Butterflies and Moths: Not Always Glamorous

Have you ever said to someone, "I am so embarrassed for you."
It's kind of a mean thing to say, even if you're trying to be empathetic.

But yesterday around 7:30 in the morning, I had those thoughts. And instead of trying to spare further embarrassment to the subject, I grabbed my camera.


I had let my dog out early to do his business, and went out with him to dump out a container of banana peels and coffee grounds into the compost. I noticed my dog, instead of doing his business, was very interested in some bug flying around in circles, low in the yard. I watched him while several thoughts were flying through my head.... Obviously hoping he wouldn't catch and chomp down on the bug- at first, for the bug's sake, but the longer I watched, the more that bug was resembling one of those giant Japanese hornets, and I started to worry for my dog. (I don't know if we actually have Japanese hornets around here, but growing up, that's what my stepdad called them.) And if it WAS a giant hornet, I wondered if it was circling its own nest in the grass there- which would be a REALLY inconvenient place for bigass hornets to have a nest.

My dog decided to leave the thing alone- quite unlike him, actually- so I went inside to grab my camera, thinking from far away this bug looked interesting.

When I arrived back on the scene, I was simultaneously thrilled and disgusted. Right before my very eyes was a beautiful Nessus Sphinx moth! I see them every now and then (a couple times a year), but never when I have my camera with me, and they never hang around long enough for me to run all the way inside and get it.

The moth had been flying around in little circles, just above the grass, right over....

A fresh pile of my dog's poop.
And feeding on it.

Disgusting.

I actually feel sort of bad for uploading these photos because, obviously to zoom in close and get good photos of this cool moth, I also had to zoom in on the poop. No one needs to see that. I debated whether or not to just color over it in Photoshop, or use the clone tool to copy the grass over top of the poop, but as of this morning, ain't nobody got time for that.

There are just.... so many jokes I could make right now.

Necessary things for your butterfly garden include:

• Host plants for caterpillars
• Nectar plants for butterflies
• A puddling area
• Fresh dog turds

Ugh!
Gross!

NESSUS STINX MOTH

LOL

But if you can get past the poop (and if you can't, I understand), the moth itself really is a beauty. And from far away, totally looks like a big hornet.