We rarely think that an ordinary streetlight is to a moth at night roughly what an endless feed of short videos is to a person. It flies up for a minute, and a few hours later it has run out of strength. The reason is that many nocturnal insects navigate by the Moon and the stars, while a bright lamp throws them off course: they circle the light source for hours, burn through their energy reserves, and often become easy prey for predators. Scientists have found that this trap can be made far less dangerous: it is enough to replace cool white LEDs with very warm ones (1800 K) that have a reduced blue part of the spectrum.
The problem is serious: insects are disappearing worldwide, and ecosystems are losing pollinators and important links in food chains. The experiment showed that the new LEDs attract 45–51% fewer insects, and the total biomass near such lamps is almost four times lower. Even old sodium lamps did not produce such an effect — they get too hot themselves and become a lure. Sometimes helping nature can be surprisingly simple: it is enough to change a light bulb.
