At dusk I like to stand in front of the garden and soak in the quiet. The butterflies are settling down, as are the birds. It is a nice time to experience stillness. But last night, I did not get stillness. I got this wild buzzing around my head, like I was in the middle of a race track. The sound really reminded me of a hummingbird. But no hummingbird in our garden is that bold, to circle my head over and over.
So I started looking around. The Porterweed is exceptionally huge right now and our purple one is blooming up a storm. Sure enough, this strange looking winged creature started feasting, darting around like it was in the last stretch of a race. That is very hummingbird, but this did not look like a hummer. In fact it smacked of bee. There was a pointed “tail.” The body definitely had segments like an insect. And the wings were going like crazy. The body looked fuzzy. Then I spotted antennae, and knew this is no bird.
At first one flew all around. Then came another, then another. Within 15 minutes I had 10 of these critters zooming all over the Porterweed. I grabbed my camera. Sorry these shots are a little blurry, these guys really book it.
From what I can tell, these must be moths. (I searched under insect that looks like a hummingbird) Here’s what I found. This is likely a group of Hummingbird or Hawk Moths. And these live all over the US.
The moths themselves are not harmful, but now I will need to really watch my tomato and pepper plants. Those are host plants for these kinds of moths. Not great news since I do not like to use any kind of pesticide on any of my plants, especially the vegetables.
Even though the possibility of a caterpillar infestation gives me some pause, I must say I rather enjoyed watching these moths gobble up pollen at dusk. I just hope we all can get along as easily in the future.
