BIG moth!!

downfader

Came out of the shower 30 minutes ago and my Father says "..have you seen the big moth?"

I search around and find this beasty sat down by the front door in the dark. He was massive. I mean 2 inch wingspan. Insects like that freak me out tbh, but I got the camera down and had a go at getting close with the new lens. He flew right at me. :shock: Right for the face and I screamed like a girl.

I stuck the camera into "liveview" mode and got in closer a little easier after he'dsettled... and that took about 10 minutes. :? Annoyingly the pic is too dark and shows naff-all.

This was the second biggest moth I've seen in the UK. The other one was bigger and sat in the road in front of me as I pulled up to a crossing about 2 weeks back.

slowfen

Have a look at the Hawk moths, thay are huge and fantastic, but can be a shock the first time you see on. They are about now.

pottssteve

Downfader wrote "He flew right at me. Right for the face and I screamed like a girl."

You big jessie,

We sometimes get these coming up through the shower plug hole:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/File:Cockroachcloseup.jpg

In the tropics they get quite big. There was one in the bathroom a few weeks ago that must have been over 2 inches long. I sprayed it with the wife's environmentally friendly insect spray and it just laughed at me. I then hit it with a shoe - it got a bit annoyed but carried on skuttling about. In the end I needed to bring in the big guns - German made Birkenstock sandals with hard rubber soles. That put paid to it's gallop. They are very unnerving though as they can climb up glass, fly, and run like Usain Bolt. The missus tried to stand on one and it ran up her trouser leg!

You see loads of them in the markets and food halls here. I knew I'd become a seasoned international traveller when I caught sight of one in a restaurant while I was eating. I stamped on it, killed it, and carried on eating....

Do you get them in the kitchens, 'fader?

Tino4444

pottssteve wrote:

They are very unnerving though as they can climb up glass, fly, and run like Usain Bolt. The missus tried to stand on one and it ran up her trouser leg!

Thats amazing! Do they run with their arms wide open as they near the end of their sprint in an early celebration?

Tino

pottssteve

Tino4444 wrote:

pottssteve wrote:

They are very unnerving though as they can climb up glass, fly, and run like Usain Bolt. The missus tried to stand on one and it ran up her trouser leg!

Thats amazing! Do they run with their arms wide open as they near the end of their sprint in an early celebration?

Tino

HaHa. I don't know, the bugg@r was going too fast to see. The long hairs on their legs allow them to grip on like burdock buds.

I was out in the hills one day and had one of these crawling on me:

http://madeena.org/gallery/details.php? ... 00atk9t5f3

Despite it's similarity to Andy Schleck it gave me quite a shock! :shock:

downfader

I think it might have been hawkmoth as it had the antenae the rightangled shape like a brow, LOL. My father thinks it is. He knows a lot more than me.

Pottssteve.. we have indeed had cockroaches at work. Sadly its one of those things that happens, customers and staff get lazy and leave rubbish about, or dont clean properly.

Last year we had a bunch of massive rats as our customers decided to throw their food and rubbish about the place and there wasnt the staff to keep up with it. You'd ask someone politely to put their rubbish in a bin, or take their tray to the return area and you get "f*** off!! Its YOUR job!!"

The less you're paid the more you work

Funniest thing about the rats was when all the customers ran to a window after hearing a screaming sound. We look down and see a rat with a magpie on its back pecking its eyes and face, clawing at its back. :shock: This builder looks up and goes "ahhh that'll be on the menu by lunchtime!"

pottssteve

HaHa,
Rat versus magpie - who says the NHS doesn't give value for money...The "Rat and Magpie" sounds like a pub name.

Your moth didn't look like this, did it?

http://www.nerdcore.de/wp/wp-content/up ... _500px.jpg

downfader

pottssteve wrote:

HaHa,
Rat versus magpie - who says the NHS doesn't give value for money...The "Rat and Magpie" sounds like a pub name.

