Gardener stunned by rare yard visitor after removing pests by hand: 'I might have teared up'

Garden pests can wreak havoc on otherwise thriving plants. After one gardener spent an hour removing earwigs from their garden, a beautiful visitor — a hummingbird moth — came to reward them for their efforts.

In the r/NativePlantGardening subreddit, the original poster shared a photo of the moth and titled their post, "After painstakingly removing earwigs for an hour by hand, a hummingbird moth came to congratulate me."

The photo shows an orange and red hummingbird moth pausing at a cluster of pink flowers in the OP's garden. The gardener wrote, "I might have teared up, I've never seen one of these before, and earwigs are ruining my life."

Earwigs aren't always a nuisance, but in large numbers they can destroy healthy plants. Hummingbird moths, on the other hand, are a welcome garden visitor.

They're a special kind of pollinator capable of reaching far into tubular flowers with their elongated tongues, similar to a hummingbird. Pollinators do the important job of helping flowers and plants reproduce, including those that make up our food supply.

One way to draw in more pollinators is to update your yard with a native-plant garden or natural lawn. This not only saves homeowners both time and money, it also creates a healthier ecosystem for pollinators.

Native plants require less irrigation and maintenance, cutting down water bills and service fees for homeowners. Even a partial lawn replacement will allow residents to reap these rewards, while having a beautiful lawn to admire instead of labor over. 

Rewilding your yard or replacing traditional grass with clover are both eco-friendly and low-maintenance options. Buffalo grass and xeriscaping are also money-saving landscaping choices worth looking into. 

Some Redditors commiserated with the OP over the large number of earwigs present in their garden. One user wrote, "New fear unlocked!"

Other users shared the OP's excitement for the moth sighting. One Redditor said, "I love those guys!"

Another user wrote, "My fav critter, just the coolest!"

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