By Tim Binnall
A family in Oklahoma are trying to get to the bottom of a strange mystery centered around an unidentified flying creature keeps banging into their home at night. According to a local media report, the weird case began sometime last month in Oklahoma City, when Carol Dillin first heard a puzzling thump on the door of her back porch. "I thought somebody was hitting baseballs against the house," she recalled, "then it started sounding like basketballs." However, she found no one outside nor any objects which could account for the "frightening" bangs, which continued to occur every night.
Understandably flummoxed by the maddening mystery, Dillon grew determined to figure out both what was behind the bangs as well as how to put an end to them, though her efforts proved to be frustratingly futile. A pair of faux owls and a decorative skeleton placed outside her home to act as proverbial scarecrows failed to stop the sounds from occurring as did an array of bug bombs and sprays. A security camera overlooking the back door provided a bit of insight as it captured some kind of flying creature smacking into the home, but the nature of animal in the footage has so far been indecipherable.
Having observed multiple videos of the mystery animal's nightly visits to her home, Dillin believes that a bat is causing all the commotion. However, wildlife experts enlisted by a local TV station indicated that this is unlikely to be the case since the airborne mammals' reliance on echolocation would prevent them from crashing into the home. With that potential perpetrator seemingly eliminated, it has been suggested that the source of the banging is actually very large moths, specifically the Luna, Sphinx, or Polyphemus species, as they can grow to a size large enough to account for the sounds which keep tormenting the Dillin family.
Since the insects live outside, the wildlife experts said, they probably were not affected by the temporary poisonous impact of the bug spray. Additionally, despite Dillin keeping it dark outside her home at night, it has been theorized that the moths may be drawn to the green light of the security camera. For her part, the homeowner says she is so fed up with the banging that she is now looking into having her back porch closed off, while she also plans to buy a game camera which she can position to provide a different perspective on the nightly bangs in the hopes of solving the mystery once and for all.