The Biggest Moth....Errr, I mean Butterfly EVER!

Kelly & I were hanging out in her room one day. I was putting something in her closet when out flew this huge brown thing! It came right at my face, and the wings were flapping so hard, I at first thought it was a bird. Then as it whizzed past my ear, I got a glimpse and thought even worse... that it was one of those giant flying roaches (some of you might remember my bad experiences with those critters back when I worked in the old bldgs at SDSU campus...).

So, of course, I go blazing out of her room screaming at the top of my lungs!! Halfway down the hall my brain kicks in and realizes that Kelly was still in there. I peer around the corner and saw the thing perched on her clothes basket and Kelly staring at me not sure if she should start crying or laughing. Then she says, "ooooh, mommy! A BUTTERFLY"!

Then I realize its actually a moth....not just an ordinary moth, but the biggest moth I have EVER SEEN! The wingspan was a good 7-8 inches! It stayed perched there long enough for me to snap this evidence, but as soon as it recovered, it took off, and I went screaming from the room again, this time with Kelly in tow. A while later, I made Gary go look for it, but he could not find it anywhere. Kelly kept going in her room calling out, "hey, butterfly, where are you?" But it still wouldn't come out! :-)

The following night, we were all asleep in our room (Kelly didn't need an excuse to sleep with us now!), and all of a sudden we hear a fwap, fwap, fwapping noise just above the bed. I jumped up, silently screaming (trying not to wake Kelly), turned on the lowest light setting and sure enough that darn thing was in OUR room now! It was caught in the swirling vortex of the ceiling fan. We pulled the covers all the way over Kelly to protect her while we stood on either side of the bed, me still silently screaming and Gary yelling, "shhhh"!!!

The force finally flung it to a corner of the room where it perched recovering again. I grabbed my laundry basket, dumped the clothes and handed it to Gary to capture this thing in. I opened our slider door so he could take it outside... Well, I really wish I had a picture of this next scene but it all happened too fast - Gary in his boxers, holding the basket up in the air, arms fully outstretched, prancing too and fro trying to figure the best angle to get 'em, cursing the whole time... But he got him in the basket and flung the whole thing outside and slammed the slider shut! Kelly remained asleep and missed the whole event. Bye, bye moth! Errr.... I mean butterfly!