I Think I Saw

RIght now all we have are the regular joe food moths that take up residence in the Kitchen

 

Those are sooo cool! I saw one of them once....only once..

 

Years ago when I lived in a different town I had a koi pond and used to see them all the time. Back then I had never heard of them, and I tried to explain to people that I kept seeing these bizarre "hummingbird moths". I thought I had made up the name, and it was funny, because no one had any idea what I was talking about. This was before google was at my fingertips, so it was years before I discovered that they do exist, and that I had pegged the name perfectly. Aptly named I'd say, because they really do appear to be a cross between both.

 

Neato!

 

You just answered my question! I saw one of those a couple weeks ago and couldn't figure what the heck it was! It keeps coming back because the Cannas are in full bloom.

 

I read somewhere that the young are tomato hornworm.

 

Those come from the green horned tomato worm, it's true. The moths lay their eggs on your tomato (and sometimes pepper plants) and they hatch into those voracious worms that destroy so much in so short of a time (man, can they eat!). When they get big enough, they drop off and burrow into the ground to emerge later as hummingbird moths. The moths are neat, but I don't like them simply because I know what their young are and do. This was an especially bad year for them here for some reason. I pulled over 20 off four tomato plants which is more than I pulled off over 30 tomato plants last year!

 

...and here I was hoping you saw a sasqwatch. what?

 

I was doing some work on a small step right outside of our house and saw one yesterday as well. They are neat little creatures.