that. Shieldmaiden mentioned the luna moth, and I have to say again: AAAAHHHHH!!! (Sorry about your suit jacket.)
Tiggy: No! Don’t say that. Moths aren’t sad. They’re scary and wrong. And you’re neither of those things.
lizriz: Well, I’m glad something good came out of all this!
Babs – beetle: AHAHAHAHAHA! Oh, that is awesome. I didn’t know exactly what a spacky dance was, but I had an idea. And I was right. Kudos to Mo for being such a good sport!
Jenn Thorson: IS THAT A MOTH? Why would they make a moth the mascot for a sleeping pill? Sleep through the night . . . and have horrifying nightmares!”
Lola: Hee! Dirty and scary and bad. BAD moth. Why do I suddenly feel like a bunch of moths are going to get me?
Tracy: HAW! That’s the first time I’ve ever thought about crickets having calves! You know, I thought crickets were cute like grasshoppers too. Not that I think grasshoppers are all that cute. Ew.
I have it on the authority of my daughter’s book, I Wish I Were a Butterfly, that crickets are (a)so ugly their looks are made fun of by FROGS (who inexplicably would rather tease crickets than eat them), (b) that they envy the beauty of butterflies, ladybugs, dragonflies and even glowworms and (c) they frequent the company of spiders who also, inexplicably don’t eat crickets. No moths are mentioned.
Apparently, I have danced the spacky dance, only more spasticly on those days I have wandered headlong into a spiderweb. I did it on a bike once.
Stephanie Barr’s last blog post..And More of our African American Astronauts
Moths: I can take them or leave them, but mice, don’t ask me why, hate them.
lol I don’t get freaked out by bugs unless there are hundreds of them all over me. But that hasn’t happened yet so yay!
fragileheart’s last blog post..Absence makes the heart
Oh, but I looooove moths!! Surely you remember that I am the one who saved those eggs from my mirror and raised a happy family of caterpillars who then turned into pretty little moths? It’s all recorded on my blog, remember?
You’ve wiped that out of your memory banks? But why would you do that?
LOL!
Yeah, what’s with the moths/butterflies thing? They’re the same basic animal, JD. And yeah, there are some gorgeous moths!
I suspect the reason some people are scared of moths and not butterflies is that moths tend to flutter towards you, if you’re in the light and they’re not, and they’re very persistent, because it’s sex they’re after. On the other hand, butterflies nearly always avoid people like the plague.
Psychology, innit?
I didn’t know there was so much moth hate in the world. I reserve my fear and loathing for large, hairy, multi-eyeballed arachnids dangling from rafters. There are spiders in the rain forest that EAT BIRDS. This is what keeps me up at night. I’ll take a moth any day over a BIRD-EATING SPIDER. Just sayin…
MomZombie’s last blog post..Like, I’m a Libra O+ Dragon
I’m with Jenn. The thought of having a giant green luna moth flying around my head while I sleep is enough to never make me want to buy Lunesta. {{{shiver}}}
Are you sure that pork chop on the right isn’t a bit too graphic for this blog?
Jeff’s last blog post..Tech Tip of the Day
Stephanie Barr: So our children are learning to discriminate at WHAT age? Poor crickets. Now I feel sorry for them. I’m only scared of them—I would never tease them. Spacky dance on a bike? That sounds rather dangerous.
unfinished rambler: I won’t ask you why, as it’s perfectly obvious to me. They SKITTER!
fragileheart: Yay, indeed! Here’s hoping none of us EVER find ourselves in a swarm of bugs!
Jay: OH YES I REMEMBER VERY CLEARLY! I dug around your blog to find my response, which was: “Here’s a suggestion: Scream, throw up, run around in circles, and then buy a new, moth-free house.”
MomZombie: But do you have bird-eating spiders near your home? I can live with these monstrous creatures as long as they’re in another country (or Texas—hi, Steph!). And if I have nightmares about spiders eating birds, I’m coming for you.
Jeff: Oh, brother. Should I cover it up with some parsley? The way things have been going on around here lately, I doubt anything is too graphic.
Speaking of pictures… is there anything you can do to move that blogher add along? I’m getting a little tired of looking at that flabby belly every time I stop by. Please? I’ll personally pay you whatever income it’s bringing you.
Jeff’s last blog post..Tech Tip of the Day
Butterflies (evil evil butterflies) are pivotal to my blog, today, too. Amazing how things come back around.
