We stopped at a KOA CG in Wakeeney, Kansas on our way home. It was a nice CG with few trees and NO SHADE because it was in the middle of the Kansas plains and pretty hot and boring. The CG was OK, your typical CG, but due to the heat we didn't sit outside with the kitties at all.
David noticed a couple of moths in the grass, but no big deal. He didn't think any thing about a couple of moths on the Kansas prairie.. Well, it was a huge BIG DEAL. The next morning after we pulled in the slides and started heading for the next stop in Oak Grove, Missouri we noticed more, and more and more moths inside the MH. They were at the windows, the door, on the ceiling and flying around the MH. We opened some windows to let them out, swapped them and did whatever we could do to let them out. Little did we know this was the tip of the iceberg. It was a very frustrating drive because no matter what you did there were more and more and more of them. If you got rid of 1 there were 10 more to take it's place. They were hiding in dark areas in the MH or in the windows.
When we stopped in Oak Grove David went out to hook up the MH. When he opened the bays thousands and thousands of moth flew out of each one. It was like a swarm of bats coming out of a cave or a swarm of bees. Unfortunately they were not all flying out. Thousands more were hunkered down inside of everything we had stored in the bays. Some were dead, but most were just asleep or looked dead until something stirred them up and they started swarming about. And that was on the outside of the MH.
On the inside a similar scenario was going on. When we opened the slides we found hundreds of them that were inside under the slide section. We spent hours vacuuming up as many as we could. they were hiding every where. They were around all the windows, behind everything and on the ceiling. As soon as you thought you had them all there were hundreds more. This went on most of the evening.
We read on the Internet that since they were attracted to light, if you put a bowl of soapy water underneath the light they would fly into the bowl and drown. We set this up in the kitchen and within minutes had a full bowl of them. This is when we THOUGHT there were only a couple left in the MH. We did it again and caught about 75-100 more. We went to bed thinking we would catch the rest by morning.
The kitties got me up at 5:45 and when I went into the kitchen there were 12 or so still flying around the light with hundreds dead in the water. As soon as I went to add more water to the bowl hundreds more flew out from around the window. We set up a new bowl of water, but now it is daylight and many of them are more interested in the windows than the bowl. UGHHHH I guess will be entertaining moths for the rest of the day at least or better put THEY WILL BE ENTERTAINING US.
It could be worse. It could be bats, or cockroaches or mosquitoes instead of a million Miller moths..
It could be worse, but good grief. I've never heard of anything like this. It's amazing. I hope you took pictures. Looks like the campground people would have mentioned something since you figure it has to have happened before.
ReplyDeleteIt could be worse, but good grief. I've never heard of anything like this. It's amazing. I hope you took pictures. Looks like the campground people would have mentioned something since you figure it has to have happened before.
ReplyDeleteWe had never heard of it either, but the lady in the CG knew since she had all of her lights off in the office and never said a thing. It happens every year I guess. They were just every where and hiding no less. We thought they were all gone EVERY TIME and as soon as there was a bump or you touched a cabinet or curtain they all came flying out. Thank goodness we are home and have done a massive cleaning of the MH. Still keep finding a few, but they will all die with no food source. We'll not be staying in that area again in the spring for sure.
ReplyDeleteWe had never heard of it either, but the lady in the CG knew since she had all of her lights off in the office and never said a thing. It happens every year I guess. They were just every where and hiding no less. We thought they were all gone EVERY TIME and as soon as there was a bump or you touched a cabinet or curtain they all came flying out. Thank goodness we are home and have done a massive cleaning of the MH. Still keep finding a few, but they will all die with no food source. We'll not be staying in that area again in the spring for sure.
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ReplyDeleteThat is an infestation. It’s normal to see a few moths once in a while, but to have them by the hundreds? Something is very wrong there. What you did was clever, by the way; baiting them with the light then trapping those all in that soapy bowl made it so that they won’t make a mess later on. It's the least you can do, though maybe you should have the rest of the area checked, so you can keep track of how this infestation even started.
ReplyDeleteAlta Peng @ Liberty Pest Inc.