Changing Lighting To Be Less Attractive To Bugs

It's no secret that insects can be a nuisance, especially when spending time outdoors. Many diseases, such as West Nile Virus and Malaria, are insect born and peak during the summer months. Travis Longcore, a professor of spatial sciences at the University of Southern California, is working with Royal Philips, a Dutch electronics company, to develop bulbs less attractive to insects. "He took experimental Philips LED bulbs whose mix of red, blue, green and white could be “tuned” and tested them against off-the-shelf LEDs and compact fluorescent bulbs — all suspended at night over traps of soapy water in the Santa Monica Mountains." Scientists are working on creating LED light bulbs that would give off less blue light and might help protect people from insect-borne diseases. Insects are attracted to the blue tones of the lights. And, humans find the blue-toned LED lights cold and unflattering. "The ideal, Dr. Longcore said, would be 'an energy-efficient bulb that has a comfortable color temperature and minimizes insect attraction, solving all of these problems together.'"


To read the full article, visit: 
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/26/health/led-light-bulbs-insects.html?_r=0

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