After a few days in Bend, Oregon to visit with friends, we drove straight through Idaho, Utah and Wyoming to get to Denver for some medical appointments. Managing appointments and prescriptions has been one of the more challenging aspects of life on the road. As we transitioned from my former employer’s health plan to new coverage with a different network of doctors, Mrs. 123 had to find new providers and reestablish coverage.
We set up camp at Cherry Creek State Park, not far from where we first lived when we moved to Denver five years ago. Our timing couldn’t have been worse. We arrived in the middle of the miller moth migration.
Every year, around May and June, millions of these gray and brown moths, the adult stage of the army cutworm, migrate from the plains toward the mountains seeking flowering plants. They’re called miller moths because they release a white powder when they flap their wings, like a miller grinding grain into flour.
Miller moths avoid daylight and seek shelter before the sun comes out. Their ideal shelter is dark and tight spaces. Small cracks in the doorways of homes and garages make perfect hiding places. So do the various vents and gaps in an RV trailer.
For our three nights in Denver, and another four nights in Wyoming, they’d emerge from the vents and dark corners of our trailer, harassing us as we read in bed.
Each time, we’d have to get up, turn the lights on, track down the offending insect and squash it with a napkin. On our last night in Denver, we literally killed 30 moths.
We thought we’d escape the infestation when we left Colorado but at our next two stops in Wyoming, we’d still kill about a dozen a night.
It wasn’t till our third night in Flaming Gorge that we finally experienced a moth-free night. There were a few stragglers after that, but never more than one or two.
Thankfully, miller moths don’t chew holes in clothing, lay eggs indoors or damage household furnishings. According to Colorado State University, “the greatest damage created by millers is the lost sleep resulting from their flying around the room.”
You’re telling me.
