Why do bright lights attract insects

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Many moths feed on the nectar from flowers, which are known to reflect ultraviolet UV light. Some light bulbs give off a small amount of ultraviolet light, potentially causing hungry bugs to mistake a bulb for a flower. Another theory for why insects are attracted to light is that, in the wild, light signals an escape from potential danger for insects. When an insect sees light, it can tell them that a path is not blocked by a predator or obstacles.

This might explain why pests fly right into light sources, seeming to unknowingly crash into bulbs and lanterns. Positively phototactic organisms, such as moths, move towards light sources. Negatively phototactic organisms, on the other hand, move away from light, such as cockroaches that scuttle into a dark corner when you switch the light on. A popular theory proposed to account for positive phototaxis in insects is that unnatural sources of light interfere with their internal navigation systems.

Before the introduction of artificial lights, nocturnal insects such as most moths evolved to use natural light sources such as the moon or stars in order to navigate. These insects navigate by keeping themselves aligned at a certain angle relative to a light source. This is because the angle to the light source changes as the insect passes the source, so in an attempt to keep themselves aligned the insect ends up flying round in circles.

The entire situation is, no doubt, very confusing for the poor little things. This theory has a couple of problems , however, since unnatural light sources such as man-made fires have been around for thousands of years. We therefore might expect that natural selection would have plucked out the insects that engaged in this suicidal behavior.