Which lights do bugs like best?

Yesterday I came home late and was carrying a 9P with a Lumens Factory H0-9 lamp running on a pair of Pila 300S (17500). I normally EDC a Novatac 120P or Fenix P1DCE Q5 for finding keyholes in the dark, but I thought I'd give the 9P a night out. When I fired it up I amused myself by lighting up the cul-de-sac as I approached my house. The bug life in the hedges near the house and front door went crazy. I had moths and long legged unidentifiable beasties zooming at me from all directions. I had to direct the beam away from my house for a couple of seconds and then shut down before opening the front door, otherwise I'd have had a lot of uninvited guests. Although it was a humid summer night, I've never had this kind of reaction with any LED. I've noticed this phenomenon with the same set up once before while lighting up screaming foxes in my back garden. All the LEDs I've used previously, like Fenix T1 SMO and Romisen RC-T5 were fine, but the 9P/H0-9 brought in moths like stealth bombers. Nearly dropped my torch out of the window!

Does anyone know if bugs find the IR of an incan beam more attractive or is it the sheer intensity? Has anyone had the same problems with high output LEDs? What do nocturnal creatures expect to find in my light that they can't find in the day? Spiders run away from such a bright hot beam, so does this mean flying bugs are dumber?

My outdoor house light is yellow and it is designed to not attract bugs. The bulb is painted bright yellow.

I have these huge spiders that live around my house. I use my U2 on high to spot the webs/spiders at night so I don't walk into them. Several times I shined my U2 point blank at the spiders and they all completely ignore the 100+ lumens inches from their body.

I didn't try it with my incan 6P. If I run into another one, I will post the results.

Actually bugs are quite attracted to white leds but bright incans work just as well. They are attracted to the UV portion which is why bug zappers use blacklight (purple) bulbs to attract them. Both white LED's (which are actually blue chips and emit into the UV) and incans put out some UV light and they will all attract insects if bright enough.

It's mostly flying insects that are attracted, the spiders just come around to eat them.

I have noticed that bugs are wildly attracted to my Power On Board HID spotlight. I turn it on and in less than a minutes I will have dozens of huge moths swarming me and all sorts of other flying bugs. They don't seem to be attracted to my 15mcp Thor at all even though it is just as bright as the HID. It seems like the blue 6000K light attracts them and on top of that it is so BRIGHT! They don't seem very attracted to my 530 lumen LED spotlight either, but I haven't tested it yet in that regard.

Flashlight Aficionado said:

My outdoor house light is yellow and it is designed to not attract bugs. The bulb is painted bright yellow.

I have these huge spiders that live around my house. I use my U2 on high to spot the webs/spiders at night so I don't walk into them. Several times I shined my U2 point blank at the spiders and they all completely ignore the 100+ lumens inches from their body.

I didn't try it with my incan 6P. If I run into another one, I will post the results.

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'Huge' and 'spider', two words that really don't belong together.:duck:
I reckon it's the heat from an incan that makes them run. I tried it with an E0-9 and they'll move off quickly, but then you would too if heat powerful enough to melt a DVD came down. [I tried that too.]

superflytnt said:

Actually bugs are quite attracted to white leds but bright incans work just as well. They are attracted to the UV portion which is why bug zappers use blacklight (purple) bulbs to attract them. Both white LED's (which are actually blue chips and emit into the UV) and incans put out some UV light and they will all attract insects if bright enough.

It's mostly flying insects that are attracted, the spiders just come around to eat them.

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Hmm... D'you think a spider could be taught to use a tail switch?:thinking:



(And dispatch their prey with a Spyderco?)

I have a yellow bug light at the back door, which deals with the bugs nicely.

If I go outside after dark to water the plants with my el-cheapo Dorcy 9-LED (5mm) light, the bugs are after me almost immediately.

One night I opted to use a lantern with a SSC P4 U bin LED in it....only one bug was around the lantern.

I haven't tried it with an incan yet, simply because the light is too big for that use.

BlueBeam22 said:

I have noticed that bugs are wildly attracted to my Power On Board HID spotlight. I turn it on and in less than a minutes I will have dozens of huge moths swarming me and all sorts of other flying bugs. They don't seem to be attracted to my 15mcp Thor at all even though it is just as bright as the HID. It seems like the blue 6000K light attracts them and on top of that it is so BRIGHT! They don't seem very attracted to my 530 lumen LED spotlight either, but I haven't tested it yet in that regard.

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ditto on an hid .

6P didn't work either on the spider. It is fat and about an inch long with interesting colors on its abdomen.

Kind of looks like this

Bud Light

My buddy WadeF would probably know the answer.

Hold on, I'll go PM him.

Flashlight Aficionado said:

6P didn't work either on the spider. It is fat and about an inch long with interesting colors on its abdomen.

Kind of looks like this

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Looks like an orb weaver spider. They make big, very fancy, webs.

I had them all around my house one year. Kinda freaky as they are big spiders, with even bigger webs. Not the type of web you'd want to walk into! I didn't see many this year, maybe because it was drier and cooler. Here is a pic I took of one from the year they were all over:



I guess Monocrom was right about me knowing the answer.

Intensity helps.

WadeF said:

I guess Monocrom was right about me knowing the answer.

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When it comes to a triple threat of Bugs, Lights, and Photography; only one CPFer comes to mind.

I know that they like my D10 because every time that I go to my brothers place I turn it on and set it above this girl (I helped her catch this meal) http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/2876/dscf1023eq6.jpg

Here she is building a web with two males competing for her attention http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/2946/dscf1035ge6.jpg


Sorry that I don't know how to post the actual pics.......................

Icebreak said:

Intensity helps.

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Awesome picture, especially the flight trails. What lights were you using and what was the distance?

I think its the UV and IR emitted by the incandescent aside from the visible spectrum thats actually attracting them....

And uh, heres the thread where that picture came from
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/203711

Thanks, Tomcat!. My apologies for the unnecessary exclamation. But, hey, it's your screen name. That photo was an unintended result from comparing a ROP to a Mag85.

I don't think there is any UV in a white LED. The blue die is almost perfectly monochromatic.

I think that there are many things at work that attract the bugs. I remember that in a 5th grade biology class I took in the late 1800's it was presented that moths circle street lights because they think it is the moon so their nav system went wankers trying to keep the reference point in the same visual quadrant.

Hunger may have something to do with it. On the night I took that shot the biting gnats tore up my elbows. Not a big deal, just annoying and cosmetically unappealing. Mosquitoes on that night were not much of a problem but last week they were carnivorous beasts. I've read that carbon dioxide in our exhale breath attracts mosquitoes. So maybe it's like humans driving down the highway. They see neon lights, go into to town, smell charbroiled cheese burgers and stop to eat.

My 14W Coleman Pack-Away fluorescent lantern does well at attacting lots of bugs but I never see mosquitos on it.

Here's a weird one: Carnuba wax on my black truck will cause mosquitoes to cover it.

Thanks doing the link, Illum_the_nation.

Icebreak said:

I don't think there is any UV in a white LED. The blue die is almost perfectly monochromatic.

Illum_the_nation.

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I'm certainly no expert and could be mistaken but I don't think any LED is even close to perfectly monochromatic. It was my understanding that it was the (fairly weak) UV component in blue LED's that excites the phosphor coating (of white LED's) to emit light in the first place?

Typical yellow core Cree XR-E, courtesy LED Museum. The base color for XR-E's is Royal Blue. Oddly enough, some of the newer silver core XR-E's don't seem to have the UV component.