Lions and Tigers and Moths, Oh My!

The area where we live is full of life. Teeming with creatures. If I didn't know any better, I'd suspect that loggers had finished off the rain forest destruction, and the animals made their way here. Twice this week I rescued a turtle from our dog, Poppy (who, incidentally, also came from somewhere around here and decided to stay), and returned it to the pond. She's quite the hunter, and somehow feels that it is her job to eradicate anything that moves about on our land. Most other creatures have not been as lucky as the turtle. Every day, she brings home a dead mole, bird, mouse, or some type of bone leftover. Usually, it's deer bones. Once, she brought home a bear skull.

However, the largest creature population around here has to be the bugs. It is barely April, yet the gnats and mosquitoes travel in clouds of thousands during the dark hours of the day. One night last week, we looked out at Poppy on the front porch, twitching her way through a disturbed sleep, nearly carried away by the insect crowd above her.

We decided to try out a bug zapper yesterday.

The bugs didn't know what hit them.

This thing has a 40 watt ultraviolet black light and an octenol lure to entice the little guys in, and...BAM! Electrocuted to death. We attached it to the power pole in our front yard and turned it on for the night. The next morning, we slipped on our shoes and tip-toed out into the sunlight to survey the carnage. Hopefully, to see a lot of carnage.

And yes. There were plenty of fried bugs. A pile of wings and thoraxes and antennae littered the ground below. Strangely, there was another, er...side effect...


This guy was sitting happily on the zapper, too big to fit inside.

And this one was on the ground by the pole.

And these two were chillin' underneath.




Not to mention this 4 inch giant next to them.

And these three bigguns were rivaling my palm size.

This one looked like he had flopped his arms on the cable after a long tiring night of flying around the bug zapper.



And this lovely one reminded me of a pretty summer dress.

For some strange reason, these moths were so in love with our bug light that they stayed, hours after it had turned daylight, to hang out within a few feet of it. Apparently we do have a rain forest-like variety of moths around here. It's nearly two in the afternoon, and they're all still out there.

Waiting.

I can't wait to see what the zapper brings tomorrow.

Hey don't laugh. It's country entertainment. Right up there with the worm gruntin'.