Why are bugs attracted to light? - Smarter Every Day 103

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The moon video was provided by my friend Jack! He shot it in his back yard. His astophotography is unbelievable. Check it out here:

Almost all papers I found on this subject were behind paywalls! Thank you to Smarter Every Day twitter followers who helped me get behind the paywalls!

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Warm Regards,

Destin

[smartereveryday]

I've always wondered this.  It's more complicated than you might think!

[EchoCharlieActual]

As a central Ohio resident of 25 years, i sit in my garage late at night with my overhead tubes on, and i get all sorts of Green Lacewings that like to swarm the lights. If they get to be too bothersome, i like to shut the lights off, and walk outside the garage about 25 feet and turn on my penlight. 90 percent of the will exit the garage and move toward my light. then i shut off my penlight and close the garage door, and flip the lights back on. Using science and natural creature habits to clean out the garage without harm to them!
I've been a sub for a while now, and I can't get enough of your content! Keep it up.

[TheSnipercorp]

3:58 First time I saw an insect peeing. Very interesting.

[zain]

"look at those curves, do you see any logarithmic spirals?" New pickup line XD

[miceondice]

SmarterEveryDay:
*turns lamp on*
Moths:
L A M P

[barrysu]

Pretty sure the big ones are called Nopes.

[darcgibson]

Suddenly there's invisible insects all over my body...

[ameerhamza]

Question: Why are the bugs attracted to light?
Answer: We don't know!

[NomadHatch]

I always figured that bugs assumed that when there's a concentrated source of light, they must be trapped - like in a cave, and they fly to the light hoping it's the end of the tunnel, or mouth of the cave. Then they just mill around confused until the light goes out, or the sun comes up.

[stefanodomeni]

Note to self: Never go to the Amazon forest.

[smartereveryday]

POINT YOURSELF DIRECTLY AWAY FROM THE LIGHT AND USE YOUR BODY TO SHADOW YOUR EYES. IT'S THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN ESCAPE! Serisouly.... that's how bugs eventually escape.

[ImDonnieDarko]

I just spent the last two hours watching videos on this channel haha. I love it! Thanks for putting in so much effort into these videos thus providing us with entertainment AND learning!

[loganderbyshire]

How did u get the ants to carry the intros

[dylan.grogan]

You ever wondered what bugs did before lights bulbs?

[Adnan]

"We're in the middle of the Amazon rainforest..." Subscribed.

[Jrbkn]

I always love how genuinely nice he seems.

[pocket]

Just thinking out loud: I think that the logarithmic spiral model may assume too much. Can/do insects discern a slight change in the Moon's position as they fly? Why would they, for flights of a short duration? If they do not, they would regard it as a constant. If this is the case, the insect would always try to keep the Moon in a fixed position, for example, on its left. This would create more of a circular orbital path around a candle, which seems pretty consistent with real-life moths. Irregular paths should be expected,  because artificial lights are hyper-stimulating the moth's natural ability to navigate: an ability that has been evolved over years and years of using a much smaller light to fly a straight line.
Thanks for a thought-provoking video.

[zntropy]

The ants carrying the the little sign was hilarious

[lineah]

Thank u for always additing a verse at the last part of ur video. Tbh, every time i watch ur vids, i am expectant of the good word that u want to share to your viewer. Thank u!! ✨

[BijanIzadi]

00:10 That is literally the coolest thing ever - the ants carrying the name