A woman got the "fright of her life" when a giant moth came knocking on her window in Cork last night.
Patricia, who was speaking to Neil Prendeville on Cork's Redfm, said she "nearly died" when the moth tried to get into her house.
The frightened woman said she couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the size of it, Cork Beo reports.
Patricia told Redfm: "It's a big moth, I'd nearly want to charge him rent, it's about the palm of your hand.
"I nearly died, when he opened his wings then and the noise he was making at the window.
"I was screaming and my son ran in and said ''what's wrong with ya?', I said look at it.
"It was outside the window but I had the bathroom window open and he was trying to get in.
"Obviously when I turned on the light he was attracted to it and tried to come in.
"My son went out and took a picture of him then. He had fangs and everything he did, he'd go for your throat, if you saw him now you'd run.
"He was sharpening up to get into me. I never in my life got such a fright."
The shocked woman said they put the moth in a jar for a while to look at it before letting it off outside a while later.
She added: "My son put him into a jar and put a few holes into it - we took him out straight away and he's in the flower-box outside under a leaf.
"He has a big chuckle head, a fat head, but he has lovely colours on them.
"I'm going to keep all my windows closed and I'll have to turn off all
the lights in the house."
Patricia believed that the species she encountered may have been a hawk-moth which are occasionally found in Ireland.
These types of moths are colourful and can have a wingspan of up 20cm.
Luckily, despite Patricia's own fears, no matter how big these mothsare they are completely harmless to humans.
They have no teeth to bite or any capability of stinging.
