burning koala

The bogong moths are back. You might remember our first spring in Sydney, when we experienced a bogong invasion in our Surry Hills apartment. Then last year we had just a few briefly stop by our new place. But this spring they are back with a vengeance!

The moths are big and hairy and kind of stupid. After metamorphizing from their worm stage, they fly from Queensland down to the mountains in Victoria in the South to spend the summer in cool, dark caves before returning to Queensland to lay eggs in the fall. It just so happens that Sydney falls in the path of the migration. Apparently they are duped by city lights, which they mistake for sunlight, and their instinct is to land and look for a place to hide.

A few nights ago, we woke up in the morning to find half a dozen moths in the apartment, even though we had slept with the balcony doors closed. They must have managed to find some tiny cracks or openings. We shooed them out (they are far too large to smoosh with a napkin.)

Then there were a few more when we came home that evening. We let them be till morning, since they mostly just tuck themselves into corners and cracks to sleep. Only problem is that they tuck themselves into any crack or crevice they can find, so this includes the folds between clothes hanging in the closet, behind towels hanging on the rack, in between couch cushions, under blankets. As soon as you disturb them, they startle and fly up into your face—causing you to startle, and in my case, let out a little screech.

That evening we closed the sliding glass doors after dinner, and about 30 minutes later I looked out, and the moths were literally swarming outside. It was like locusts. The air was thick with them. It was both totally gross and fascinating at the same time.

So the next morning we woke up and there were about 20 moths in the living room. (There were probably more, but those were the ones we could see.) We did our best to shoo them out before leaving for work. But alas, more had accumulated by the time we returned, only now we were stuck, because the moths outside were still swarming, and continued to swarm this morning and all through the day, so not only are we unable to open the door to get rid of the couple dozen that have mostly clustered on the livingroom wall, we are unable to get any fresh air in the apartment.

How can we describe how our balcony is literally coated with moths? When we went out this afternoon, we observed that all the apartments in our building are suffering the same fate. There seems to be something oddly attractive about our grey building. We didn’t see so many elsewhere.

Ugh. When will they leave us alone? They don’t seem to be showing any signs of leaving anytime soon.

It is said that the bogongs were an important aboriginal food source, and that they are high in protein and fat. I don’t think we’ll be trying any, thanks.