Skip to main content. Birth to 5 Teens. Why do moths like light? Recommended Reads. Jump to top of page. However, some species like the Old Lady Mormo maura tend to be repelled by it they are negatively phototactic. With the invention of ultraviolet UV lamps for medical purposes just before the WWII, it was discovered that sources rich in UV greatly increased moth attraction to light.
Insects, and especially moths, are particularly sensitive to the UV part of the electromagnetic spectrum. There have been a number of theories that try to explain this. A common theory is that moths are attracted to the moon, and therefore they should fly higher on moonlit nights. A better theory is that moths can use the moon or stars to orientate, and that a moth adjusts its flying track to keep the light source at a constant angle to the eye.
However, whilst rays from a celestial source would all be seen as parallel, those from a lamp radiate all around. Accordingly, a moth on the wing would constantly turn inwards to keep itself at a constant angle to the light, ending up in a spiralling path which would make it eventually collide with the lamp.
However, moths rarely exhibit such geometric trajectories, but rather take circuitous routes when coming to light, making loops and coils perhaps due to a compromise with escape responses or disturbance by wind plumes. Moths are also affected by a general phenomenon known as dorsal light reaction.
Most flying animals, in fact, tend to keep the lighter sky above them they do not fly upside down! Moth traps are designed to exploit the inwards spiralling responses of moths, using suitably placed barriers baffles around the lamp that they can collide with, so that they will then fall down through a collecting funnel into the trap.
We are currently designing experiments to determine which of several explanations might be true. One idea is that some insects use the Moon or bright stars as direction-finding aids. To moths, streetlights might look like the Moon, which could mislead them.
Yet another idea supposes that lights at night blind moths by swamping the light receptors in their eyes and disorienting them. As scientists, we think that understanding how lights attract moths can help us understand why insects are declining. It may be that lights make insects easy prey by concentrating them in one place and interfering with their abilities to avoid bats. Another problem could be that trapped insects, lured away from their normal habitat, are forced to lay their eggs far from the plants their young need to eat.
And many insects likely die from exhaustion while circling lights. In the morning, seagulls were picking them up, hopping on the jaguars… and pooping on the cars. The dealership switched to sodium-vapor bulbs because the wave-length of light they emit is much less attractive to the bugs. All rights reserved.
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