Moths on a billboard in Sydney, Australia, where swarms of moths are invading the city's business district, cloaking skyscrapers and infesting hotels
Photographer: Jack Atley/Bloomberg News
Swarms of moths are invading Sydney's business district, cloaking skyscrapers and infesting hotels as they succumb to the bright lights of Australia's biggest city.
While the native Bogong moths migrate annually from the plains of northeastern Australia to the southern Alps, unseasonable winds are blowing them off course this year.
"You look at the side of the building and it's just like a huge growth of black moths,'' said Allan Newman, facilities manager at the Governor Macquarie Tower in central Sydney, which houses the offices of the New South Wales state premier. ``We've put extra cleaners on to vacuum them up when they get inside and have been sweeping the sides of the building.''
The only defense for human city-dwellers is to dim lights on the outsides of buildings to discourage the moths from taking up residence -- and wait, scientists say. The insects' detour will kill them within weeks because they can't work out how to continue their journey.
"They can never leave because it's impossible for them to identify natural light,'' said Martyn Robinson, a naturalist at Sydney's Australian Museum. "They will most likely just dehydrate and die because of the heat.''
The hot, dry summers of northern Australia's Queensland state force the moths to migrate from their breeding grounds to the cooler mountains, Robinson said. The nocturnal creatures navigate with the aid of moon- and starlight, and are confused by city lights when blown off course.
By yesterday, the moths had made themselves at home on the building of the state Department of Primary Industries, the ministry responsible for monitoring the vegetable-eating insects. They also flooded the foyer of Prime Minister John Howard's Sydney office.
Torrence Belfroid, a 36-year-old visitor from the Netherlands, said he spent more than an hour yesterday trying to clear moths from his hotel room.
"It was very difficult to get them out because they're bigger than the moths we have in Europe,'' Belfroid said. ``I was expecting to see all kinds of insects here in Australia, but the groups of moths on the buildings are not that nice to look at.''
In the capital, Canberra, the moths are an annual scourge because the city is on their flight path.
Soon after Australia unveiled its new national parliament building in the city in 1988, an influx of moths left lawmakers clearing carcasses for months. Engineers were forced to cut the lighting and redesign air intakes, according to the country's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.
Sydney building managers who want to deter the visitors should install yellow, red or blue lights that don't attract insects, said naturalist Robinson. Insecticides rarely work because the moths have tiny scales that protect their breathing holes from contaminants, he said.
Another option is to gobble them up. Australia's Aborigines used the moths as sources of protein and fat, roasting them in ashes and mashing them into a cake, said Robinson, who also feasts on the insects.
The name Bogong is said to come from an Aboriginal word meaning "high plains.'' The scientific name is agrotis infusa.
While some Bogong connoisseurs prepare omelets, Robinson said he prefers to pluck them off walls, remove the furry wings and eat them raw.
"They have a nut-like taste, but mostly they just taste like moth,'' he said.
Well thank heavens, they don't taste like chicken (c:
