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Comment by jvanderbot | Hacker News Reader

The first rule of any bug trap is to put it in your neighbors site. Traps attract more than they kill.

Here the science suggests that just having a light isn't an attractant. It just happens to confuse the bugs flying by. Statisically they would be no more likely to go to the neighbors site or yours. Of course it also suggests that if you surrounded your site with lights that it could create a "light shield" which would disrupt the flying pattern of any bug that was on a vector that passed by your site.

That suggests another interesting test which would be to use a bunch of rope lights to create a complete circle around your site to disrupt all bug flights going in or out of your area. Presumably it could create a higher density at the perimeter of disrupted bugs.

> That suggests another interesting test which would be to use a bunch of rope lights to create a complete circle around your site

A bug Faraday cage. Neat. Though it could reduce the ambiance of camping by limiting the view of the stars.

That's rather interesting. In late summer when I think there are lot of bugs in the grass, I would find if I had my headlamp with the default white light (even fairly dim) they tended hit my face more to my liking when walking in my backyard. But putting on the red LED almost none annoyed me.

Again, per the paper, the night sky is actually pretty luminous and nominally the bugs can still orient "up" with their top toward the night sky. If your red light was comparable to the illumination flux from the night sky you would see this effect.

It is really entertaining that you would appear to have a specific preference about just how bugs hit your face.

It's probable that the psychological effect of having the light on is distorting how they perceive the insects hitting. I think the only scientific way to deal with this would be to make a bug spraying machine that can spray bugs at someone's face in different patterns. It may take a little time to find the right pattern, but when the subject thinks it matches what they experience with the headlamp they could say "Yes! Yes! That's the one!" (or they could just put their thumbs up and smile if they prefer not to open their mouth)

I recently bought a red headlamp for night hiking because I wanted to try something that wouldn't kill my night vision (under a good moon I prefer to hike without a light as using a light kills your night vision and thus your distance vision) but if it doesn't draw bugs that's an extra plus. At the borderline I usually avoid using my headlamp because the bugs it draws are annoying--when something flies a couple of inches from your face it's very bright!

Depends on the characteristics of the trap, the bait and the bug, doesn't it? A highly attractive trap with a steep drop-off, and large and effective kill zone, and a kind of bug with a small but active nightly migration radius (when near campers) (compared to the trap attraction radius) might quickly attract and kill all the bugs that will come into that radius that night.

When you kill all those bugs in the first hour of the night, does that leave a noticeable excess-food signal in the region where the dead bugs use to be?

This had never crossed my mind before but seems reasonable in retrospect.

Essentially you are saying that bug zappers actually exasperate the problem they are trying to solve and it would be better to not use one?

Same for swatting bugs, the smell of the squished bugs can sometimes make for more bugs come along.

I've been battling the Japanese Lady Beatles at my house every winter since we've moved in, and it's taught me so much about both of these things- and that most seo results about insect traps etc are entirely wrong about.

I haven't figured out the sweetspot for attractant trap placement yet. It's not inside or attached to your camp or house.

But I know that cold, dry, nonstressed deaths for those that do intrude minimizes the ultimate number that invade via that route. Don't heat them, including by cleaning then up with a standard vacuum.

Interesting facts (according to me): their smell that attracts others is one of those like asparagus, that only some people seem to sense.

But to me smells like burning peanut butter toast crossed with a kaolin/ clay.

Also they hate vibrations/ noise and will aggressively attack and bite in retaliation.

> I've been battling the Japanese Lady Beatles

You have a Yoko Ono infestation?

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