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Insects don’t swarm at LED lights

Remember when you used to encounter swarms of insects around outdoor electric lights? Their well known attraction to outdoor lights is used by entomologists and moth lovers to conduct insect surveys. All you need is a light and a white sheet to see who’s flying at night.

还记得你过去常在户外电灯周围遇到成群昆虫的情景吗？昆虫对户外灯光的这种众所周知的趋光性，常被昆虫学家和飞蛾爱好者用来进行昆虫调查。你只需要一盏灯和一张白布，就能观察到夜间有哪些昆虫在飞舞。

Nowadays, if you want to attract insects, you have to be picky about the light you use. As everyone changes over to LED lights, we see the color difference but we can’t see the crucial difference in insect attraction between incandescent and LED.

如今，如果你想吸引昆虫，就必须对所使用的灯光挑剔一些。随着大家纷纷改用 LED 灯，我们看到了颜色的差异，却没能看出白炽灯和 LED 灯在吸引昆虫方面的关键区别。

Our guide Roland Rumm on the WINGS Veracruz trip explained what happens with insects in the switch to LED lights. His family has an outdoor dining space that is well lit with artificial light. As a child he loved to watch the geckos climb to the lights and eat the insects. (This gecko can change to a bland gray color when he needs to.)

我们在 WINGS 韦拉克鲁斯之旅的向导罗兰·拉姆（Roland Rumm）解释了改用 LED 灯后昆虫会发生什么变化。他家有一个户外用餐区，用人造光照得很亮。小时候，他喜欢看壁虎爬到灯光处捕食昆虫。（这种壁虎在需要时可以变成暗灰色。）

In recent years the family changed over to LED lights and the geckos disappeared. Were the geckos gone? No. But far fewer insects were attracted to the LED lights so the geckos had no reason to show up.

近年来，他家换成了 LED 灯，壁虎就不见了。壁虎消失了吗？并没有。只是被 LED 灯吸引的昆虫少了很多，所以壁虎也就没有理由出现了。

In 2024 the BBC wrote about Why insects are drawn to artificial light at night: Flying insects use moonlight to navigate. Since the moon is always above them, they orient themselves so that the light shines on their backs. That’s how they stay upright in flight.

2024 年，BBC 撰文探讨了“为什么昆虫会被夜间的人造光吸引”：飞行昆虫利用月光导航。由于月亮总是在它们上方，它们会调整方向，让光线照在背上。这就是它们在飞行中保持平衡的方式。

Moonlight contains ultraviolet (UV) and infrared wavelengths because it is merely reflected sunlight. Insects cue on UV, believing it to be the moon. When artificial lights transmit UV they look like moonlight so insects orient their backs to it. Consequently they circle the light and even flip upside down when the artificial light is pointing up to the sky!

月光包含紫外线（UV）和红外线波长，因为它只是反射的太阳光。昆虫以紫外线为信号，认为那就是月亮。当人造光发射紫外线时，它们看起来就像月光，因此昆虫会将背部朝向光源。结果，它们会绕着灯光盘旋，当人造光指向天空时，它们甚至会翻转身体！

Incandescent lights transmit UV but LEDs do not. Insects are far less attracted to LED.

白炽灯会发射紫外线，但 LED 灯不会。昆虫对 LED 灯的趋光性要小得多。

In 2016 scientists at the University of Bristol, UK ran experiments to compare insect attraction to four types of light: Incandescent (tungsten filament), Compact fluorescent, “Cool-white” LED and “Warm-white” LED.

2016 年，英国布里斯托大学的科学家们进行了实验，比较了昆虫对四种灯光的趋光性：白炽灯（钨丝灯）、紧凑型荧光灯、“冷白光”LED 和“暖白光”LED。

We conducted field experiments to compare the relative attractiveness of four commercially available “domestic” lights, one traditional (tungsten filament incandescent) and three modern (compact fluorescent, “cool white” LED and “warm white” LED), to aerial insects, particularly Diptera. We found that LEDs attracted significantly fewer insects than other light sources, but found no significant difference in attraction between the “cool” and “warm white” LEDs. Fewer flies were attracted to LEDs than alternate light sources, including fewer Culicoides midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae). Use of LEDs has the potential to mitigate disturbances to wildlife and occurrences of insect?borne diseases relative to competing lighting technologies.

我们进行了实地实验，比较了四种市售“家用”灯具对空中昆虫（特别是双翅目昆虫）的相对吸引力，其中包括一种传统灯具（钨丝白炽灯）和三种现代灯具（紧凑型荧光灯、“冷白光”LED 和“暖白光”LED）。我们发现，与其他光源相比，LED 吸引的昆虫明显较少，但“冷白光”和“暖白光”LED 在吸引力方面没有显著差异。与替代光源相比，被 LED 吸引的苍蝇较少，包括库蠓（双翅目：蠓科）也较少。与竞争照明技术相比，使用 LED 有潜力减轻对野生动物的干扰以及虫媒疾病的发生。

Here’s what they found. NOTES: CFL = Compact fluorescent, FIL = incandescent (the old lightbulb), LEDC = LED cool white, LEDW = LED warm white light.

