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Why flying insects gather at artificial light

nature.com

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Re: Why flying insects gather at artificial light

#111

Post by m463 »

Balgair wrote: post #104

One fun thing to do with a swarm of bug near a light is to take out your keys and shake them. Keys will often ring in the ultrasonic and poorly mimic the frequencies that a lot of bats use. If you have a population of bats that hunt near you, the bugs will typically just drop. Like, just drop to the ground as fast as they can. They know the sound of hunting bats and your keys may be just close enough to that sound th…

some moths have countermeasures

John said, “Listen, you can hear the jammer.” The what? “The jammer,” he said, “Watch the moths.” It turns out the moths, through evolution, had developed their own electronic countermeasures to jam the bat radar.

https://steveblank.com/2009/03/23/if-i-told-you-i%e2%80%99d-...

Re: Why flying insects gather at artificial light

#112

Post by bethekind »

scotty79 wrote: post #9

I had a really weird observation. Do you know how in the summer flies tend to enter rooms and circle the middle of it (where usually the turned off light fixture is)? And they seemingly can't or don't want to find open window to leave the room? At one point for unrelated reasons I replaced light fixture in my room with more than 200W worth of strongest E27 Philips LED lightbulbs I could find (20*1521lumen). Few flies…

I like bright lights as much as anyone else, could you explain how you got a 20x fixture set up in your room? I've heard of 500 watt E38 mogul fixtures, but not 20x mini ones

Re: Why flying insects gather at artificial light

#113

Post by LeonB »

dekhn wrote: post #92
wolverine876 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You're likely describing citizen science and engineering That's what you are describing. If you read my comments, I am not talking about that (though I don't object to it), and my main point is that science is not defined by the type of work that gets published in journals, or by whatever qualifies as 'citizen science'.

I read all your comments carefully, in detail, before responding. Can you give us some examples of what you mean? I'm struggling to see how somebody on their own could come up with a non-trivial scientific result that was meaningful in any way.

> I'm struggling to see how somebody on their own could come up with a non-trivial scientific result that was meaningful in any way.

Richard Feynman at 67, partaking in an inquiry into the space shuttle challenger disaster, dunked some pieces of rubber, taken from a model of the challenger, in ice cold water and observed that they lacked springiness. The full story is fascinating. Other simple, non-rigorous experiments he performed also had meaning and whether they were “non-trivial” is nothing to do with science, that’s political nonsense.

There’s a lot of examples of individuals performing simple experiments that are meaningful.

——- https://lithub.com/how-legendary-physicist-richard-feynman-h...

Re: Why flying insects gather at artificial light

#114

Post by lfaw »

m463 wrote: post #111
Balgair wrote: post #104

One fun thing to do with a swarm of bug near a light is to take out your keys and shake them. Keys will often ring in the ultrasonic and poorly mimic the frequencies that a lot of bats use. If you have a population of bats that hunt near you, the bugs will typically just drop. Like, just drop to the ground as fast as they can. They know the sound of hunting bats and your keys may be just close enough to that sound th…

some moths have countermeasures John said, “Listen, you can hear the jammer.” The what? “The jammer,” he said, “Watch the moths.” It turns out the moths, through evolution, had developed their own electronic countermeasures to jam the bat radar. https://steveblank.com/2009/03/23/if-i-told-you-i%e2%80%99d-...

fascinating! There's also a wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echolocation_jamming?useskin=v...

Re: Why flying insects gather at artificial light

#115

Post by vlz »

Balgair wrote: post #104

One fun thing to do with a swarm of bug near a light is to take out your keys and shake them. Keys will often ring in the ultrasonic and poorly mimic the frequencies that a lot of bats use. If you have a population of bats that hunt near you, the bugs will typically just drop. Like, just drop to the ground as fast as they can. They know the sound of hunting bats and your keys may be just close enough to that sound th…

Interesting, I heard a story once that you can catch bats with keys: Put a bunch of keys in a sock and throw that in the air. If there is a bat near enough it might dive for and grab the object, then it gets drawn to the ground because the keys are too heavy. There you can catch it if you are quick.

Might be an urban myth, though it seems like it might just work.

Re: Why flying insects gather at artificial light

#116

Post by xavivives »

A theory I have is that some may use it as Schelling point [1] to coordinate. For reproduction but maybe other things too.

Similar how the environment conditions after a rain can be the catalyst for ants nuptial flight [2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focal_point_(game_theory)

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuptial_flight

Re: Why flying insects gather at artificial light

#117

Post by mihaaly »

Balgair wrote: post #104

One fun thing to do with a swarm of bug near a light is to take out your keys and shake them. Keys will often ring in the ultrasonic and poorly mimic the frequencies that a lot of bats use. If you have a population of bats that hunt near you, the bugs will typically just drop. Like, just drop to the ground as fast as they can. They know the sound of hunting bats and your keys may be just close enough to that sound th…

I need to buy an ultrasonic whistle and experiment with this! :)

Re: Why flying insects gather at artificial light

#119

Post by mihaaly »

codetrotter wrote: post #27

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

More like using the sun/sky to adjust their attitude of flying. Everyday, not only when moon is visible.

Re: Why flying insects gather at artificial light

#120

Post by cubefox »

Balgair wrote: post #104

One fun thing to do with a swarm of bug near a light is to take out your keys and shake them. Keys will often ring in the ultrasonic and poorly mimic the frequencies that a lot of bats use. If you have a population of bats that hunt near you, the bugs will typically just drop. Like, just drop to the ground as fast as they can. They know the sound of hunting bats and your keys may be just close enough to that sound th…

Apparently bees also drop when you turn the light off:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=OmG0OT6MWC8

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