Insects, bathrooms and Cornwall
Discussion
Approaching lights out in Chateau Rusty last night and Mrs R observes that the bathroom is full of daddy long legs. 'Ah that's because they are attracted to the light' says I. 'Why?' says she. 'Because they are confused due to the fact that they use the moon to navigate, like moths and artificial lights confuse them' says I. 'Oh, where are they going and how does flying towards the moon help?' says she. 'Ahh its to do with uummm, because of the errr, ummm, eerrr, dunno.'
She will ask again tonight as she likes to see me stumped. Help. Why do they do that (flying insects, not wives.)
The Cornwall thing... If they all followed the moon isn;t that where they would end up? (Again, insects not wives.)
She will ask again tonight as she likes to see me stumped. Help. Why do they do that (flying insects, not wives.)
The Cornwall thing... If they all followed the moon isn;t that where they would end up? (Again, insects not wives.)
Bees during the day use the position of the Sun in the sky to navigate, the sun doesn't move too quickly so that fine. Nocturnal insects not having the sun use the moon. So there you are happily flying along using the moon for your bearings ( in much the same was as a sailor uses the stars ).
When a moth etc mistakes your light for the moon this goes pear shaped, because as they fly the 'moon' suddenly starts changing place relative to them, so as they try to keep the 'moon' in the same place in the sky relative to themselves they start spiralling inwards, until they hit the light. Uck me thinks the insect that's never happened before, and off they go again repeating the whole daft procedure.
When a moth etc mistakes your light for the moon this goes pear shaped, because as they fly the 'moon' suddenly starts changing place relative to them, so as they try to keep the 'moon' in the same place in the sky relative to themselves they start spiralling inwards, until they hit the light. Uck me thinks the insect that's never happened before, and off they go again repeating the whole daft procedure.
timmy30 said:
Bees during the day use the position of the Sun in the sky to navigate, the sun doesn't move too quickly so that fine. Nocturnal insects not having the sun use the moon. So there you are happily flying along using the moon for your bearings ( in much the same was as a sailor uses the stars ).
When a moth etc mistakes your light for the moon this goes pear shaped, because as they fly the 'moon' suddenly starts changing place relative to them, so as they try to keep the 'moon' in the same place in the sky relative to themselves they start spiralling inwards, until they hit the light. Uck me thinks the insect that's never happened before, and off they go again repeating the whole daft procedure.
Brilliant. That explains the, why it goes wrong bit. The remainder of the puzzle is 'where are they going?' I can understand it with a bee but a moth or a daddy long legs is a bit trickier. How much of an agenda can they have?
rustybin said:
I can understand it with a bee but a moth or a daddy long legs is a bit trickier. How much of an agenda can they have?
I think the main agenda is being able to fly in some kind of a straight line/ direction. Which of course gets buggered up when you switch on the light.
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