‘I’d migrate elsewhere’: Singaporean jokes after finding strange green eggs on her window

SINGAPORE: When a local content creator found insect eggs attached to the window of her HDB flat, she found it so repulsive that it was almost enough to get her to move out of Yishun.

Ms Pamela Lee Nur Shuhadah said in a July 13 video on Instagram and TikTok that people had asked a number of questions about the photo she had posted the day before of the deep green eggs she had found.

She summarised the questions as one, whether the eggs were stuck on the window inside or outside the house; two, which insect was responsible for them; and three, whether it was actually faecal matter, presumably from birds.

“I’m here to answer some of those questions to the best of my abilities,” Ms Pamela said.

However, she clarified that she is not an insect person, adding that if one makes its way into her home, it will never get out alive. She sprays whatever insecticide she has available at home, and in many cases, Ms Pamela said the insects “drown before they suffocate” because of the amount of spray she uses.

She first explained that the eggs were on the outer part of the window. 

“Clearly, some bug decided to lay its eggs (out) there,” Ms Pamela said calmly, repeating that there is no bug situation inside her home because she assiduously and quickly takes care of them.

As to whether or not the green stuff was bird poo, she firmly stated that it wasn’t.

She explained that in order for a bird or any other creature to stain her window with faeces, they would have to arch their rear end and angle it in a certain way to have the effect she saw on her window.

If the animal responsible were a bird, their poo would have gone directly down.

Saying that she’s gotten defecated on by birds in the past, Ms Pamela stated authoritatively, “Trust me. It doesn’t look like that. It CAN be green, but it doesn’t look like that. And it doesn’t sound like that.”

Ms Pamela also said she did a Google search to determine which insect laid the eggs is a type of “very fertile moth.”

“I’m glad that the birth rates of this moth are going up,” she quipped. “Happy for them.”

Fortunately for Ms Pamela, her partner was on hand to “slay” the eggs, scraping them with tissue until they came off the window.

“If that was me, I would have just sold the house and migrated elsewhere, to a place where I wouldn’t be put in such a situation,” she joked toward her video’s end. 

As Ms Pamela found out, these are indeed moth eggs, which are not uncommon in Singapore. Their green color turns to grey or brown just before they hatch into very small caterpillars, a process which usually takes place between four and 10 days.

People who would like to remove them to prevent the insects from coming inside their homes may scrape the eggs into a bag with a flat edge like an old credit card, and then wash the window with soapy water. /TISG

Read also: Singapore insect problem: Why flying ants, bees, and beetles keep ending up in your home, and how to get them out humanely—Experts explain