You don’t want your lights to attract bugs, whether you use LED strip lights or LED bulbs. That’s why this article exists.
Exactly what determines your light to attract bugs and insects. Do LED lights attract bugs? How to choose the right fixture to repel bugs?
Here’s what you need to know.
Is There A Light That Doesn’t Attract Bugs?
If there is something about your light that bugs like, then naturally the bugs and insects will fly to your light and surround it.
However, not all light sources attract bugs. Not all bugs like light either. Most importantly is to understand the principle.
Simply put, the light attraction of bugs depends on two things. Whether the bugs are phototropic and whether this light is preferred by the bugs.
Why Do Bugs Like Light?
Bugs flock to light sources. This phenomenon is called phototropism.
Phototaxis bugs have a stress response to light stimuli, causing them to instinctively fly to the light, such as spiders, flies, bees, wasps, moths, and mosquitoes these positive phototaxis bugs.
These bugs and insects use natural light to help navigate, usually by moonlight or sunlight. Artificial light can interfere with their travel route and eventually lead them to the lighting fixture.
The phototaxis of nocturnal insects is particularly pronounced. At night, we can see flying insects gathering around outdoor street lights. Conversely, negative phototaxis bugs like cockroaches and bed bugs prefer shady places to bright light.
Therefore, the light attraction to different bugs is vary, it depends on the species of bugs.
Here are some helpful tips:
- Light sources should be carefully selected in environments where phototropic bugs live.
- Dark and humid environments can also breed bugs, so they should be illuminated and kept dry.
Why Are Bugs Attracted To Light?
Now let’s answer the second question. What type of light radiation attracts bugs and insects? What color do they prefer, daylight or warm white? Blue or red?
Here we explain exactly why light attracts bugs and insects.
Light Spectrum and Wavelengths
Ryan S. Zemel and David Houghton from Hillsdale College wrote an article with the title “The Ability of Specific-Wavelength LED Lights to Attract Nightflying Insects“.
It articulates the idea that: LED lights are available in many different wavelengths, allowing them to have specific potential as bug and insect collecting devices.
Bugs and insects are generally attracted to 300-650nm wavelengths. Among them, they prefer wavelengths between 300-420nm.
In other words, bugs and insects are sensitive to a broad spectrum ranging from ultraviolet light (UV light) to red light.
300nm wavelength corresponds to invisible blacklight ultraviolet rays (the wavelengths that people can see are 400-800nm, which is called visible light), and 650nm wavelength corresponds to red light.
In this wavelength band, light attracts insects and bugs in descending order: ultraviolet light > blue light > white light > yellow light > green light > red light.
We can see that the longer the wavelength, the less attractive the LED light is to bugs. And LED lights with shorter wavelengths such as UV light and blue light are more attractive to bugs.
Let’s take bug lights as an example. Many mosquitoes are attracted to black light UV lights, and a common use case is mosquito killer lamps, which use UV rays to attract mosquitoes and exterminate them by shocking them as they approach.
While bugs vary in their light-sensing abilities, most respond strongly to LED lights in the blue and ultraviolet spectrums.
Thus, in order to enjoy LED lighting without being disturbed by bugs, it is best not to choose blue-purple lights. If you’re bathing in blue-violet LED lights, please do mosquito protection.
Color and Color Temperature
We’ve got this info point: The blue light is deadly attractive to bugs.
In addition to blue LED lights that emit blue light, cooler color temperature white LED lights also emit blue light, which attracts insects and bugs.
The commonly used color temperatures of LED lights can be summarized as 1800K-3200K warm white, 4000K-4500K neutral white, and 6000-7000K cool white. Although they are white light, the color difference is vary.
The Kelvin color temperature of soft white light shows a warm and comfortable dusk color, belonging to long wavelength light. Cool white is a cool blue-white color due to its short wavelength. And the higher the LED color temperature, the more blue tones.
For that reason, when choosing LED light products, it is not that selecting white lights can reduce the chance of attracting insects. You have to choose a warm white light color temperature.
Heat
High heat and high temperatures are extremely attractive to insects and bugs with thermoreceptors. Most of the energy of incandescent and halogen lamps is converted into heat and they are well known as high heat dissipation lamps.
Due to the improvement of modern technology, the energy efficiency of LED lights has been greatly improved, most of the energy is converted into light energy, and only a small amount of energy is converted into heat for dissipation.
LED lights emit less heat, so they are far less attractive to temperature-sensitive bugs than traditional lights.
Do LED Lights Attract Bugs?
LED lighting is generally considered less attractive to bugs and insects, compared to other traditional light fixtures.
Andrew Wakefield and Gareth Jones found that light-emitting diodes (LEDs) attracted significantly fewer insects than domestic lights, tungsten filament lights, and compact fluorescent lights.
It’s detailed in the article “Experimentally comparing the attractiveness of domestic lights to insects: Do LEDs attract fewer insects than conventional light types?“.
Incandescent bulbs, compact fluorescent lights, mercury vapor lamps, and metal halide lamps do a good job of attracting insects and bugs.
We can know from the table below that these light sources attract bugs because they meet the three conditions mentioned above: ultraviolet radiation, high-brightness cool white light, and high heat.
On the contrary, warm white light and yellow light seem to be the color that bugs do not like.
| Light Sources | Light Color | Color Temperature (White Light) | Heat | Attract Bugs (Yes or No) |
| LED Strip Lights | UV | Cool | / | Yes |
| Incandescent Bulbs | / | / | High | Yes |
| Compact Fluorescent Lights | UV | / | / | Yes |
| Halogen Lights | / | Warm | / | No |
| Mercury Vapor Lamp | UV | Cool | / | Yes |
| Metal Halide Lamp | UV | Cool | / | Yes |
| High Pressure Sodium Lights | Yellow | Warm | / | No |
LED strip lights also attract bugs if they have the above qualities, such as UV LED lights that specialize in producing ultraviolet light (LED lights do not produce UV light) and cool white LED strip lights.
- LED lights attract: spiders (indirect attraction), centipedes (indirect attraction), flies, moths, and fleas.
- LED lights do not attract: silverfish, mosquitoes, bed bugs, and cockroaches.
How Do I Make Sure My Light Don’t Attract Bugs?
For LED lamps that emit UV radiation, you can reduce their attractiveness to bugs by applying a coating to filter UV and blue light.
When choosing a LED lighting source, try to choose a warm white light of 3000K and below. Most bugs don’t like yellow and red light colors.
Choose high color temperature white light carefully for your outdoor lighting. 6000K~6500K color temperature is daylight, and further up the scale is a cool white with bluish tones.
Remember, blue light and purple black light are the bug’s favorite colors.
Conclusion
You need to consider what the bugs in your area are attracted to in order to choose the right LED light fixture.
Of course, longer wavelength LED lights are generally less likely to attract bugs. Lower color temperature LED lights are less likely to attract bugs. LED lights that don’t emit UV light are less likely to attract bugs. LED lights that emit low heat are less likely to attract bugs.