Why do moths and some flies fly towards light?

Question

I have my window open and a light on inside. Outside it is dark, I was wondering why all the moths and daddy long-legs all fly towards the light.

Thanks x

Answer 1

Hi there.

Current theory is, they steer by moonlight and the stronger light confuses them.

cheers, Steve.

Answer 2

Because they are " enlightened " ( get it lightened )

its actually they think that the light source may be a beautiful meadow with flowers.  

Answer 3

I think its the way moths  navigate around, they navigate by the moon especially when the moon is bright and when they see a different light source they get confused and just fly to the light source

Answer 4

They use the moon and other light sources to navigate.  Imagine the moon is over your left shoulder, and if you were flying in a straight line, you would always have the moon over your shoulder (well, close enough to be a straight line if it were a short flight).  This works because the moon is far away, and your flying doesn't change its relative position by much at all.

Now, if you instead use a nearby light for a direction standard, if you keep it in the same position off your shoulder, you will turn in a tight circle.  This is, I understand, what happens to moths.

Answer 5

their just lost soles trying to find away out.

Answer 6

Moths seem to use light only as a way of telling which direction is up. If you fly  toward the moon, there's no danger of bumping into it, but you will succeed in flying   up into the air instead of down into the ground.

Answer 7

Flying insects use the sun or the brightest light source as a reference for navigation.  The sun or moon work nicely since they are a great distance away making the light rays, for all practical purposes (like navigation), parallel to each other.  The insect observes the angle of the point of light as it starts its journey and returns simply by flying the reciprocal or opposite angle for the same length of time.

The problem for the insect comes when it uses a nearby source of light such as a light bulb as it navigates.  The rays from a bulb are no longer strictly parallel since light is emitted from all points of a relatively large global surface of the bulb.  As the insect tries to maintain a constant light-to-eye angle it has to make constant corrections by turning in flight.  This results in a spiraling flightpath bringing it closer and closer to the bulb until they are, shall we say "overcome by the heat", or they run into the window glass.

Answer 8

they think the light is the sun and go towards it for the heat

Answer 9

Because they can.

Answer 10

Moths are positively phototactic, meaning they automatically move toward light.

Go to http://www.howstuffworks.com/question675... as this goes into lots of detail about it. Hope that helps.

Answer 11

You have flying daddy long legs? Where do you live.

Answer 12

they get turned on by the light.