Moth Ridiculousness

So I'm getting kind of pathetic. I'm letting giant black moths take over my life. I can't help it. There are just SO many of them, and I am so, so terrified.

According to evidence left on the floor (pieces.of.insect.) and on the walls (kitty paw prints in black dust), Gatinha caught and killed two that came into the apartment last night. (What would I do without her?)

And then today, there were THREE (count them!) trapped in the stairwell of the apartment building. I about had a heart attack last summer when ONE got in. The absolutely worst traumatic part of today was that, like every day, I had to go up and down the stairs like 8 times (no joke) to let my students in and out. Our intercom (interfone) doesn't open the outside gate because some genius (aka whiny and retired) neighbor lady insisted that too many people were leaving the door open, and she was convinced that someone was gonna steal her car. (This was before we moved in.) So now every time students come, I have to go down 4 flights of stairs to let them in.

This bothered me less when there weren't three bat-sized insects trapped in such small quarters.

I know on a rational level that the moths can't hurt me. I know that. But that doesn't mean they don't freak the bejeezus out of me. They're just so big and lopey and conniving and they leave this sick black power on everything they touch. And if when they're stationary, you just never know. The slightest shift in the wind could be enough for them to start flying around wildly, in your face and in your hair.

In an attempt to alleviate my fears / torture myself some more, I looked up the moth on the internet. I learned things that I didn't want to know, like the fact that in Southeast Asia, there are moths as big as street signs, and that in Australia, some indigenous tribes used to EAT MOTHS, like voluntarily put them in their mouths. I also learned that this evil moth that makes it to our town actually lays its eggs as far north as Florida and Texas, and then these caterpillars make cocoons and then hatch and then the moths slowly make their way down south, probably eating goats and small children until they reach super-human size.

So come on, Southerners!  This is your chance! Kill any caterpillars in sight. I know that THEY seem innocent enough, but you have no idea what they can become!

In the meantime, I need to figure out some way to get over this fear, because it's quickly turning into a phobia. I find myself thinking about it way too much, worrying that every little sound at night is a moth coming in to attack me. I don't really understand why. I suppose if we were being invaded by something else, that would be the thing I was freaked out by. (We do get a lot of tiny little geckos, too. But they're super cute and they can't fly.)

Any ideas? Please don't say flooding.