We have been having hot muggy buggy nights lately. I have a CFL in the light fixture above the kitchen sink and I noticed the screen was covered with bugs along with the area between the screen and window was full of small bugs. If the window would have been open, I would have had a house full of bugs. I then went and looked at the living room window where my reading lamp with a regular bulb and there were no bugs.
I googled this and after going thru 4 pages, I did find one statement that these bulbs do indeed attract bugs.
I am wondering if anybody else has noticed this?
Thanks
Scott

Bugs are generally attracted to just about any light. At least ones that produce a white light.

I've seen yellow CFL, used to be common in incandescent...

Tom

Yes, I put a CFL in my front porch light to leave it on all night. So many bugs attracted I had to shut it off. Not sure if regular bulbs are better though. I think it was before bug season that I changed.

Coop

Years ago we used yellow incandescent bulbs, not sure if a yellow CFL would work.

Yellow CFL's do not work. They attract just as many bugs as any other light bulb..

Amen brother, 2012 has been the "year of the arthropod" here in OK. Had a mild spring for a winter and we've got so many bugs this year, the moths alone have eaten all of my outside screens off the windows. Of course it's the scorpions and fiddlebacks that hate the light that make me squirm at night...

I should let you guys know, the light used to be almost ceiling height, but we put a new hanging light that is level with the top window. But still I have never seen bugs like that, I am wondering if there is some kind of ultru violet light that attracts them

We have had these little green bugs that are attracted to light something awful this year. A couple of nights there were thousands of them swarming around the outside lights and on the outsides of the windows. I have no idea what they are, and it doesn't matter what type of light. We had to unscrew the light on the porch so they don't end up in the house when the door opens.

This might be a banner year for bugs of all types due to the mild winter. I haven't noticed bugs being attracted by CFLs any moreso than regular incandescent bulbs.

Of course, in the dark, you cant see bugs...........

Using a coleman lantern tends to burn them up.....

That's what it is. All mercury discharge lamps produce it and there's always some small percentage of it that escapes the phosphors and glass. Never bought a CFL bug light as I was suspicious they wouldn't work, and judging by the comment here I was right. And bug zappers have a fluorescent that produces mostly (longer wave, less harmful to humans) UV.

Scott Todd

Bugs are indeed attracted to UV, remember those bug zapper with UV neons?

Well, CFL are like compact neon lights. BUt not all light tubes emits UV. They sell those yellow CFLs (and yellow incandescent lightbulbs) for just that. Bad side effect: they are yellow. So your vision is all... yellowed?

I've read somewhere that most LED lamps don't emit UV lights, and I am about to test the theory this summer.

Put a bug zapper around it ?

The only bug zapper lamps I've ever seen are fluorescent, though I suppose it's not impossible there were others. Certain colors of "neons" aren't really neon but any one of a number of gasses. If they have some argon or mercury vapor in them they'd certainly give off some UV.

Scott

Many white LEDs use blue or UV light to excite phosphors, so they should attract bugs too. Here's an explanation, http://www.mt-berlin.com/frames_cryst/d ... sphors.htm
Don

This is a little OT, but I'm reminded of something that I think folks will find interesting. Out in the garage I've got a "new in crumbling box" bug killer from 1960, with a big circular fluorescent black light. It's a neat design - the light is in front of a fan that sucks air and bugs down a chute into a perforated plastic bag.

The history of it is pretty interesting, too. Google led me to a bunch of archived tobacco industry documents, among other things. As best I could work out, the company rented themselves a couple of Senators, then tried to strongarm Big Tobacco into ordering all their farmers to use these bug killers, with the threat of a Sentate bill on the back of a putative EPA ruling that the pesticides in use were hazardous. They got the brush off and, a couple or so years later, were sued into a smoking hole in the ground (pun intended) by another company that was entirely unrelated to the tobacco industry...

Here's a couple of pics of an identical unit:

Was just at a pub last night, having a smoke out on their front porch. Two ceiling lamps - one incandescent, one CFL - they were about 6 feet apart. CFL had a ton of bugs buzzing around it, while the incandescent hardly had any - easily a 25 to 1 difference. The incandescent was white and the CFL had a slight yellow color. I would say they were both 60 watt class bulbs.

I had some yellow CFL "bug lights" and they attracted as many bugs as a white CFL, so I put the white ones back to light the area better.
Don