whimsy ([info]lord_whimsy) wrote,
@ 2008-03-11 14:24:00
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MOTHS ARE COMING


Just placed my annual order for Saturniid coccons, all three species of which you may see above: Cecropia, Polyphemus, and Luna.

I should be receiving my parcel from Prince Edward Island in a week or two, and then into the fridge they go until late April or early May.

Each spring we have an "eclosion party," when we open a bottle of wine and release the moths into a warm evening sky.

Previous dealings with moths:

http://lord-whimsy.livejournal.com/61004.html
http://lord-whimsy.livejournal.com/216637.html

~W

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[info]beangrower
2008-03-11 07:09 pm UTC (link)
Thanks for including the old links. These are my favorite posts of yours yet.

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[info]frumiousb
2008-03-11 07:17 pm UTC (link)
beautiful. as a kid, we had cercropia's every year. My Mom would go out in the fields to collect their cocoons. Lunas were too rare to do that with, but they were my favorite sighting.

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(Anonymous)
2008-03-11 07:39 pm UTC (link)
Don't you fear they will eat your precious wardrobe one day?

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[info]hotel_jewelweed
2008-03-11 07:44 pm UTC (link)
Beautiful!

I would love to raise luna moths, but alas I think they would drive my cats apeshit.

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[info]my_name_is_anna
2008-03-11 08:06 pm UTC (link)
Oh they are lovely!

Do they have any relatives in the UK?
My cat brought in a moth of similar whopping size (not quite so huge), I think he had confused it with a bird.
I was very upset about it because it was such a huge beauty, and I'd never seen anything like it before here. All our moths are pretty small and wimpy.

(I wrote this on the wrong post before!)

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[info]swirlychick
2008-03-11 08:33 pm UTC (link)
Is that a picture of you when you were 15? :)

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[info]lord_whimsy
2008-03-12 03:28 am UTC (link)
Back in the Army, yes.

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[info]swirlychick
2008-03-12 01:41 pm UTC (link)
Super adorably freckly!

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[info]kumakouji
2008-03-12 01:26 am UTC (link)
"Just placed my annual order for Saturniid cocoons"

Deep-fry them!

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[info]lord_whimsy
2008-03-12 01:40 am UTC (link)
Barbarian!

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[info]a_kosmos
2008-03-12 02:42 am UTC (link)
They have such beautiful velvety wings!

I have praying mantids on order.... they scare me a little, but I like the eat all the aphids and mosquitoes thing.

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[info]lord_whimsy
2008-03-12 03:18 am UTC (link)
Any particular species, or the regular backyard variety? Egg sacs, I assume?

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[info]lord_whimsy
2008-03-12 03:24 am UTC (link)
Mantids and I go way back. Brought the old egg sacs along with us when we moved.

Here's dad:




And here's junior:

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[info]a_kosmos
2008-03-12 03:34 am UTC (link)
I've heard that they're really smart and that they can be taught to take bugs from your hands. I am not a big fan of pesticides; we've only used them once in four years and that was only because the Harlequin bugs were demolishing everything: tomatoes, sunflowers, chili peppers.... everything.

I found this really interesting 100% corn gluten weed repellent that I'm going to experiment with, and I think I'm going to grind some kelp meal into the garden for the tomatoes this year.

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[info]a_kosmos
2008-03-12 03:29 am UTC (link)
Just the regular gardeners.com variety, and yes, the egg sacs. A friend in the building I work in suggested hiding the egg sac from the birds so that they won't eat them when they hatch. I bought about 1500 lady bugs last year, but we seemed to have fewer lady bugs than usual in general.

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[info]glittery_girl
2008-03-12 03:16 am UTC (link)
Wow, well aside from being fascinating, this post has answered a question I had this morning. I was looking at the cover of an old Biology text book and wondered what type of moth the one on the front cover is and decided I'll paint it later this week. I now know it is a Luna month! Thanks, I love coincidences!

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[info]lord_whimsy
2008-03-12 03:27 am UTC (link)
I think there are some other saturniid moths in South America that are even more spectacular than the local variety.

I recall in Cairns geckos around the lamps at night, but not many large moths. Any down in Melbourne?

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[info]glittery_girl
2008-03-12 04:00 am UTC (link)
Not many large moths, no. But no shortage of normal moths! The biggest moths I've seen here are roughly palm size. I don't know what species they are, but they had lovely blue 'eyes' on their wings.

I had a gecko in my house a few years back, very exciting, I love their sticky feet!

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[info]bathory_house
2008-03-12 02:41 pm UTC (link)
Such a lovely spring ritual. I do believe the bats would inhibit our enjoyment though.

~d

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[info]lord_whimsy
2008-03-12 02:58 pm UTC (link)
Got them, too!

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