Are Moths Poisonous?

Evan and I just had the following conversation. My SIL's sister, Julia, was talking about the difference in male and female thinking last night. This is a perfect example!


Evan: Hey, Mom? Are moths poisonous?

Me: I don't think so.

Evan: Even if you put them in your mouth?

Me: silence - huh - I'm really stumped. Why would you want to do that?

Evan: shoulder shrug as he walked away smiling

Part 2:

Immediately after I posted our conversation, I wondered if moths really were poisonous. I called Evan back into the computer room and we looked it up online. We found out that there is a member of the Tiger moth family that is in fact poisonous because of the plants it eats while in larva form. Who knew?

Evan then told me that he was wondering if they were poisonous because of the powder that's on their wings. Again he sparked my curious side, and we looked that up, too. Turns out that the powder is actually scales that in a male contain scent to attract females. These scales help moths (and butterflies for that matter) escape things such as spider webs.

Evan's reply to this?

COOL! So if Frodo had been covered by those scales, he would have been able to escape the spider web!

I love how the male mind works.