Veteran grey nomads may have come across swarms of ants on their travels, or perhaps a plague of locusts, or rabbits, or kangaroos … but moths would probably be a new one to most!
The Outback Queensland town of Winton has been invaded by tens of thousands of the flying insects which are loving the fresh grass that has grown after recent rainfall. It’s left grey nomad visitors and locals alike scratching their heads … and reaching for their cameras.
Winton resident Frank Standfast told the ABC he had never seen anything like it.
“I’ve never seen it that thick,” he said. “It hasn’t rained here for a week or two, but now we’ve got some grass we seem to have a heap of moths.”
Others have described the moth invasion as resembling a ‘cloud’ or a ‘haze’.
Max Jurd, a barman at the Winton Hotel, said the pub had thousands of the insects clinging to its walls.
“I was raking them up in garbage bags and taking them to the dump,” he told Channel 9 News. “It’s been going for three days … the best way to avoid them is just to turn off all your lights at night, but you still hear them banging into the walls and roof, it honestly sounds like rain.”
When passing outside Tennant Creek at the mines we had a locust plague and soon after a rat plague. The millions of locusts would hit the tin building all night attracted to the light. In the morning they were everywhere in the showers and you had to kill them and squash them down the drain holes or sweep them up before showering. The rats were something from a horror movie…10 inch rats and thousands of them. Shovels killed a lot but 1000 more took their place. Your boots outside the door were partly eaten during the night. Rats in the roofs and kitchen. Eating the insulation on power cables. You would not want to pass out as all they would find of you is a skeleton in the morning. Some tried burning the rats but when they got loose would run away and start bush fires. Moths as big as sparrows in a plaque that’s another story but typical of the Northern Territory outback a few weeks after life giving rain and the right conditions.
??? Are they still there today ….. We are looking at visiting soon
Not many there at present but needs a good wet season to get the plagues going an the right conditions