It’s the correct time of year.

Right about now.

To keep your eyes peeled for four large “eyes” wandering across your driveways, patios, pavements, paths etc.

For the time is right for elephant hawk moth caterpillars to start dropping down from their favourite food plants (willowherbs, bedstraw, garden fuchsias) in order to find a sheltered spot in which to form a pupa and over-winter.

Any time between July and September will produce many sightings of these chunky caterpillars, but this year - August seems to be their month of choice.

Twitter is laden with reports this week and my wife has found two big elephant hawk moth caterpillars in the last two days – one of them in our garden.

Now the elephant hawk moth is not a rare moth in the UK – but it’s a real belter – so luridly pink that it almost looks tropical in nature. The caterpillars (as I’ve mentioned) are invariably to be found in clumps of great willowherb, but the shocking pink adults only fly in the evening and at night – taking nectar from honeysuckle, petunias and the like.

Elephant eyes

Rather like its cousin, the  "dusk-loving piglet" (the small elephant hawk moth (Deilephila porcellus)) the (large) elephant hawk moth (Deilephila elpenor) was actually first given a porcine (not an elephantine) name. The caterpillar's front end was thought to resemble a pig's snout rather than an elephant's trunk as is it now.

Deile – dusk or the evening (Greek)

Phileo – To love (Greek)

Porcellus – piglet (Greek)

Elpenor - one of Odysseus' sailors turned into swine by Circe.

You see.... some pigs DO eventually fly!

Because it’s not a rare moth, it’s quite fun to provide a pupation home for a caterpillar if you find one in late summer or early autumn.

I’ve done that with the second caterpillar that my wife found today – it’s not difficult and if done correctly – you may even get to see a bright pink elephant hawk moth appear the following May (or perhaps late April if it’s a warm month).

You’ll need a sealable plastic container, preferably around 20cm deep. Some dry compost (NOT garden soil as this may contain centipedes which will OM-NOM-NOM through the pupating moth, lickety-split), a square of kitchen roll soaked in water and a regular supply of the caterpillar’s favourite leaves – great willowherb is a water-loving ‘weed’, is free and ubiquitous – or failing that – raid your neighbours’ fuchsia plants for their leaves!

Pop around 10cm of dry compost into the bottom of your large tub.

Drop a few fuchsia shoots and leaves in, or better still, willowherb.

Stick the wet kitchen roll square in, dig a small, vertical stick into the compost  also, carefully pop the caterpillar in and cover the tub with either a close-fitting lid, or come cling film, held in place with a stout plastic band.

There’s no need to provider “breathing holes” for the caterpillar as long as you remember to take the lid (or cling film) off for a short while each day.

If the caterpillar is still hungry and not quite large enough to pupate, it’ll happily munch through plenty of leaves but eventually, it will stop eating and look to burrow into the ground (whichever centipede-free substrate you’ve provided) to pupate.

So if your beloved ‘pillar disappears one day (or night), fret not – it probably has approved of your efforts and been big & fat enough to start the pupa-forming process.

Once this happens (late summer or early autumn) you really should consider putting the large container outside, somewhere cool (out of the sun) but sheltered from the rain and snow etc.

This will mean the developing adult moth should emerge at the right time of year, with all the other adult hawk moths. The last thing you want to do is trick an adult to emerge in February for example, by keeping it in a light, warm house.

If you’ve managed to follow the advice above, start checking your “moff tub” from my birthday (April 14^th!) onwards and if you’re lucky, one day (as late as late May depending on the temperature at that time of year) you’ll get to see an adult moth climb up your stick (which you buried into the compost), pump up its wings and fly off into the evening or night.

Even MORE reason (should you really need one) to look forward to next May!