Why are moths so easy to kill?

Perhaps it's to do with their camouflage -- moving would make them easier for some predators to see.

"I have brought you fire from the sun," said the moth to the men. Here. The men thanked the moth.

The Very Ancient Ones Who Made Everything were very angry. They said to the moth: "Because you have given fire to the men, all mothkind will lose their protective garments. They will be uncontrollably attracted to anything that resembles fire. Some day the descendents of the very men you gave the fire to will crush your kind and think nothing of it."

The moth was very sad. He told the other moths what had happened, and explained why their protective garments had disappeared. His family was sad, and the rest of the moths were angry. He was sentenced to go into exile. The moth went to the Very Ancient Ones and said: "I beg one more thing of you. Since I must go into exile, let me go live alone on the moon." The Very Ancient ones granted him his wish.

serious point behind this joke: moths navigate using the moon. The moon will always stay in the same position relative to them as a result of parallax, but of course a light bulb doesn't, which is why they just keep going round it.

Here, above,
cracks in the buldings are filled with battered moonlight.
The whole shadow of Man is only as big as his hat.
It lies at his feet like a circle for a doll to stand on,
and he makes an inverted pin, the point magnetized to the moon.
He does not see the moon; he observes only her vast properties,
feeling the queer light on his hands, neither warm nor cold,
of a temperature impossible to records in thermometers.

But when the Man-Moth
pays his rare, although occasional, visits to the surface,
the moon looks rather different to him. He emerges
from an opening under the edge of one of the sidewalks
and nervously begins to scale the faces of the buildings.
He thinks the moon is a small hole at the top of the sky,
proving the sky quite useless for protection.
He trembles, but must investigate as high as he can climb.

Up the façades,
his shadow dragging like a photographer's cloth behind him
he climbs fearfully, thinking that this time he will manage
to push his small head through that round clean opening
and be forced through, as from a tube, in black scrolls on the light.
(Man, standing below him, has no such illusions.)
But what the Man-Moth fears most he must do, although
he fails, of course, and falls back scared but quite unhurt.

Then he returns
to the pale subways of cement he calls his home. He flits,
he flutters, and cannot get aboard the silent trains
fast enough to suit him. The doors close swiftly.
The Man-Moth always seats himself facing the wrong way
and the train starts at once at its full, terrible speed,
without a shift in gears or a gradation of any sort.
He cannot tell the rate at which he travels backwards.

Each night he must
be carried through artificial tunnels and dream recurrent dreams.
Just as the ties recur beneath his train, these underlie
his rushing brain. He does not dare look out the window,
for the third rail, the unbroken draught of poison,
runs there beside him. He regards it as a disease
he has inherited the susceptibility to. He has to keep
his hands in his pockets, as others must wear mufflers.

If you catch him,
hold up a flashlight to his eye. It's all dark pupil,
an entire night itself, whose haired horizon tightens
as he stares back, and closes up the eye. Then from the lids
one tear, his only possession, like the bee's sting, slips.
Slyly he palms it, and if you're not paying attention
he'll swallow it. However, if you watch, he'll hand it over,
cool as from underground springs and pure enough to drink.

-- ELIZABETH BISHOP

My bad, 24 kilowatt.

Which would you rather do: kill a moth or cop a gobful of highly scented, baseball packed nutsack?

I just killed one in the kitchen. They haven't wised up yet.

They're so easy to kill because they know that they are propagating far quicker than you could ever hope to kill them. Enjoy your permanent moth infestation :(

my mother now keeps her jumpers in the freezer in order to keep them safe from the moths. bastards depriving me of pizza.

They're easy to kill because they're so fucking stupid.

It's quite satisfying when you manage to grab one out of the air.

I once trapped a wasp in a hoover. Happy times.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1254/589727661_d188c81ed7.jpg?v=0

This COMBAT MOTH totally rules though.

It's quite satisfying when you manage to grab one out of the air.

-- chap,

i was just coming here to post this

my cat loves killing moths

I was just going to post what AA said.

Cat plus moth equals hours/minutes of entertainment.

Add a laser pointer to that mix and you may as well sell your TV.

::insert squirrel chatter noise here::

last summer my cat and my sister's puppy collaborated in an extended moth take-down. most adorable thing ever.

Not for the moths

It's quite satisfying when you manage to grab one out of the air.

especially with one hand

One thing I am not anticipating about the end of this grim winter is the coming deluge of giant, fast, impossible-to-target moths that will plague my apartment until the next grey, dark, dull winter. Sigh. These ones are not easy to kill at all and I don't really understand how they are able to get into my apartment.

dude, don't let those moths walk all over you

They are stupid and evil and I hate their frantic, random attempts to elude my rolled-up newspaper.

http://www.coastaltown.nildram.co.uk/jim/bombyxin_moth.jpg

HI DERE!

how do you post images???

Salmon, get like 3 tattered cats and tell them to hunt the moths.

turtle just click the formatting help thing underneath the posting box it tells you how to post images.

http://coolkits.net/G%20vs%20Mothra.jpg

thx Jed - you are good Samaritan