Bees and Night Lights

[FloridaGardener]

     There's no question that a porch light left on dusk-to-dawn will draw bees, which wear themselves out and die "flying into the sun."
I can only imagine what a light bulb looks like to a bee flying 12" away, with a compound eyes and heat-seeking ocelli.   

     So we keep porch lights off as much as possible. We did set an solar-LED uplight shining on a tree trunk/branches, located about 6 ft from the closest hive.  From there it seems reasonable bees could "smell" their way back into their hive (or beg in). Or at least they would rest near familiar ground.

     But oh no.  Still, there are headbangers each night on the cool led surface of the projecting lens. 
     Are they stubborn teenage rebels playing chicken, like "Rebel Without A Cause"? 
     Or maybe conspiracy-theorist bees that think an alien has landed, like Shawn the Sheep's "Farmageddon"?  - -- 

What can be done to have a bit of light in the yard?

 

[.30WCF]

Never thought about that before. I?m on a dirt road. I have lights on the building out back and the neighbor has a light on a utility pole 200yds away. I guess maybe some bees get stuck out across the landscape that you never know about since they forage all over the place. I?m sure it?s insignificant. Our lights are dusk to dawn, and the sensors are in the open, so it?s pretty dark before they come on. Most of the bees have gone to roost before the lights come on. Maybe in heavy shade they might come on while it was still light enough outside.
It still feels like a thing I wouldn?t worry about. Put up some lights if you need them.


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[The15thMember]

I have noticed that bees are drawn more to brighter lights.  In our garage we have some florescent shop lights and a couple of old incandescents in the garage door opener.  If the florescents are on and some bees wander into the garage they get caught head-banging in them almost immediately and will ignore the garage door opener.  If only the door opener light is on, they'll kind of fly around it, but they aren't addicted to it like they are to the shop lights.  I wonder if the LED's being so bright are particularly attractive to them.  I think the LED near the hives is probably confusing to them, especially if it's on all night, and if I were you I'd turn that off.  As far as your porch lights go, just leave them off when you aren't outside, or perhaps get dimmer bulbs if you like to leave them on all night.  I wonder if a red light would be less attractive to insects.       

[BeeMaster2]

Bees are definitely attracted to lights and they will wear themselves out flying around the light.  I recommend that you put something in front of the hive so that the bees at the entrance cannot see the lights.
Jim Altmiller

[AustinB]

Strange I have not seen any bees out after dusk. We have some exterior lights, but not too many. Maybe I have lazy bees :-)

[BeeMaster2]

Austin,
If your bees are not over crowded they may not bee near the entrance where they can see and bee attracted to the light.
Jim Altmiller

[Oldbeavo]

Bees are attracted to fluro's as they emit a light ray that is also in sun light spectrum.
 I have a yellow light on my Ezyloader which does not attract bees if we are loading with open entrances.

[Brian MCquilkin]

Bees are attracted to fluro's as they emit a light ray that is also in sun light spectrum.
 I have a yellow light on my Ezyloader which does not attract bees if we are loading with open entrances.

I normally use red lights going to give the yellow a try see how goes thanks for the info.