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`GREEN LIGHT’ A VIEW

A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE AND RESEARCH ON THE ATTRACTION OF INSECTS TO LIGHTS OF DIFFERENT WAVELENGTHS

By Dr Peter Cottee

ABSTRACT

• Insect eyes show spectral sensitivities to light in both the UVA and green spectrums.


• Different insects show behavioural preferences to light in the UVA and green spectrums.


• Sensitivity to light in insects is impacted by a range of environmental and physiological factors including sex, light intensity, eye adaptation, age and temperature.


• Synergetic lamps caught 30% more house flies than UVA lamps in a given time period.


• Synergetic lamps were more effective in attracting mosquitoes than other lamps.


• Total UVA light output depends on the quality of the lamp.


• UVA phosphor degradation reduces attractant output to around 40% of initial output after 12 months.


• Green light phosphors hardly degrade with time.


• Synergetic lamps increase in effectiveness relative to UVA lamps with time and caught 82% more house flies in a given period after 12 months.


• Green only lamps did not prove effective against house flies.

In summary: Different insect species are variably attracted to UVA and green light leading to the development of the Synergetic lamp by Insect-O-Matic that emits both UVA and green attractant spectral ranges and is therefore attractive to the broadest range of insect species. Tests showed that a combination of these phosphors was more effective than UVA alone in catching flying insects and that relative efficacy increased over the 12 month life of the lamp as the UVA phosphor degraded relative to the green..

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