And, no, it isn’t discriminant, because the spider teaches the cricket to find it’s own beauty and the butterfly, it turns out, covets it’s fiddling ability.
All I’m gonna say is that I feel like doing a spacky dance now from reading your story and your comments. If you do this again, I’m not coming back.
Jay, honey? Are you saying moths want to have sex with us, cuz that’s just weird and probably impossible.
Kathy’s last blog post..Bye Bye Birdie
OK, I’ll take the bird eating spider from WAY DOWN SOUTH, but not the bullet ants. I must draw the line somewhere.
Oh I love moths! As long as they’re not eating my clothes! I think I like ‘em because they’re fuzzy.
I like the way their little feet feel on my finger. Ok, you’re probably dead now. HAHA
Jeff: That flabby belly is raking in the cash, so unless you’re prepared to pony up, say, $2.00 a month, I just don’t see how I can lose it. Besides, isn’t it motivating you to, I don’t know, not have a flabby belly? Not that you do, of course. If anything, it should be making you feel smug about your non-flabby belly.
Stephanie Barr: OH, ok. I’m glad things turn out well for the cricket. I guess the lesson is, if you can’t be pretty, find a suitable talent, such as music.
Kathy: Maybe you can fix it so every time you come to my blog, that Bacaroni post just keeps coming up over and over again. Or maybe I’ll create a special side-blog just for you that features only stories about bacon and more bacon.
Stephanie Barr: Bullet ants? Where did they come from? Must go look them up . . . AHHHHHH!!!! Kathy, don’t look!
Corinna: What? I can’t hear you. I’m dead.
You know, I was feeling all guilty because I didn’t do thieving Thursday yesterday since I was gloating ’cause I finally finished novel #2, but it WAS talking about butterflies, too, so that actually qualifies. Must go adjust…
Stephanie Barr: Yes, thievery takes many forms.
Yeah, I kind of have a thing about moths too. They’re just so…unpredictable. They won’t fly away from you if you wave at them. And the way they flap against just about anything at night if there’s even a little light, and…ugh. I don’t even know, they just give me the wig. And nobody tends to get that–like, I used Raid on a miller moth once that was jumping around my bedroom, and okay, I didn’t know it was “just a miller moth” but it was FREAKING ME OUT, and my uncle laughed at me the next morning when he found out. Then there was this one time where not only were they banging against the screen door, they were crawling up the wall right next to me from under my bed, and I didn’t have anything to kill them with so I wrapped my PJ pants around my hand and basically grabbed a moth against the wall and crushed it. MULTIPLE TIMES. And in the morning there were dried moth guts all over my pajama pants and seriously I was like shaking for several minutes afterward. I don’t know why moths make me such a weenie, they just DO.
That Atlas moth makes me die a little inside. I half want to like it, because it’s sort of pretty and also because moths aren’t generally as popular as butterflies, and luna moths are admittedly pretty (a faerie with luna-moth wings would be cool), and then I look again and it’s a MOTH and it’s FREAKING HUGE and NO.
Kyra’s last blog post..in which american elevators maybe pretend to be british
Kyra: What a story! That deserves to be its own blog post! I don’t think I could scrunch up moths even with pajama bottoms. I’d just have to move or something. Brrrr!
Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much moth fear and loathing.
I had a cecropia moth once when I was a kid. Maybe more than once. I don’t remember. They’re pretty… and harmless.
I haven’t seen a cecropia moth in a long time though.
I might have had a Polyphemus moth once too.
I’ve taken pictures of a Luna moth. They are pretty too.
But to be afraid of a moth? C’mon. Seriously. Let’s go through the checklist, shall we?
Do they bite? No.
Do they have stingers? No.
Do they have pincers? No.
Do they nest in your shoes where they can strike you with their poisonous stingers and kill you? No.
Do they implant their young beneath your skin so that their parasitic young can burrow inside of you and eat their way out when they reach adulthood? No.
Do they eat people? No.
Do they grow large enough to cause you serious physical harm or death? No.
Do they carry diseases harmful to humans? No.
So, basically, we’re left with no real reason to fear them. Just think of them as night time butterflies, as many moths are nocturnal.
dcr’s last blog post..Weekend Project: Economic Video
dcr: You make some excellent points about our horrifying friend, The Moth. It’s true that the humble moth doesn’t eat people or implant their young beneath our skins. Thank God for that. BUT THEY SCARE US! With the flapping! Don’t you see? THE FLAPPING!!!!
