Moths ??

Me too, I remember coming home late at night, key ready, outside light on, stretching my arm as far as possible to avoid them fluttering around the light. Then sprinting in the door!

Kitty, I`m with you, I`m terrified of moths, but strangely, I love butterflies.

I'm another who evacuates the room if there is a moth other than clothes moth size. I leave himself to deal with it.
Perversely I can gently gather a butterfly in my hands and release it outside. I've often puzzled over that.

I have always had a phobia about moths, made worse by an incident when I was breastfeeding my son in a friends kitchen. One flew near me and I panicked flapped about and thought it had gone. When I got home and undressed ready for bed a squashed moth fell out of my bra!

Oh dear God! scuttles off to scrutinise corners of carpets

I'll never forget the autumn evening many years ago when attending a get-together with friends and colleagues from the hospital. A gathering of us were standing chatting near an open window and a huge moth flew in----and landed, covering the mouth of a friend ! I was helpless laughing as it looked as though she had a moustache, she was spitting it away, we were nearly all collapsing. Some help we were !

I still laugh to myself to this day thinking about it

Another time in Oz, one flew in on company in a house---it was the size of a sparrow and everyone scattered. That was hilarious too, to me anyway.

Then the night returning home from friends in Oz again----a swarm of moths which apparently had originated in Africa, covered the night sky as we walked home. I remember the kids screaming because they just flew at you and landed everywhere.

They certainly follow me around

yet feel so guilty when I see one and squash it.

Don't feel guilty about carpet moths. They do nothing for the ecosystem in your house! The larvae look like grains of rice but by that time they have munched your carpet.

Carpet moths are dreadful. If you see something that looks like a tiny thread get rid of it as it could be eggs. They like shady spots , under furniture in dark corners and will happily munch away at your carpet. They can leave behind a gritty sort of substance.I have plenty of evidence in my hall carpet and yet feel so guilty when I see one and squash it.
They dint seem to be deterred by those sticky traps, although this year I have had more success in that respect.

Witzend. Unfortunately I was in bed, reading on my iPad with no other lights on - Callistemon sorry to do this to you!

Chewbacca

Never heard of carpet moths? What fresh hell is this?

They are a fresh hell!
If you have a wool carpet watch out for little grains of rice in dark corners or under seldom moved furniture - it's the larvae of the carpet moth which are munching their way steadily through your carpet. The moth is tiny and sneaks in to lay its eggs in undisturbed areas.
A horror I'd never encountered until last year!
Even thorough vacuuming with a nozzle around the edges doesn't seem to pick up the eggs.

Chewbacca

Never heard of carpet moths? What fresh hell is this?

I hadn’t heard of them either. I thought that clothes moths also ate carpets and other soft furnishings - I didn’t know that they could differentiate.

Never heard of carpet moths? What fresh hell is this?

Exactly Callistemon.
I never used to be bothered by moths, but the carpet variety are a menace.

On my way into work one morning, I was just about to go inside and suddenly saw that there was a huge Hawk moth sat just to the side of the door handle. I couldn't, for the life of me, go in. I didn't want to call any colleagues to come and move it because I knew I'd get teased relentlessly about it. So I turned around and went home and phoned in sick.

And the carpet moths!

Clothes moths on the other hand get squashed on sight!

Lexisgranny that made me shiver!!

We don't seem to get the large moths which I remember as a child, fluttering around my bedroom and which used to terrify me.

I try to rationalise this now because moths can be beautiful, play a vital role in our ecosystem and are a source of food for other animals.

As long as they keep away from my head, I'm happy.

I read in bed with the window wide open and the curtains not drawn - I love to feel the air coming in - but for that purpose I read on the Kindle. The light isn’t enough to attract moths.

I do read plenty of ‘proper’ books too, but I wouldn’t be without my Kindle - also for massive fat books that are too heavy/awkward to read in bed. My current Kindle-read is the massive fat A Suitable Boy.

I dislike moths intensely. I hate anything that flutters near me, so can imagine how I felt the other evening, when I was reading and a moth actually flew behind my spectacles and its wings actually touched my eyelashes! To me - a nightmare.

I'm just the same, terrible moth phobia. I cannot be in the same room with one and my DH is always called upon to remove any that get in. Having said that, their numbers are clearly declining, as I haven't had one in the house for several years now. In the past I used to dread the annual autumn moth invasion, but no longer. Which, despite my phobia, saddens me greatly.

Moths are my absolute nightmare OP, I can't be in the same room as one. Spiders, slugs, earwigs etc.... no bother, but moths are abominable to me and have been since childhood. If one does manage to get in on a summer evening, I can't deal with it and just have to turn every light off and go straight to bed with doors and windows shut. Can't even look at pictures of them.

I used to be scared of them when a bit younger a big fat one flew into my face, but i haven`t seen one for ages,years even.
I think the pepprmint oil i put all over the house may have something to do with it.