Hot, dry weather contributes to moth invasion

Moths are flying into refrigerators, landing in coffee cups, dive-bombing sleeping victims and plastering vehicles with their gooey carcasses, according to Clovis residents.

Courtesy photo: North Dakota State University extension service at http://www.ag.ndsu.edu

Officials say miller moths are an annual event, but the sudden population explosion is unusual and related to a hot, dry, early spring.

"I was getting dressed the other morning and I had one as a brooch," said Judy Matthews, owner of The Patchwork House in Clovis.

Officials say the miller moths are an annual event, but the sudden population explosion is unusual and related to a hot, dry, early spring.

Roosevelt County Extension Agent Patrick Kircher said the moths, which start out as army cut worms, are a nuisance statewide.

"They usually hatch over a more extended period of time, in a pattern resembling a bell curve," Kircher said. "But due to the hot dry weather they all hatched at once, creating this sudden, huge population."

The Albuquerque Journal reported the miller moth explosion is the worst since 2003 and is adversely affecting Apache Point Observatory in Las Cruces. According to the news report, moths are attracted to the large telescopes whose moving parts crush the bugs, creating slimy goo that causes the instruments to slip off track.

Bryan Guthals, a pesticide applicator of Guthals Nursery in Clovis, said the invading miller moths usually show up at the end of May or first of June.

"They're about a month early," Guthals said. "We've had several calls about them."

Kircher said the moths do not eat fabric and are harmless, "outside of somebody tearing down a ceiling fan trying to smack them."

Kircher suggested using the moths attraction to light to control them.

"If you're trying to get out the door, turn off the light and turn on a light in another area to draw them away," Kircher suggested.

Clovis resident and owner of Penny Lane, Pat Grah, has her own method of dealing with the pests.

"You just have to swat them out of mid air with a newspaper or tennis racket," Grah said. "You certainly don't want to smash them on a wall or the floor. It's like playing baseball."

Kircher said the moths migrate to mountainous regions during summer and return in the fall to lay eggs. The hatchlings are called army cut worms because "they march through a field like an army eating anything green," Kircher said.

The cut worms feed on sorghum, corn and wheat crops until early spring, when they go into cocoons and emerge as miller moths, Kircher said.

"Hopefully, they'll leave just as quickly as they showed up," Kircher said.

Guthals said rain is a natural enemy to the moths and without it, they might stick around for another 60 to 90 days.