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Making a road trip in the light polluted northeast america, I was looking for stars in the darkest of forested of environments, and I could not find any stars anywhere. I am not sure if the clouds were there. But I realize I have not seen stars in a long time.
So one could optimize an outdoor light location design to reduce insects? Like for example an outdoor dining terrace?
One fun thing you can do is relocate small swarms of bugs with a torch to another light source. So if you're being pestered, turn on a torch... and slowly walk the bugs to a different light source (a distant lamp for example). Then turn off the torch and walk back to where you were. The light will keep them there.
Fascinating that it has nothing to do with desire, which has tended to be our go-to as humans stretching back in particular to mythology and even antiquity (eg Aristotle IIRC: “things fall back to the ground because they have a desire to do so”)
So one could optimize an outdoor light location design to reduce insects? Like for example an outdoor dining terrace?
>Only one experiment that we know of has tracked moth trajectories to lights over long distances, and found only 2 of 50 individuals released 85 m from a light source ended their flight their flight there
I realize this is a small sample, but seems to suggest that if you placed a lamp in a field that 4% of all bugs within a ~football field in every direction would end up near it. I feel like that may mean placing a lamp 10 feet from where you are going to eat (or whatever) may actually attract more insects to that general area.
But I'm having trouble understanding some of their methods
So one could optimize an outdoor light location design to reduce insects? Like for example an outdoor dining terrace?
In my experience... kind of. Light isn't the only thing they're attracted to so you'd have to optimize distance and cover different variables for different bugs. One fun thing you can do is relocate small swarms of bugs with a torch to another light source. So if you're being pestered, turn on a torch... and slowly walk the bugs to a different light source (a distant lamp for example). Then turn off the torch and wal…
I have a feeling the stars are used by insects to navigate in pitch dark environments. And the lack of stars may be causing a large decline in insect population. Making a road trip in the light polluted northeast america, I was looking for stars in the darkest of forested of environments, and I could not find any stars anywhere. I am not sure if the clouds were there. But I realize I have not seen stars in a long tim…
> Insects use the moon as a celestial compass cue to navigate, and mistakenly use artificial light sources instead
So one could optimize an outdoor light location design to reduce insects? Like for example an outdoor dining terrace?
So am I understanding correctly that this confirms the common perception they cited: > Insects use the moon as a celestial compass cue to navigate, and mistakenly use artificial light sources instead
"In both field and lab conditions, insects rarely head directly towards, but consistently fly orthogonal to the light source. This refutes the fundamental premise of an escape response."
"An insect should keep a light source at a fixed visual location for maintaining its heading. Switching light position (Supplementary Fig. 5) shows that insects readily hold the light source on either side of the body."
It makes sense to me. Imagine you were an insect and you would use the moon for navigation. Would you really be flying directly towards moon? No, right? Then how could someone think that insects flying directly towards artificial light source is the basis for the theory that insects use moon as navigational aid?
So one could optimize an outdoor light location design to reduce insects? Like for example an outdoor dining terrace?
I’m not sure if there’s interesting optimization to do. Simply: bugs are attracted to light, light=more bugs, no light=fewer bugs. Motion detectors, for example, can make it so that the light is only temporary and you don’t get those moth parties.
Isn't the takeaway from this study that they aren't really, but rather that once they happen to come close to it they cannot get away from it anymore?