Holy crap, your blog is hilarious! I love it…and i can honestly say that I can count all the things i love on one hand…1) cheese 2) snorkling 3) ah whatever.
but i have to say this…you may not agree but hear me out…moths may be horrible when they’re fluttering around the lightbulb but they are NOTHING…and i mean NOTHING compared to the atrocity that is the mosquito. I friggin hate mosquitoes. ugh, i just made myself mad. thanks for the laughs! I may write my own version with a lovely HUGE drawing of the atlas moth dedicated to you.
D at Seafoodpunch’s last blog post..Fishy Chill Pills
D at Seafoodpunch: Thank you and welcome! Holy crap, indeed! Cheese and snorkeling, eh? I’m gonna have to check out your blog, especially if you write about the horrifying Atlas moth. I do hate mosquitoes but I’m not afraid of them. They’re annoying. I’m sorry you made yourself mad talking about them. Just think about scary moths.
Moths are practically harmless but, I don’t blame you if you feel this way towards them. People have varied fears or irritants to begin with and that’s how you feel about moths. I for one get freaked out of cockroaches and rats (specially the ones from the sewers). Yuks!
JoAndrew’s last blog post..Baby News: Tiger and Elin Woods Welcome Baby Boy, Charlie Axel Woods!
JoAndrew: SEWER RATS? Gross. I know moths may not rate with rats and cockroaches, but they really bother me quite a bit. Please don’t tell me there are sewer moths.
Thanks for an amusing post. I am surprised at how many people hate moths! When I was a kid I caught a big fuzzy one and kept it in a ziploc bag so that it wouldn’t fly away. I didn’t want it to die but didn’t know what it eats so I fed it grass. That obviously didn’t work and it died in that bag soon afterwards. Since then, I’ve never really liked moths. Butterflies, on the other hand, I had always liked until I got older and really looked closely at a butterfly a couple times. Beyond the pretty wings, those things are really fuzzy and gross too! I started liking them much less after making that realization.
Daytona Beach Movers: Thanks for doing your part to rid this world of moths! Also—you make a very good point about butterflies having gross mothlike bodies. Maybe you should try keeping a butterfly in a Ziploc bag.
Butterflies ARE rather disgusting as well, with gross little mothy bodies covered in moth-like fuzz.
It IS the FLAPPING that is terrifying.
The unpredictable, horrific FLAPPING.
Butterflies aren’t terrifying because they don’t flap in the same horrifying (and disgusting) manner. Moths? Unpredictable, horrific flapping that causes me to scream in fear and pull out some sort of disabling aerosol. Butterflies? Calm, gentle floating on breeze – usually they even have an avoidance of humans, and when they do land on you, it is in a calm, dignified NON-FLAPPING manner. They don’t flap, they flutter calmly. Moths have the flapping equivalent of a hyperventilation.
The FLAPPING! It is truly terrible.
Nyssa: THANK YOU! You have summed it up perfectly. THE FLAPPING! If moths could learn to flit and flutter — noiselessly and with very minimal wing action — I could possibly learn to . . . oh, no, I couldn’t. It’s the flapping, yes, but so much more.
I am SO terrrified of moths…I dread the spring because they all come out. They flap around and leave duct everywhere and they fly into your face, and I swear that they KNOW who is afraid of them and the fly into faces of those who have fear! THen they stare at you with those beady little eyes and plan the next onslaught. You can spray them with Raid and they just get mad. You can whap them with newspapers and they just get mad. Even hairspray doesn’t work. They are awful
Karen: You said it, sister! They DO know who’s afraid of them. They can smell fear, even thru the hairspray. What will kill a moth??? NOTHING!
we saw a huge fuzzy orange and white moth outside a Subway restaurant in South Texas….scared me to death. It was daytime, and it didn’t move, thank God, so it may have been dead…but it was huge! I bet it was 4 inches wide, and really fat – yuck! I really hate cockroaches and junebugs because they both are unpredictable. If you stomp your foot at a roach it might run right AT you instead of away from you…and junebugs are kamakaze idiots! this is fun to admit this! thanks!
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pie: Oh, my god. The sight of that moth would’ve given me a stroke. And you’re so right: The unpredictability is terrifying. They should run AWAY. Why do they run TOWARD? Because they know they have the upper hand.
I do not know why butterflies are so much better than moths. I sure am glad when I conducted my chrysalis experiment that moths did not hatch instead of butterflies
I don’t have any stress with anything that has more legs than me. But with the ones that don’t have any… snakes I mean, is a total different story.
Great post.