Invasion of the moths!!!

Our city has been inundated with moths and we’re not talking the little white Miler moths, oh no, these are the larger black winged menaces! I told Buddy as we were driving to school that it sounds like a bad B movie or a Hitchcock film. He said it reminded him of "The Birds" except the moths aren’t nearly as vicious! LOL! What it’s all about is we had a wonderful day of steady rain a few weeks ago, just enough to let these little buggers hatch and evolve and now they’re looking for water and are naturally attracted to light at night. In the morning, as the sun is rising, they are too for the day and some have settled into wheel wells of cars and the streets and intersections are invaded by these winged pests.

Last night alone we killed about 5 in the house, between the rolled up newspaper and the cats flinging themselves at them! It’s unfortunate that the cats are a little indiscriminate about how and where they tread when pursuing their prey. Hubby has holes in his hand from trying to keep the kitten from knocking everything in my sewing area over in her pursuit of a moth yesterday morning. Last night she climbed on top of the cupboards in the kitchen and I feared she would try and jump into the ceiling fan since the moths were attracted to the light fixture under the fan. I had a flash like something out of a cartoon, of her flinging herself at the moth under the fan and the fan dissecting her body, gross! So we turned off the fan and started swatting moths to eliminate the need for her to hunt them!

One of the last such invasions happened about 5 years ago and they even got into my bread flour in the pantry! They leave nasty webby stuff behind and it’s just a nasty experience. I haven’t tried the bucket of water with soap film on top yet but I will tonight, set it out near the solar lights in the courtyard since it works best near a light source. The idea is that they see the water source and try to land on it and the soap disturbs the surface tension of the water which would normally hold them up and then they sink. I’m not normally a mean person, very Zen that way, but I HATE these moths! Plus, my stash of fabric in the house is threatened by their presence. We’ll see how long this lasts.

On another note, no plumber yet since their tunneling machine was in the shop and they’re having a hard time getting parts for it. We delayed once already and we’re in a holding pattern for the machine to get fixed. It’s not urgent but it’s a big project for them and will require at least 2 men for 2 full days of work so it’s a huge deal for them. The owner himself will be overseeing this project and he’s nervous about annoying us but that’s far from the truth. As long as I don’t have to deal with all that noise and dirt, I’m OK with that! The dogs and cats will be annoyed once the work starts. Sounds like a good time to invest in some doggy Valium.

I managed to get the Baron and Baroness over to do a fitting. His outfit didn’t need any more alterations but her dress still needed a tuck in the back seam. Hopefully I’ll get finished pics of them wearing them to coronation but I will take photos of them on my dress forms before handing them over. My next big project for them is Turkish garb for summer camping events and we haven’t gotten fabric for that yet. I have the patterns done, just need fabric to get started. I like the patterns so much I’m going to draft a set for myself to wear. I will be making more modern versions of these to wear for summer fashions for myself since they’re like wearing PJs.

Here’s to hoping the moths leave us alone for a day and not turn into "Night of the Living Moth Invasion"!

J