If moths and other nocturnal insects don't come out during the day.. Then why are they attracted to light?

Question

(Even if it kills them?)

Answer 1

It's not exactly known, though there are several theories:

1 theory involves celestial navigation - that moths and other nocturnal insects navigate by the angle of moonlight, and artificial lighting confuses them into trying to navigate by angulating against it such that they end up circling and eventually flying into it.

Another theory has to do with visual distortion produced by the contrast between bright light and total darkness. Again the moths get confused and try to fly to the "dark band" area that appears between these, start circling the light and out of exhaustion and/or confusion end up falling into the light.

Yet another theory suggests they may be attracted to the UV  range of artificial light as a navigation source.

Finally, regarding candle light, male moths may be attracted because the infrared spectrum of candle light stimulates their olfactory system similarly to the vibration frequencies of female moth pheromones (s*x hormones). So the moths dancing into your candle flame are just lonely (horny) guys looking for a hook-up. As with males of every other species, they can't get there fast enough!

Answer 2

um it dosn't kill them expect if u have those things that look like lights but it kills them. and i think there attracted to lights because they r mostly blind at night i guess and they just follow the light so it can c thats all i no

Answer 3

The moon!

They navigate by the moon and lights are so much brighter. Yes it kills them because they can't get away and they die from exhaustion.

It also does the same to the migrating flocks of birds and every morning during their migration season in spring and fall thousands of them die because of it. Any  skyscrapers along their flight path in the big cities have to be cleared of the mounds of dead birds littering the sidewalks around them every morning.  The birds are confused by the lights that are left on at night and just keep flying around and around the buildings till they drop dead from exhaustion.

There are some cities that are starting to make them turn their lights off but you would think that with all that talk about energy and wanting the regular people to use less electricity they would do something about these mega electricity wasters. They use thousands of times more power than any household and is done about them. Just build more nuclear reactors for more power and complain about how much power Playstations an WII use.

If we all sent a letter or an email to our representatives I bet you something would get done!

Just one sentence would be enough

" Turn the lights off at night on and in  the skyscrapers during migration season!"

Let's do it.

Answer 4

I think it is the heat the bulbs give off that attracts them. Insects are cold-blooded and they need to heat to warm up at night. Although it will kill them if they heat up too fast because bugs aren't that bright.

Answer 5

They use starlight and moonlight as navigation to fly straight.  They can't tell the difference between artificial light and natural light.

When they see a light and fly past it, it's angle changes dramatically.  And since stars and the moon don't dramatically change their angle, the insect assumes that it's own direction must have changed.  So they adjust their direction and end up swirling around the light until they fly into it.