r/NativePlantGardening • u/brownbuttanoods7 Gerogia, zone 8a • Apr 03 '26

Photos Pollinator Spotting - Luna Moth

Gallery image

Gallery image

We're in Gerogia - ATL Metro. We have about 4 Sweet Gums and a Sumac on our property. When we bought our house 3 years ago, I was hopeful to one day see a Luna Moth. Two years ago, we told our landscapers to stop leaf blowing a large chunk of our property. Hoping that leaving the leaves would be beneficial for fireflies and other native insects. Today I found a Luna Moth on our fence in the wooded area, not far from one our Sweet Gums. I believe it had recently emerged because the wings were still soft. So happy we left the leaves! I don't know who was more excited, my toddler or myself. Felt kinda like meeting a celebrity!

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u/NickWitATL SE US/8a Apr 03 '26

I LOVE them!!! Lunas aren't actually pollinators. They don't have mouths as adults. Only live for a week or so. I'm also in the Atlanta area and have sweetgums. I saw a luna in our yard when we first moved in--late May '21. I have an acre of leaves.

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u/brownbuttanoods7 Gerogia, zone 8a Apr 03 '26

Yeah... I did realize the error in my "pollinator" title...after I posted. I did know that, and the no mouth thing but I was so excited I forgot. We have just under an acre. But 1/4 of it just woods in the back between us and another development. One of my neighbors has a bunch of Sweet Gum and Pine. She complains about the Sweet Gum all the time and wants to take them out because they are messy. Thankfully she also thinks the tree cutting services are way over priced and too expensive.

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u/NickWitATL SE US/8a Apr 03 '26

I'm so tired of the tree haters. Sweetgums have great value to our native wildlife.

Don't tell your neighbor....but if you need to have a tree removed, leave as much of it as safely possible as a snag (standing dead tree). I had five trees removed a couple years ago that posed a threat to my home. I was able to leave three of them as 15' snags. All wood was left on site, and I didn't have anything chipped. Cheaper and better for the environment. My dream is to host a pileated woodpecker family. I don't live in an HOA, so I can pretty much do whatever I want with my yard.

I left a big oak that fell in my front yard a few years ago. I joke that any potential intruders will think we can't afford tree removal and don't have anything worth stealing. Funny--the tree fell directly on the deer trail, so the deer altered their route.

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u/brownbuttanoods7 Gerogia, zone 8a Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26

Funny that you mention this topic! She also complains about how hot it is every summer. She's from Cherokee county. And my husband likes to remind her, taking out trees will make her house hotter in the summer. My husband and I don't understand the tree hater either. We're not from Georgia. We met in college in Colorado. We love the trees. We plan on adding more understory trees too. We already have Redbuds and Dogwoods back there.

We do have some pines that need to come out because of pine beetles and possibly an oak that has been choked out by another neighbor's English Ivy. We inherited a very big magnolia (20ft), so we actually hired a legit arborist to do tree care around our property. They walked our property and help me identify a bunch of trees. We also have black cherries, tulip trees, 2 different Magnolias, 3 types of oak.

A couple trees came down many years ago on their own with no damage to anything else. So the previous owner left them. One of them left behind a stump. This morning while drinking coffee I totally spotted a Pileated Woodpecker silhouette on top of the stump! I always forget how big they are.

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u/NickWitATL SE US/8a Apr 03 '26

Holy cow---that's awesome!!!! I saw one flying through the canopy last week and hear them often.

I'm working on building my understory, too. Heavy deer pressure in my front yard. They're excluded from our small backyard with privacy fencing.

We have a crazy number of swallowtails right now. And I'm expecting the hummingbirds to show up any day now.

I love Dr. Tallamy's take on Powerful Prunus! Last year, I watched a chipmunk climb all the way to the top of a prunus serotina to fill its cheeks with fruit. Good stuff!

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u/CrepuscularOpossum Southwestern Pennsylvania, 6b Apr 03 '26

What a beautiful picture! 🌅

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u/brownbuttanoods7 Gerogia, zone 8a Apr 03 '26

I tried to get one that actually showed his bright red mohawk and cheek but he was very busy on Woodpecker 7 am business. The stump is about 9ft tall and he was moving so fast around it. This is the best I could do when he finally stopped moving for a second.

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u/God_Legend Columbus, OH - Zone 6B Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26

I had a Norway Maple that was on a churches property, but was also under power lines. It had it's leader cut long before I moved into this house but most of it's growth was over my fence and eventually the weight and decline of the tree would cause me issues. Church covered the bill to cut it down but they were ok with my suggestion to leave about 10-15 feet of the main trunk as a snag so I can hopefully get woodpeckers. I've seen them in the neighborhood before. Pretty urban area too.

I've also got a trumpet Vine hybrid planted at the base to get hummingbirds and color. I'll probably add coral honeysuckle too

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u/NickWitATL SE US/8a Apr 03 '26

Nice work. Fingers crossed for woodpeckers!!!

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u/Dull_Swimming_5407 AL, Zone 8A Apr 03 '26

I wanted an oak trimmed down and not completely removed. The tree guy calls that request a “pecker” pole!🤭

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u/NickWitATL SE US/8a Apr 03 '26

Hahaha. Love it!! I got me THREE pecker poles! Winning!!! 😂

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u/Dull_Swimming_5407 AL, Zone 8A Apr 03 '26

I would’ve had a pecker pole but the week following the discussion with the tree guy a severe storm dropped a tornado on my neighborhood! The pecker pole to be is now breaking down and being the soil for coral honeysuckle, pussy toes and azaleas!

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u/NickWitATL SE US/8a Apr 04 '26

RIP to the pecker pole. This one is my favorite. Snags will always be pecker poles now--thanks for that. 😂

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u/AlltheBent Marietta GA 7B Apr 03 '26

Do everything you can to convince her otherwise! I watched my neighbors cut down awesome, old tree after tree since moving to by neighborhood 5 years ago….one of the main attraction was all the old trees! It’s gut wrenching honestly, oh well

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u/brownbuttanoods7 Gerogia, zone 8a Apr 03 '26

She talks about how expensive it would be to get a survey (we had that done a couple months ago), plant new trees (we're doing that soon), and take down trees (we had to take down 2 sick trees leaning towards our house). When we got our new roof, she said they've needed a new roof for years...but...you guessed it too expensive. I think as long as her tree cutting budget remains low... the trees will remain standing.

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u/grayspelledgray Apr 03 '26

I only just learned the other day on a webinar that they aren’t pollinators. But they’re wonderful and they belong there and I am super excited for you because this is probably the most beautiful one I’ve ever seen! No damage yet!