以下是他们的发现。注：CFL = 紧凑型荧光灯，FIL = 白炽灯（旧式灯泡），LEDC = 冷白光 LED，LEDW = 暖白光 LED。

Typically LEDs do not emit UV light and are more energy efficient than traditional technologies. Electrical energy is converted almost entirely into electromagnetic (EM) radiation within the range of the visible light spectrum (400–700 nm) and therefore not wasted on producing wavelengths of light invisible to the human eye, that is, UV and infrared (IR). Thus, LEDs are less attractive to many insects than lights which emit UV light.

通常，LED 不发射紫外线，且比传统技术更节能。电能几乎完全转化为可见光谱范围（400–700 纳米）内的电磁辐射，因此不会浪费在产生人眼不可见的波长（即紫外线和红外线）上。因此，对于许多昆虫来说，LED 的吸引力不如发射紫外线的灯光。

So that’s why there are very few bugs circling LED lights at night.

这就是为什么晚上很少有虫子绕着 LED 灯飞的原因。

According to the BBC, this trait of LEDs is a good thing because incandescent (UV) artificial light at night distracts insects so much that they don’t reproduce, don’t feed, etc. Thus artificial light is considered a major reason why insect populations have declined. See: The impact of artificial light at night on nocturnal insects: A review and synthesis.

据 BBC 报道，LED 的这一特性是一件好事，因为夜间的人造白炽灯（紫外线）会严重干扰昆虫，导致它们无法繁殖、进食等。因此，人造光被认为是昆虫数量下降的主要原因。参见：《夜间人造光对夜行性昆虫的影响：综述与综合》。

Thanks again, Kate, for another en”light”enment!

再次感谢凯特（Kate）带来的又一次“启蒙”！

White light LEDs still have a big spike of blue light at 450–465 nanometers, and apparently this part of the spectrum messes up nocturnal animals’ and humans circadian rhythm-related systems.

白光 LED 在 450–465 纳米处仍有一个明显的蓝光峰值，显然光谱的这一部分会扰乱夜行性动物和人类的昼夜节律相关系统。

https://www.mariomottamd.com/wp-content/uploads/AmJPrevMed13.pdf

Ricky, I agree that LEDs may lessen one problem but cause new ones. I’ve been meaning to write about blue light and our circadian rhythms. Thanks for reminding me.

瑞奇（Ricky），我同意 LED 可能减轻了一个问题，但又引发了新的问题。我一直想写写关于蓝光和我们昼夜节律的文章。谢谢你的提醒。

Worldwide decline of the entomofauna: A review of its drivers

全球昆虫群落的衰退：驱动因素综述

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320718313636

This may also be having a considerable impact.

这也可能产生了相当大的影响。

Nihil, Thanks for the study on causes of the Insect Apocalypse.

Nihil，感谢你提供关于“昆虫末日”成因的研究。

I may be a bit mistaken on this topic, but I am pretty sure that normal incandescent light bulbs emit 95% infrared, with essentially all the rest in the visible range and less than 0.01% in the UV range.

在这个话题上我可能有点弄错了，但我很确定普通的白炽灯泡发射 95% 的红外线，其余部分基本都在可见光范围内，紫外线占比不到 0.01%。

Halogen bulbs emit a bit more UV, but not a lot more and they weren’t involved in the tests you cited.

卤素灯泡发射的紫外线稍多一些，但并没有多很多，而且它们没有参与你引用的那些测试。

In fact, in the conclusions, they make the point that FIL lights (incandescent) are essentially UV free and speculate that their attraction may well be based on their thermal emissions. CFL lights also emit more heat than LEDs, so there may well be something to that.

事实上，他们在结论中指出，FIL 灯（白炽灯）基本上不含紫外线，并推测它们对昆虫的吸引力很可能基于其热辐射。CFL 灯散发的热量也比 LED 多，所以这可能确实有一定道理。

In any case, I think your comment that “normal light bulbs emit UV” is just pretty much wrong.

无论如何，我认为你关于“普通灯泡发射紫外线”的评论基本上是错误的。

Ted, yes. Thank you. I’m gonna rewrite this article and in the meantime I’ve put up a CORRECTION COMING notice.

泰德（Ted），是的。谢谢你。我打算重写这篇文章，在此期间，我已经贴出了“更正即将发布”的通知。

This reminds me of some work I did on moth attraction to different light sources some thirty-odd years ago. I compared old MV/B mercury vapour lamps, HQL mercry vapour lamps, Actinic 12v lamps and a tungsten filament lamp. As expected here the tungsten was least attractive by quite a way, the actinic more attractive and the two mercury vapour lamps about the same (and much, much more attractive).

这让我想起三十多年前我做的一些关于飞蛾对不同光源趋光性的研究。我比较了旧式的 MV/B 汞蒸气灯、HQL 汞蒸气灯、12v 光化灯和钨丝灯。正如预期的那样，钨丝灯的吸引力远低于其他灯具，光化灯吸引力更强，而两种汞蒸气灯的吸引力大致相同（且要强得多得多）。

It is therefore interesting that LED lamps are not very attractive to insects, less so than even tungsten filament lamps. The Rothamsted Insect Survey network uses old-style tungsten filament lamps for their traps, precisely because these were not very attractive.

因此，有趣的是，LED 灯对昆虫的吸引力并不大，甚至比钨丝灯还要小。洛桑昆虫调查网络（Rothamsted Insect Survey network）在他们的诱捕器中使用旧式钨丝灯，正是因为这些灯的吸引力并不强。

Dr. Dan H, thanks for sharing this informat

丹·H 博士（Dr. Dan H），感谢分享这些信息。