Wednesday, May 16, 2012

It's Miller Time!

But I'm not talking about a bland beer, I'm talking about miller moths.

Source


They are harmless, in that they don't bite or sting or eat plants or clothes. They aren't particularly ugly either; like most moths they are just the plain, furry-bodied and dusty cousins of the more flashy butterfly.

But they can cause heart-attacks. Or maybe a quasi-heart-attack. Or at least scare you enough to make you flee your house or wreck your car.

In the daytime, they like to hide out in dark places, under rocks and leaves, in door crevices and in our mailbox. When it's miller time at home, I know to open the mailbox slowly and not stick my face in it right away, because as soon as the daylight hits them, they come fluttering out by the dozens and it's not that pleasant to have them in your mouth.

See how flat they get?
These guys are between the coils of
a garden hose.
Source.


The miller moths start showing up in May around Douglas. They are the adult form of the army cutworm and they flutter around by the zillions on their migration path to the mountains in search of flowering plants and nectar.

We've been in Wyoming for almost 10 years, so we're used to them by now and I hardly ever get surprised by them in the mailbox anymore. That's a lie.

So the last time I went to our mailbox, I opened it up, waited a second while the millers fluttered out and grabbed the one envelope in the box.

Side note: I love mail. Love. It. Real mail, not junk mail. I am a junk mail ninja, killing it at the source by opting out of unsolicited mail and credit card offers. And for the junk mail that slips through anyway, I email them and tell them to take me off their list and they do. Because I can totally make big corporations bend to my will.

So, I walk inside with my one piece of real mail, a letter written by a human, and plop down on the couch to read it, savoring the experience. (I didn't know until this moment that I was such a mail nerd) I slip my finger under the completely sealed envelope flap and a Mothra sized miller flits out, grazing my hand with its fuzzy, fat body and fluttering itself against my arm before taking off for parts unknown.

I don't know where it went because I ran out of the house like it was on fire and for all I know it got a beer out of the refrigerator (not Miller though, so haha on it!) and sat down on the couch to watch tv. Although we don't get any channels, so haha on it again, unless it can figure out the DVD player. But I think that's just giving it a little too much credit.

Although, they can cause car wrecks too, so really we're only just now finding out what they are capable of.

In completely unrelated news, the grass is so tall in our backyard, that Jas doesn't even realize she's being stalked by a gargoyle.






18 comments:

  1. This sounds like a potential widespread menace on society. Of course I AM talking about the bland beer.

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    1. Oh it is, it is. Bland beer inspires all sorts of chaos: people overindulge because it's cheap and tastes like water and then do crazy things like wear tanktops. A menace fosho.
      =)

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  2. We tend to get ants in our mailboxes. After reading this I'll just be glad it's not moths.

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    1. I don't know what it is about ants, but they make me mad. All their frantic running around, working for one fat queen like slaves who enjoy it, never stopping to relax and smell the crumbs. They are like mindless little worker robots. I hope I don't become one in another life.

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  3. ah. miller time. i was about to pass this post along to sam...his beer of choice. well, not really CHOICE, but his choice of the less expensive ones. BUT then i saw it was about these miller moths. at least they don't froth at the mouth.
    going out on the front porch at night can be a real adventure...jumping out of the way of dive-bombing moths. AND palmetto bugs. u remember them, right?!

    cheers!

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    1. Ha! My favorite cheap beer is Strohs. Nothing like it after working up a sweat doing yard work or you know, waking up. ;)

      I am fascinated by insects of all kinds and even spiders don't bother me. But I hate, despise, dread, and have a deep and abiding fear of palmetto bugs. There are no roaches in Wyoming which may be why I love it so much.

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  4. I think I'd rather have a moth come fluttering out of my mailbox than the big butt spiders that take up residence every summer.

    FYI - I was given a Liebster award and I've passed it on to you. The rules are on my latest post.

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    1. Aww, thanks Vanessa! I'm not much of a rule follower, which is why I hate ants so much, so I'll probably just make up my own. =)

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  5. That's the exact reaction I'd have to a moth popping out of my mail, except I'd also have peed myself (as a defense mechanism, of course).

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    1. There is absolutely nothing wrong with peeing your pants as a defense mechanism to ward off Mothra. I think it works for Godzilla too.

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  6. Oh yeah, I passed the Liebster Award on to you, too. DON'T HATE ME! Hehehehehe ::laughs nervously::

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  7. I'll get you, my pretty! And the little dog too!

    Except not really because I am afraid of The Baby.

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  8. I have a hard enough time dealing with silverfish and spiders. Insidious flying mothras would be the death of me.

    You always have the most interesting take on the cool stuff you find. And I also keep coming back for the consistently high-quality writing.

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    1. Aw, thanks Joe. You have no idea how much I appreciate that. (Your kind words, not the fact that a Mothra may or may not be the death of you!)

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  9. We lived in CO back in the early '70s (am I dating myself?) and I do not remember these moths - they must have arrived since then. But, with the plantet warming & all that... who knows, eh? The worst thing we get here in the Pacific NW are the huge influxes of web worms every 7 years or so - and THEY are bad enough. I think they were worse in Texas, tho.

    Your ending is TOO funy - and right on! Welcome home - long grass & all!

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    1. I don't know if you're dating yourself or not, but if you are at least you know how the date is going to end! :)

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  10. In regards to CO in my above comment, I was referring to where the young woman crashed her car, supposedly because of the Miller Moths. Beter hope no cell phone was found on the seat beside her. Easy enough to blame the moths, I guess...

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    1. Yeah, maybe we'll start seeing that as a defense in car crashes! Although if a roach were to crawl on me while I was driving I would probably cause all kinds of havoc.

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Do what?