They can’t hurt you, I guess. Their larvae does cause damage in row-crop agriculture in the western plains states, but they don’t bother the clothing in your closets, I guess. They are, however, a royal pain in the ass for those of us from New Mexico, Kansas, and up through Colorado and Wyoming. Not sure who else is plagued by them but they sure are a nuisance. This year, the numbers are huge—they’re everywhere. The garage is infested, the covered back patio, the front porch, and somehow, they get into the house.

Later, they fly up to the high country and congregate in the rocks of talus slopes. Grizzlies show up in big numbers and pick through the rocks, where they eat them as part of their hyperphagia period before hibernation. Wish I had a pet grizzly now.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: TMats,

We are supposed to have a big infestation in Denver but haven’t seen many yet. I was living Ft. Collins in 1991 when we had the worst infestation of miller moths in history. It was madness how the millers covered everything. As a drunk college kid, we had a lot fun drowning the little bastards in soapy water as they flew by the bright lights...

I don’t have any experience with moth infestations, but when I was living in the Dallas area (Rowlett, Rockwell) in ‘98 or ‘99, the cricket population was unbelievable. They were everywhere, and they were by the millions. It was like nothing I had ever seen. There were areas in the parking lots at supermarkets where they would congregate, and huge sections (hundreds of square feet) would be covered in crickets. They would pile on each other so they would be an inch or more thick.
If you made the mistake of driving through them, it was like driving on ice. Slimy cricket goo under the tires.
What was worse was after they all died off, before the sweeper trucks could clean them all up. They stunk terribly. I don’t have pictures of the crickets. That was back before everyone had a phone, let alone a phone with a camera.

Last year we had the migration/mating day if the Arizona green stink bug. One night they appeared. Lots of them, gone within 24 hours.

Those are my experiences with weird bug populations.

Ive never seem anything that compares to a Klamath Falls, OR, midge swarm during mating season.

Love-Bugs and Noseeum's FL contribution to Car Wash and paint shop revenue...

Urban legend holds that lovebugs are synthetic—the result of a University of Florida genetics experiment gone wrong.



Not my car, but I"ve been there...
Wet Dryer softener sheets are your friend...

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
They can’t hurt you, I guess. Their larvae does cause damage in row-crop agriculture in the western plains states, but they don’t bother the clothing in your closets, I guess. They are, however, a royal pain in the ass for those of us from New Mexico, Kansas, and up through Colorado and Wyoming. Not sure who else is plagued by them but they sure are a nuisance. This year, the numbers are huge—they’re everywhere. The garage is infested, the covered back patio, the front porch, and somehow, they get into the house.

Later, they fly up to the high country and congregate in the rocks of talus slopes. Grizzlies show up in big numbers and pick through the rocks, where they eat them as part of their hyperphagia period before hibernation. Wish I had a pet grizzly now.

We are driving our truck camper up from Colorado through Wyoming and now into Montana and these moths are everywhere. The front of my rig is literally covered with them I didn’t know these were the same ones the grizzlies eat on the tali’s slopes. Thanks!

Oh have you brought back memories! We had army worms (tent caterpillars- the ones with the blue edge down the sides of the back and the white diamonds going down the middle) when I was a little kid.

I just got a flashback of riding my big wheel/trike over them and all the popping they’d make, all the oozing- there was no way to avoid them, They were covering the entire driveway, and they’d make huge tents around trees and demolish the leaves in a day. And when they formed their chrysalis and hatched out, moths EVERYWHERE. God. That seems to have faded up here, thank god. I’d forgotten until you mentioned it.