An invasion of miller moths this summer?

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Here, let's talk about moths. Colorado's in its worst stage of drought since 2021 right now. I was curious how this was going to impact the miller moth population along the front range, right?

[00:00:10]Um what will we have swarms of moths around like we do some years? During drier years, these moths tend to gravitate toward all these urban landscapes. When you're looking at this bigger picture of, okay, how many moths are we going to see around Colorado this year? The fact that it's been a pretty dry year uh so far may point to more of a presence of these moths in front range cities. That said, spring time has been wetter, so maybe there is a little bit more moisture in the more rural plains areas uh that could keep the moths there. This winter was notably warm, one of the warmest winters in Colorado since I've been here uh for sure. I think in several cities one of the warmest uh winters on record. Uh that probably means that that these populations are doing pretty well based on that factor alone. You also got to think as well in terms of um will these moths be sticking around these front range cities much in terms of how long they'll stay here.

[00:01:02]They don't like heat. If this trend of warmth continues, uh they'll probably be more likely to move to the mountains earlier. But then the mountains also is where some of the most severe drought in the state is going to be. So you kind of have all these conflicting factors, where and if it sounds chaotic, it is because it is a bit chaotic. So we have to turn to an expert because I'm no expert. KKTV, a Colorado Springs news organization, caught up with uh Ryan St. Laurent from CU Boulder. He said it would be fairly normal was his prediction. So not an absence of moths, not overwhelming invasion of moths.

[00:01:35]Um but instead of looking at any of the factors that I just mentioned, right? Uh which all do have an impact on on moths and how they're seen, um he looked at last fall as as a key factor and when these eggs are being laid, right? Uh he described the plains as dry, uh which meant there were fewer places that were ideal for these miller moths to lay their eggs. So, in a sense, uh kind of all of these competing factors, what this expert is saying is that we're looking at a pretty normal year for her miller moths. So, all that to say not much. I was going to say people hate people hate normal years for miller moths, don't they? Mhm.

[00:02:14]They hate any year with miller moths.