[bclaker]

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Originally Posted by Water Camper

If you all can stand one more tale .... let me first say that I am seriously terrified of bees, a life-long phobia. Also, let me say this story is a bit embarrassing but you'll probably get a good laugh! One summer a few years ago I was painting the outside of our house. Went out in the morning, my hair tied up in a bun in a big pink hair scrunchy. I climb up the ladder (not very high), paint cup and paint brush in hand. All of a sudden this HUGE bee is circling my head. I fell off the ladder, paint going one way, the brush another. I made a bee line for the breezeway and it chased me all the way there.

Once I stopped shaking and composed myself and didn't see it any longer, I creaped back out all the while looking around. No sooner am I on the ladder and here it comes again buzzing around my head. This thing looked like a 2 inch long, very fat honey bee but it's body was really fuzzy. I run into the house again with it in mad pursuit.

I called the State of NH and asked to speak to their bee expert. I told him what had been happening, that I'm terrified of bees, and that I needed help to get rid of this bee from Jurassik Park. He began laughing uncontrollably. Once he calmed down and apologized for his laughter, he said what my freak bee was was actually a Hummingbird Moth. It was attracted to the pink hair tie in my hair, thinking it was a flower! I looked it up on the internet and sure enough, that's what it was. I was so embarrassed but I bet that was the funniest call he ever got!
Sue

Sue, you got my curiosity up, so I had to google Humminghbird Moths. I found a number of interesting web sites. One had pictures of a number of multicolored Hummingbird Moths. This videdo shows one in action:

http://173.83.194.219/hummingbirdmoth.html