Your moth didn't look like this, did it?

http://www.nerdcore.de/wp/wp-content/up ... _500px.jpg

I had always planned on watching the old Godzilla movies but never got around to it. Couldnt get the pic to work sadly but if its Mothra then cool. 8)

pottssteve

OOhhhhhh yes, it's Mothra, my friend.. 8)

Anonymous

Have the lamb's stopped screaming yet, Clarice ?

downfader

dmclite wrote:

Have the lamb's stopped screaming yet, Clarice ?

..have you seen the family guy parody where he "dresses up" and hides waldo.

Anonymous

No, but I will have a look. I also liked French and saunders, where Ade dmundson was following a girl with NVG's on, and said, "I can smell her chips"

Stewie Griffin

Someone posted a pic of a Bear they encountered on a ride and Downfader screams like a girl at a nocturnal butterfly :roll: .

Aussie girl who used to work in our office showed me a pic of a Huntsman Spider that a Family Member trapped in their House. It was the size of a Dinner Plate :shock: .

Is that for effing real I asked. Of course it is ya drongo, she replied. Thats when I knew that I am never going to Australia .

downfader

Stewie Griffin wrote:

Someone posted a pic of a Bear they encountered on a ride and Downfader screams like a girl at a nocturnal butterfly :roll: .

Aussie girl who used to work in our office showed me a pic of a Huntsman Spider that a Family Member trapped in their House. It was the size of a Dinner Plate :shock: .

Is that for effing real I asked. Of course it is ya drongo, she replied. Thats when I knew that I am never going to Australia .

Huntsman's cause a LOT of car accidents. They get into cars and drop down when the car begins vibrating down the road. Better by bike

Stone Glider

I found a huntsman spider in the footwell of a hire car we had in Canberra as I was unloading the luggage at our hotel. When I tried to shoo it out of the car it hid behind the dashboard. What to do? We are ot the start of a six/seven day tour, if I tell the wife she will go apesh1t and refuse to ride in the car. So I keep shtum.

Six days and many kilometres and hotels, later as we were loading the car once again, she says "Chris whats that?!" I took my sandal off my foot, stepped forward and gave it the heel good and hard. She was impressed at my decisive action.

I did admit it when we got back to Britain. Huntsman are big and look just like those rubber, Halloween spiders. They are not poisonous AFAIK, just rather scary.

mmitchell88

BIG Mouth!!!



Oh. Moth.

bagpusscp

Moths ...hmmm
A rolled up copy of Cycling Plus normally does 'em in, in one swipe. :twisted:

Nuggs

pottssteve wrote:

Downfader wrote "He flew right at me. Right for the face and I screamed like a girl."

You big jessie,

We sometimes get these coming up through the shower plug hole:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/File:Cockroachcloseup.jpg

A shoe/insect spray will be no good against anything designed to withstand a full scale nuclear holocaust...

pottssteve

Nuggs wrote:

pottssteve wrote:

Downfader wrote "He flew right at me. Right for the face and I screamed like a girl."

You big jessie,

We sometimes get these coming up through the shower plug hole:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/File:Cockroachcloseup.jpg

A shoe/insect spray will be no good against anything designed to withstand a full scale nuclear holocaust...

That may be true but I didn't have an H-bomb handy at the time...

Headhuunter

Did you ever go to Syon Park Butterfly House before they closed it? They had Atlas Moths there, the things are easily the size of a Sparrow or other small bird and in the wild they actually migrate like birds, across continents to find warmer weather.

Headhuunter

Here you go - wingspan of 10-12 inches, now THAT'S a moth....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attacus_atlas

pottssteve

Headhuunter wrote:

Here you go - wingspan of 10-12 inches, now THAT'S a moth....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attacus_atlas

I saw those in the butterfly park in Kuala Lumpur, that and the biggest, hairiest spider I have ever seen. :shock:

I wouldn't want either in my tent...

Headhuunter

pottssteve wrote:

Headhuunter wrote:

Here you go - wingspan of 10-12 inches, now THAT'S a moth....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attacus_atlas

I saw those in the butterfly park in Kuala Lumpur, that and the biggest, hairiest spider I have ever seen. :shock:

I wouldn't want either in my tent...

