Turkey Tracks: June 10, 2020
A Pretty Creature
I’ve never seen this moth before s/he flew into the house when AC Slater went out for his final lawn visit of the night.
It’s a moth associated with maple trees: the rosy maple moth, or Cosmoth.
From wikipedia, where there are some very pretty pictures:
“Dryocampa rubicunda. Dryocampa rubicunda, the rosy maple moth or the Cosmoth, is a small North American moth in the family Saturniidae, also known as the great silk moths. … Adult females lay their yellow ovular eggs in groups of 10 to 40 on the underside of maple leaves.“
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryocampa_rubicunda
One day soon I’m going to leave the outdoor light on the garage and check first thing in the morning to see what moths showed up. That exercise can be really fun.
Now!
I can tell you what is NOT A PRETTY CREATURE: the brown tail caterpillar.
While heaving diatomaceous earth at my blueberry, raspberry, and strawberry plants in an effort to kill the caterpillars munching their way through them, I got one on my shirt sleeve—a long-sleeve heavy cotton t-shirt. I did not take off the shirt immediately. By nightfall, here’s what happened to my skin under the layer of the sleeve:
Holy Cow!! It itched like fire—and still does off and on, two days later. Lavender essential oil helps a lot. Did you know that lavender essential oil is also great for kitchen burns—it stops the burn immediately.
Louisa Enright's Blog 
Oohhhh. So sorry they did this to you! Wonder if they’ve headed further north in Maine. How would they get there? Crawl???
Maybe a little laugh will help.
Yes, it’s bad enough that one must laugh. You are in Maine? Well, the moth form would fly. Would it seek out new oak trees to lay eggs, moving further north/south to do so? Probably, but it would take some years probably.