Ep 124. Moths and Bats are Beautiful Too

Moths are like butterflies that party at night. Though many are considered ugly, like butterflies, moths are beautiful too and essential! We wrap up the episode by chatting about what moths and bats have in common, sure to bring a smile.
 
Related Stories and Helpful Links    

Moths and Bats are Beautiful, Too

Magical Blessing Moth

Keeping Lighting Pollinator-Friendly with Blaine Rothauser.

Native Plants, especially Oaks, are Essential, featuring Randi Eckel of Toadshade Wildflower Farm.

Cicadas Sing Back to School

                                                                      8888
 

I'd love to hear about your garden and nature stories. And your thoughts about topics for future podcast episodes. You can email me at AskMaryStone@gmail.com. Thanks so much for tuning in.

You can Follow Garden Dilemmas on Facebook and Instagram #MaryElaineStone

Episode web page —Garden Dilemmas Podcast Page

Thank you for sharing the Garden of Life,

Mary Stone, Columnist & Garden Designer
                        AskMaryStone.com

More about the Podcast and Column:

Welcome to Garden Dilemmas, Delights, and Discoveries.

It's not only about gardens; it's about nature's inspirations, about grasping the glories of the world around us, gathering what we learned from mother nature, and carrying these lessons into our garden of life. So, let's jump in in the spirit of learning from each other. We have lots to talk about.

Thanks for tuning in, Mary Stone
Garden Dilemmas? AskMaryStone.com
Direct Link to Podcast Page

Transcript

Ep 124 Moths and Bats are Beautiful Too

Sun, Sep 03, 2023 9:59AM • 10:38

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

moths, butterflies, pantyhose, mothballs, garden, beautiful, porch, bats, critters, moth, larvae, learned, curt, layman, wings, creepy, gathering, dilemmas, mary stone, garden, Nature, inspiration

SPEAKERS

Mary Stone

Mary Stone  00:00

Hello, fellow lovers of all things green. I'm Mary Stone and welcome to Garden Dilemmas, Delights, and Discoveries. It's not only about gardens. It's about nature's inspirations, about grasping the glories of the world around us, gathering what we learned from Mother Nature, and carrying these lessons into our garden of life. So, let's jump in in the spirit of learning from each other. We have lots to talk about. 

Mary Stone  00:26

Good morning; it's Mary stone on a drizzly screen porch. It is morning time. And one of the benefits of the drizzle is you do not hear the loud cicadas in the trees that are still singing. I've seen a few on the ground and wonder what the little fellows are doing. Are they going back into burrow themselves for the next season? I just adore the critters, I have to admit. We spoke about Cicadas Singing Back to School and Episode Three. Oh boy, that was a long time ago. I invite you to listen if you are catching up on old episodes. It's one of my favorites. 

Mary Stone  01:03

Thanks to those who reached back after last week's chat, Keeping Lighting Pollinator-Friendly. It's such a delight to have the interview with Blaine. I learned so many things. But today, I'm going to share another story about moths. I hope I'm not overdoing it with the moths; I'm quite fascinated by them. And I tried to save one from the screen porch just yesterday. When I captured the little fellow, I felt his wings fluttering in my hand, and I talked to it, saying, "It's okay. I'm going to let you go outside." And as I did, the little guy flew back onto the screen porch. So, I captured him again, and let's just say it did not end well, and I felt so bad about it. I know it's not going to live here. So, it needs to be outside - we do our best, don't we, to save the little critters. It leads me to this week's chat: Moths (and Bats) are Beautiful too. And it starts like this. 

Mary Stone  02:00

Hello, fellow listeners and readers. A few weeks back, we chatted about how moths are like butterflies that party at night—a sentiment shared by Randi Eckel of Toadshade Wildflower Farm. We spoke about that in Episode 35, Leaf Therapy, Essential Oaks, and I'll put a link in the show notes. Since then, I've grown far fonder of them. Like butterflies, moths are beautiful too.

Mary Stone  02:26

A daily routine in recent weeks is gathering moths that have taken up residence in the screened porch overnight. They're easy to capture by morning, sliding them into a container, barely waking them until releasing them outside. Curt jokes that I'm gathering the same ones each day. Maybe so, but it brings the question, why are mobs attracted to light and coming indoors? Of course, we did address that very thoroughly from an expert, so Blaine, if you're listening to this story, please allow me to give a layman's point of view. 

Mary Stone  02:58

I'll admit their party has lessened the desire for porch camps on the futon. Having them land in my hair reminds me of a time growing up when we'd vie for a position on the cot outside the tent during vacations. It was pitched as a treat, though the truth is we didn't have enough room inside for all of us to fit. I woke to my mom's  PSSST sound to chase a raccoon sitting on my stomach, eating undercooked green beans left from dinner. Another time, I woke to the tickling sensation of Daddy Long leggers crawling across my lips. I still adore camping. I hope you're not eating breakfast and listening to this. That sounds a little creepy, but I don't know. I guess I like all things creepy-crawly, but not on my lips. 

Mary Stone  03:42

There are far more species of moths and butterflies. Over 160,000 Moth species live worldwide compared to 17,500 butterflies, and 11,000 kinds of mobs are in the United States. Most moths are nocturnal, active at night, and butterflies by day - called diurnal. Both are important pollinators, as we've spoken about before. 

Mary Stone  04:07

Moths are chubbier, and the scales on their wings slough off easier than butterflies, hence the powdery debris when we touch them. Their wings are flat on the body when resting, unlike butterflies that hold them tightly upright. Then, there are skippers in the family of butterflies that have their wings at different angles when sleeping. 

Mary Stone  04:27

People don't consider most moths beautiful other than, say, the Luna moth with its four-to-seven-inch lime green wingspan and stealth markings that look like eyes baffling bats, one of the greatest predators. Then there are hummingbird mobs, also called clearwing mobs, that look like hummingbirds. There are many other beautiful moths, too. 

Mary Stone  04:50

When I comprised the story, I wrote that it is a mystery why moths are attracted to artificial light, especially UV bulbs, which are ultraviolet, though there have been numerous studies. Most critters that fly keep the light sky above them rather than fly upside down. Nocturnal insects use the light of the moon and stars to navigate flight, and artificial lights confuse them. So, it's not that they are attracted to it; they are disoriented, causing a sensory overload. They circle the balls until they need to rest, finding a spot like the inside of our screen porch. That's the layman's explanation. I loved Blaine's, which was more scientific that we talked about last week. 

Mary Stone  05:32

Folks create traps under lights, taking advantage of the moths' confusion, but please don't kill them. Moths, just like butterflies, surpass other insects as critical food for birds and other animals. 

Mary Stone  05:45

Despite the opinion that moths eat clothing, they don't; it's the caterpillars or their larva.--Should a mama moth find animal fibers such as wool, cashmere, silk, angora, or even leather. They lay their eggs there because they seek food for their babies with keratin, the same proteins found in hair and skin, which is why my due diligence to keep them outside.

Mary Stone  06:10

Yes, mothballs are a deterrent, but they're almost 100% made of a pesticide called PDCP. I am going to try to pronounce this para-dichlorobenzene. Not bad, not bad. Rather than mothballs, cedar-lined closets and trunks or cedar blocks serve as a natural pest repellent. 

Mary Stone  06:32

So, this is when it gets really funny. What moths and bats have in common.

Mary Stone  06:37

Speaking of mothballs, they also deter bats, I learned during Curt's DIY attempts to keep the resident bat from hunkering down in the barn. He made clever use of my pantyhose worn long ago in the corporate days. They made ideal casings for the hanging arsenal of deterrence, along with shiny throwaway pie plates. The strategy wasn't effective until he added a fan, adding movement to the decorations. It was hilarious. I'm not kidding, literally. So, you go up to the bar and see all these pantyhose, with moth balls hanging like decorations and then the pie plates and a fan going. I mean, this went on for weeks. It was ridiculously funny. 

Mary Stone  07:17

The one lone bat, maybe the same little fellow that hung on the barn door until, tumbling down stunned, finally moved on. I feel a little sad. Curt said I became attached to the little guy. Yes, bats and many moths are considered ugly compared to butterflies. It brings an interesting thought that beauty depends on things labeled as ugly - an irony of opposites. Yet they serve magical and critical functions in the Garden of Life—a beautiful thing. 

Mary Stone  07:47

It was funny to reminisce about pantyhose. I still have a stack of them in a drawer; they probably are all corroded and stuff, and I have another application for using your pantyhose, ladies. And that is, you can cut them up and use them to tie back plants. I know it's not that attractive, but they're very flexible. And so, as a temporary measure. It's soft on the wood, or even her herbaceous plant stems. So, there you go. Another use for your pantyhose that we don't wear anymore. Thank goodness, right? 

Mary Stone  08:18

Enjoy all the magic of nature, including our moths and other critters. Oh, I had a creepy thing happen in the vegetable garden. I was picking beans that were a little bit left on the vine too long - long in the tooth. I will use them, though. A little bit overripe. Anyway, as I was looking at the tomato plants, I noticed some leaves are a little bit chopped—looking around further. I saw the Tomato Caterpillar - what are they called? I have photos of them that I took with aphids on their backs. It was the weirdest thing. When I got back inside, I researched what I thought were aphids on the tomato caterpillars (called tomato hornworms), And they were the larvae of parasitic wasps. That is fascinating. They lay their eggs under the skin of the hornworm. The eggs hatch, and the larvae feed on the hornworms' insides. Oh my gosh, that is fascinating if you get beyond the creepy part. And the funny part was that because of the whiteness of the eggs, those green worms that feed on tomatoes (and tobacco, by the way, so they're often called Tobacco hornworms) made them very visible on the plant; otherwise, they blend right in and are hard to see. So there you go. And by the way, the larvae of the tomato hornworm become a moth. Is it a beautiful moth? Of course, because moths are beautiful, too. 

Mary Stone  09:46

Anyway, thanks for coming by. I always enjoy our time together, and I appreciate all of you writing to me and sharing your stories. I encourage more of you to do the same. You can email me at Ask Mary Stone at gmail.com or through the social links in the tag. Have a great day. See you next time on the screen porch. 

Mary Stone  10:07

You can follow Garden Dilemmas on Facebook or online at Garden Dilemmas.com and on Instagram at hashtag Mary Elaine Stone. Garden Dilemmas, Delights, and Discoveries is produced by Alex Bartling. Thanks for coming by. I look forward to chatting again from my screen porch. And always remember to embrace the unexpected in this garden of life. Have a great day.