Seems strange . . .

[Rick]

Very strange. Some time ago I had read that LED lighting doesn't attract mosquito's. My outdoor lighting is LED and three nights ago while sitting out on the deck enjoying my new patio furniture the skeeters started eating me up, I flipped on the lighting to clean up before coming inside and suddenly not skeeter to be found. Last night same thing, sat outside until the skeeters got too bad and turned on the LED's, skeeters gone. Not believing it could be that easy to get rid of them I did the same tonight, skeeters gone. Amazing!

Moths and other assorted flying things seem quite fond of the LED lights but not the skeeters. Only thing I can think of is that LED light is fairly close to daylight light, maybe that's what they didn't like. Seems pretty strange but three nights in a row now is hard to ignore.

 

[Brad]

Hmmm, interesting. I may need to make a few changes to my exterior lighting.

 

[35 shooter]

I need to check into this too. "Skeeters" are a way of life in south MS.

 

[smokeywolf]

There are three big differences between LEDs and incandescents or CFLs that comes to mind. LEDs don't flicker at the typical frequency seen in other lamps. They are pulsed, full on, full off, by a controller in order to modulate them (pulse-width modulation). However, because both the rise and fall time of LEDs is 7 nanoseconds, this would be a huge difference in frequency typically seen in other light sources.

Another difference might be as Rick mentioned; the higher Kelvin temperatures (whiter light) typical of LEDs. Believe I read somewhere that mosquitoes are more attracted to certain bands of light.

And one more thing that may make quite a difference where mosquitoes are concerned. Mosquitoes are definitely drawn by heat. LEDs burn far, far cooler than any other light source.
If you decide to experiment be sure that you don't try to do a side by side comparison. There will be little, if any difference if there is still a CFL burning close by.

 

[Rick]

It will be interesting to see if anyone else gets similar results. A note though, the LED on my back porch is big, it is a motion sensor with enough lumens to light up the back yard, the whole back yard. That's why I had it turned off while the skeeters were feeding , far more light than needed to enjoy a little Jack on a nice evening.

 

[Winelover]

Sure it wasn't the Jack, that kept them away?

 

[Brandon]

Skeeters, I remember those...

Sure don't miss them!

 

[Paden]

Interesting. Here in AK the skeets definitely do NOT demonstrate any aversion to daylight. They have a definite preference for certain temperature ranges, but daylight doesn't bother them one bit...

You show me a mosquito repellent device that actually works, and I'll show you a market opportunity that could make you rich!