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It’s the same thing every summer: you turn on your porch lights and within minutes, you’re dealing with a swarm of bugs zooming around the lights – and bouncing off of your head or crash landing into your drink. What is it about light that brings out the bugs? Science tells us that this odd phenomenon is caused by phototaxis.

How Phototaxis Affects Insects
A phototactic animal or insect is one that instinctively moves to or away from light. The bugs that are swarming around your porch lights are positively phototactic, which means that they’re attracted to it. Bugs like cockroaches are negatively phototactic, which is why they scuttle away when you turn on a light.

What scientists aren’t quite sure of, though, is why insects are phototactic. Many believe that positively phototactic insects (like moths) use moonlight as a navigational tool. As they fly by moonlight, the Moon stays in a fixed position overhead. But when you turn on an artificial light, the moths see it as another Moon and become confused. As they try to guide themselves by your porch lights, they end up zooming back and forth in an effort to keep the “Moon” in sight.

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!!!!!BugsToLight1.

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Click link below for article:

http://farmersalmanac.com/home-garden/2015/08/31/why-are-bugs-attracted-to-light/

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