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Aside from pesticides and land development, yet another cause of decline is our over obsession with landscaping and municipal lights (at least here in the Nort

Aside from pesticides and land development, yet another cause of decline is our over obsession with landscaping and municipal lights (at least here in the Northeast US). I have mixed feelings about this: Night lights do add a bit of security, but insects such as moths rely on natural darkness and moonlight to navigate.

gs17 4y ago
> Night lights do add a bit of security, but insects such as moths rely on natural darkness and moonlight to navigate. We can have a bit of compromise, at least if we had dark sky compliant lights there would be a lot less of an issue. Where I live the streetlights seem to intentionally point upward and it's frustrating that this isn't a priority even when refiting them with LEDs (at least here they put in warm lights instead of cool ones like where I used to live).
axiolite 4y ago
> another cause of decline is our over obsession with landscaping and municipal lights Very much unlike their incandescent and florescent predecessors, LED lights emit practically no ultraviolet wavelengths, and therefore have a drastically reduced attractive effect on insects. Whatever effect outdoor lighting may have on insects, should be showing precipitous declines over the past several years, as LEDs have become the dominant artificial light source.
- nobodyandproud 4y ago
  Insects are most attracted to UV, but they’re attracted to most of the visible (to human) spectrum. Just less so, which is why the recommendation is to use “warm” led to minimize insect attraction. Also, light usage hasn’t remained constant. LED’s lower power usage means that it enables more lighting, including solar powered (day charged) landscaping lights. So whereas owners would formerly only have one or two lights at low watts before, the reduced energy usage means that they sprinkle in another magnitude more with LED.

gs17 4y ago

> Night lights do add a bit of security, but insects such as moths rely on natural darkness and moonlight to navigate. We can have a bit of compromise, at least if we had dark sky compliant lights there would be a lot less of an issue. Where I live the streetlights seem to intentionally point upward and it's frustrating that this isn't a priority even when refiting them with LEDs (at least here they put in warm lights instead of cool ones like where I used to live).

axiolite 4y ago

> another cause of decline is our over obsession with landscaping and municipal lights Very much unlike their incandescent and florescent predecessors, LED lights emit practically no ultraviolet wavelengths, and therefore have a drastically reduced attractive effect on insects. Whatever effect outdoor lighting may have on insects, should be showing precipitous declines over the past several years, as LEDs have become the dominant artificial light source.

nobodyandproud 4y ago
Insects are most attracted to UV, but they’re attracted to most of the visible (to human) spectrum. Just less so, which is why the recommendation is to use “warm” led to minimize insect attraction. Also, light usage hasn’t remained constant. LED’s lower power usage means that it enables more lighting, including solar powered (day charged) landscaping lights. So whereas owners would formerly only have one or two lights at low watts before, the reduced energy usage means that they sprinkle in another magnitude more with LED.