# I´m on a lepidopter´s hit list **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 5, 2007, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-m-on-a-lepidopter-s-hit-list/418105 "2007-09-05T11:39:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2007, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-m-on-a-lepidopter-s-hit-list/418105/1 "2007-09-05T11:39:56Z")
I work doing visual effect for movies and commercial, so now I´m working on a commercial for xxxxx which requires me to make and animate two realistic butterflies. 20 minutes ago I went out for a snack and used the back street, one that borders a grassland and has a lot of vegetation and flowers. Since there´s always a lot of butterflies there I tried to catch one to use as a reference for modelling, I stalked one for about 5 minutes but it eluded my grasp, the thing is I wanted to catch it without harming it, besides my respect for nature and living beings a squished butterfly it´s not quite good for modeling reference, you´ll understand… Anyway, I couldn´t get the bug and I went on to the store, 2 minutes later walking under some trees, minding my own business, all of the sudden Whaaack!, a tree branch landed on my head! Not too big, luckly, about 60 centimiters long, 3 in diameter and about half a kilogram, but darn, it hurt! and left a bruise on my forehead. After the shock I connected the dots, obviously that buttefly wanted to off me, I´m wondering where it got a tiny little saw to cut that branch. They look pretty and harmless, but those stareless eyes hide a criminal mind, I tell you. i have to leave soon, it´s already dark and the back street is poorly illuminated… ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2007, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-m-on-a-lepidopter-s-hit-list/418105/2 "2007-09-05T13:19:09Z")
Is it wrong if I’m visualizing this in the style of Gary Larson? ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2007, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-m-on-a-lepidopter-s-hit-list/418105/3 "2007-09-05T13:20:35Z")
Hell, he probably did a strip on this exact situation at some point. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2007, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-m-on-a-lepidopter-s-hit-list/418105/4 "2007-09-05T13:53:23Z")
Philip K Dick wrote a short story about the same, remember that the birds and spiders are on your side. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2007, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-m-on-a-lepidopter-s-hit-list/418105/5 "2007-09-05T13:54:39Z")
Heh, that’s funny! If you want to get a close up in action, smear a little salty sweet water on your hand, and many butterflies (or, frankly, maybe pretty moths, I can’t tell the difference) will come land on you and sip the fluid from the minute cracks in your skin. It’s pretty wild - once they figure out you taste good (and apparently my sweat alone tastes good) word spreads. At one point last weekend, I had four of them on my hands all at once, all unfurling their long curled proboscises (proboscii?) and licking me. Butterfly licks tickle, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2007, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-m-on-a-lepidopter-s-hit-list/418105/6 "2007-09-05T14:09:18Z")
> [@](#): > > I tried to catch one Get a net. They’re called “butterfly” nets. Like the ones they use in cartoons to catch crazy people with. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2007, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-m-on-a-lepidopter-s-hit-list/418105/7 "2007-09-05T14:27:47Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] It’s pretty wild - once they figure out you taste good (and apparently my sweat alone tastes good) word spreads. [/QUOTE] And then you strike! Dozens will fall to your mighty wrath! ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2007, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-m-on-a-lepidopter-s-hit-list/418105/8 "2007-09-05T17:44:38Z")
I’m very, very careful not to get on the lepidoptera hit list. I have lantana and passion flower growing behind my house, so at any point, there are probably at least half a dozen orange, yellow or black butterflies flitting around. ::shifty eyes:: ---
**Author:** ![Lady\_Eboshi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/57b2e6/32.png) [@Lady\_Eboshi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_Eboshi)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2007, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-m-on-a-lepidopter-s-hit-list/418105/9 "2007-09-05T18:14:57Z")
[QUOTE=TroubleAgain] I’m very, very careful not to get on the lepidoptera hit list. I have lantana and passion flower growing behind my house, so at any point, there are probably at least half a dozen orange, yellow or black butterflies flitting around. ::shifty eyes:: [/QUOTE] Why do I have [this image](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v486/jrocknyc/venture_bros_2x06-76.png) running through my mind? ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2007, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-m-on-a-lepidopter-s-hit-list/418105/10 "2007-09-05T18:21:00Z")
Farfalla! Farfalla vendetta!! ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2007, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-m-on-a-lepidopter-s-hit-list/418105/11 "2007-09-05T18:39:13Z")
And somewhere, on the other side of the world, a mighty hurricane heads for the shoreline… ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2007, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-m-on-a-lepidopter-s-hit-list/418105/12 "2007-09-06T04:31:31Z")
[QUOTE=Kythereia] And somewhere, on the other side of the world, a mighty hurricane heads for the shoreline… [/QUOTE] I tell you those bugs are evil, unleashing the forces of nature on mankind willy-nilly. At least I was trying to get that bastard to stop flapping its damned wings. Now that I think about things, the animosity may extend to the whole insecta class; I have a ant problem at the apartment and starting a few weeks ago I witnessed the most amazing arthropod activity. Everytime I wanted to brush my teeth I found the [toothbrush](http://www.colgate.com/app/Colgate360/US/EN/HomePage.cvsp) teeming with small ants (yeah, eeeewww!), the most incredible thing is that they concentrated on one particular spot and on a specific activity. They where chewing the little rubber nubs off the grip pad on the side of the bristles; only that one, nor the exact duplicate on the other side of the handle, neither the tongue cleaner made of the same stuff. Not only they chewed only those nubs, but by the time they finished they had bitten off all but the ones around the sides of the grip, so now there´s only one row of nubs on each side of the grip. I´m utterly puzzled, the ants left the brush alone after they finished with their version of the crop circles. Is it a message? a warning perhaps?, I don´t know.