do led lights bother bats? attract them?

[raggie33]

i was just in woods playing with a light i like to hole in front of eyes and a huge bat flew so close to my face that i almost fainted it was huge ive never seen a bat that big before here. do you think it was mad at my led light sounds? or maybe attracted?

 

[raggie33]

please delete this i just realized im posting to much again. sorry evryone i sometimes forget and get excited to much about the hobby and i dint give others the chance to post

 

[strideredc]

I think that's what the forum is for? Long as its not nonsense asking the same old hackneyed questions.... I don't think this is, but I am not an expert... in my garden we get loads (small bats as in UK) they are not attracted but with some of my hid light I can follow them across the sky 20 ft away if you very fast. I only do it occasionally to not upset them but to get a closer look...

 

[desert.snake]

My friend has a micro-earphone, it is wireless, somehow I put it in my ear, turned on the flashlight and heard a PWM squeak. Different flashlights have a different sound, some do not squeak at all. Can bats hear it without earphones?

 

[fulee9999]

as far as I know bats don't really like bright lights and your flashlight could be singing to them in a frequency you can't even hear, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't trying to attack you on purpose

so if anything you can ward off bats with your light

 

[chip100t]

A few years ago I saw a large moth flying around a street light when a bat appeared and gave chase. It did not go well for the moth.

 

[idleprocess]

Whenever I visit the folks' house in the country I sometimes scan the sky for bats flying around. They don't seem to notice nor do the bugs they're pursuing.

 

[KITROBASKIN]

A few years ago I saw a large moth flying around a street light when a bat appeared and gave chase. It did not go well for the moth.

Lights attract moths, moths attract bats. Our bats do not seem to be particularly bothered by scrutiny via flashlight beam.

raggie, what happened to your random remarks thread? How about using that instead of a new thread each time you have a question or observation? Or making a new random type thread. Call it what you will. Or just keep on doing what you have been doing; Other members often respond to your stuff, and sometimes take it other directions as well. A forum thrives by the posting of content from their members, right?

 

[bykfixer]

In a word, yes

LED-lighting influences the activity of bats

The widespread replacement of conventional bulbs in street lighting by energy-saving light-emitting diodes (LEDs) has considerable influence on bats as urban nocturnal hunters. Opportunistic bats lose hunting opportunities whereas light sensitive species benefit, scientists have found.

www.sciencedaily.com

In my area a type of mold spores is wiping out bats to the point the long eared bat is on the endangered species list.

 

[chip100t]

Lights attract moths, moths attract bats. Our bats do not seem to be particularly bothered by scrutiny via flashlight beam.

raggie, what happened to your random remarks thread? How about using that instead of a new thread each time you have a question or observation? Or making a new random type thread. Call it what you will. Or just keep on doing what you have been doing; Other members often respond to your stuff, and sometimes take it other directions as well. A forum thrives by the posting of content from their members, right?

I don't understand when mods warn people when threads go off topic. That's how conversations work. A thread can go off topic for ten pages and someone can still then post something relevant to the original topic if they wish.

Raggie post as much as you want, people can choose to ignore your post if they wish.

 

[ironhorse]

The bat could have been after bugs that were attracted to the light.
You're not posting too much.

 

[raggie33]

ty everyone im very shy off line most people assume i cant talk. im probaly one of the most shy humans in the world.. so i love online becuase i can express my thought and be socail. ..i d0 talk to the stray cats local.. a few think there dogs

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Hmm... I have a "bat detector" that downshifts ultrasonic bat vocalizations to the range of human hearing. I'm going to test a few flashlights with this and see (well, hear) if it picks up anything.

**Edit** Just tried it with my PD-36R on all brightness modes and I got nothing, so this one is silent to bats. Will try a few more and report back.

Also just tested my PD-32UE on all brightness modes. No ultrasonic whine there either.

 

[hsa]

You've got a "what"? That's interesting. Looking forward to it.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

You've got a "what"? That's interesting. Looking forward to it.

It's a hobbyist grade unit from Haynes. It comes as an easily assembled kit that teaches some basic wiring concepts. The retail price is around $30 but I snagged one on a discount recently. We have the occasional unidentified flying animal buzzing through our yard at night so I was interested in checking out any high pitched vocalizations above 20khz and this is a nice fit for a good price.

 

[hsa]

That's really cool.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Yeah. It doesn't detect Batman though. I think I need a more expensive model for that.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

i was just in woods playing with a light i like to hole in front of eyes and a huge bat flew so close to my face that i almost fainted it was huge ive never seen a bat that big before here. do you think it was mad at my led light sounds? or maybe attracted?

Raggie, it just dawned on me that your light was probably attracting insects, which in turn attracts bats.

On a related note, I was in Vegas once, standing outside the Luxor at night and looking at it's gigantic beam of light shooting into the sky. I noticed a lot of flying stuff in the beam and I asked someone what it was. Turns out it was bats that were feasting on the insects that were attracted to the light.