Atlas Moths live in the wild in Hong Kong I think, you may get one flapping about your home one day!

pottssteve

Aw sh*t!! :shock:

I haven't seen any of those yet, but we do get quite a variety of lepidoptera around these parts. At least they're harmless, unlike the spiders, wild dogs, snakes and hairy caterpillars...

Headhuunter

Yes, watch out. That's one thing about living in the UK, there ain't much to hurt you. Although as global warming increases average temperatures apparently things like the False Widow Spider and even scorpions are starting to build viable populations. I saw a False Widow in my garden a month or so ago. A guy here in my office disturbed a Hornet's nest in woodland last weekend and was stung about 10 times, the stings actually drew blood and swelled enormously.

Headhuunter

Yes, watch out. That's one thing about living in the UK, there ain't much to hurt you. Although as global warming increases average temperatures apparently things like the False Widow Spider and even scorpions are starting to build viable populations. I saw a False Widow in my garden a month or so ago. A guy here in my office disturbed a Hornet's nest in woodland last weekend and was stung about 10 times, the stings actually drew blood and swelled enormously.

pottssteve

Nuggs wrote:

pottssteve wrote:

Downfader wrote "He flew right at me. Right for the face and I screamed like a girl."

You big jessie,

We sometimes get these coming up through the shower plug hole:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/File:Cockroachcloseup.jpg

A shoe/insect spray will be no good against anything designed to withstand a full scale nuclear holocaust...

By coincidence I was cleaning in the cupboard under the kitchen sink today and found a cockroach egg. Cleaning further, and removing all the crap in there and lo and behold, there was Mummy, skulking behind a carrier bag. It shot into another plasic bag which I closed and took out onto the balcony. I shook it out and hit it smartly with a men's size 10 brown brogue which I had handy, causing its head to partially separate from its body and two of its legs to fly off. :shock:

I've just finished bleaching out the cupboard, so it's time to get dinner ready...

Headhuunter

pottssteve wrote:

Nuggs wrote:

pottssteve wrote:

Downfader wrote "He flew right at me. Right for the face and I screamed like a girl."

You big jessie,

We sometimes get these coming up through the shower plug hole:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/File:Cockroachcloseup.jpg

A shoe/insect spray will be no good against anything designed to withstand a full scale nuclear holocaust...

By coincidence I was cleaning in the cupboard under the kitchen sink today and found a cockroach egg. Cleaning further, and removing all the crap in there and lo and behold, there was Mummy, skulking behind a carrier bag. It shot into another plasic bag which I closed and took out onto the balcony. I shook it out and hit it smartly with a men's size 10 brown brogue which I had handy, causing its head to partially separate from its body and two of its legs to fly off. :shock:

I've just finished bleaching out the cupboard, so it's time to get dinner ready...

Cockroaches. That reminds me of when I used to live in Japan. There was nothing worse than getting home late at night/early in the morning, slightly inebriated, turning on the bedroom light and spying the mother of all roaches on the wall. They walk so slowly when not disturbed with those long anntenae waving crazily, slowly you bend to pick up the nearest shoe or whatever and slowly, oh so slowly so as not to alert it to your presence, sending it scurrying at light speed somewhere inaccessible, you raise the shoe and bring it down sharply. If you're lucky you get it 1st time, sometimes you wound it and it carries on scurrying before you stop it in its tracks. Its final revenge on you is to leave an enormous splodge of blood, guts, legs and wing casings plastered over the wall that you then have to clean up.

Personally though I could never sleep if I knew one of the b*stards was loose in my room. I heard horrible stories about how they crawl into you open mouth whilst you sleep if you're not careful.

pottssteve

headhunter,
They are nasty. Not sure about the open mouth thing, but when I went to the Philippines I stayed in a crappy hotel and there were loads of them around. Found one in my shoe and another in a trouser pocket :shock:
You're right, the key is not to warn them - they are so damn fast. It's hard to get the debris off the furnishings - that's why I got it outside on the balcony - tiled!!! The village cats around here play with them before biting their heads off

tebbit

Is this a case of Big Moth strikes again?

And as the flames came closer
To her Roman nose
And her walkman started to melt

I apologise unreservedly, but i can't resist