{"id":752994,"date":"2026-06-22T05:25:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T05:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/752994\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T05:25:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T05:25:19","slug":"large-privet-hawk-moth-spotted-in-kelowna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/752994\/","title":{"rendered":"Large privet hawk moth spotted in Kelowna"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bubba of moths
\n\"Terry<\/p>\n

Photo: Terry Jacklin<\/p>\n

Terry Jacklin spotted a large privet hawk moth near Kelowna.<\/p>\n

If a moth could be named Bubba, this would be it.<\/p>\n

Terry Jacklin spotted the large, grey, winged beast in the Upper Mission in Kelowna, and that brings us to Castanet’s Bug of the Week.<\/p>\n

Jacklin spotted a member of the privet hawk moth family, one of the larger moths to call the region home.<\/p>\n

Hawk moths have also made social media rounds lately, with several social media posts being made about the winged critters.<\/p>\n

Privet hawk moths can get five cm, or about two inches, in length, but they are not the biggest moths in the area.<\/p>\n

The tarantula moth<\/a> is bigger with a wing span of 10 to 15 cm, or some six inches, and despite its name, it is completely harmless.<\/p>\n

The tarantula moth is also a quite a pretty insect, with distinct features.<\/p>\n

The privet hawk moth is a more basic-looking moth.<\/p>\n

And like all moths, the hawk moth is harmless to humans unless you struggle with mottephobia, which is the fear of moths and butterflies.<\/p>\n

Hawk moths act as pollinators and are generally considered a benefit to have around, at least as adults.<\/p>\n

Big moths come from big larvae and the hawk moth larvae is considered a pest as they are voracious eaters and can do damage to a garden.<\/p>\n

Have you had an encounter of the insect kind? Email us a picture or video<\/a> and we may feature it as our Bug of the Week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bubba of moths Photo: Terry Jacklin Terry Jacklin spotted a large privet hawk moth near Kelowna. If…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-752994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}