Experimentally comparing the attractiveness of domestic lights to insects: Do LEDs attract fewer insects than conventional light types?

ABSTRACT: LED lighting is predicted to constitute 70% of the outdoor and residential lighting markets by 2020. While the use of LEDs promotes energy and cost savings relative to traditional lighting technologies, little is known about the effects these broad-spectrum "white" lights will have on wildlife, human health, animal welfare, and disease transmission. We conducted field experiments to compare the relative attractiveness of four commercially available "domestic" lights, one traditional (tungsten filament) 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" LE

SUBMITTER: Wakefield A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5108255 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature