Confirmed: Night Lights Drive Pollinators Away From Plants
A first-of-its-kind study shows that artificial lights deter nocturnal insects that flowers rely on.
It’s hard enough to grab an insect during the day, so try doing it in the dark, while wearing night-vision goggles. These eyepieces offer little in the way of depth perception, and “catching insects without that is not easy,” says Eva Knop from the University of Bern. Nevertheless, she and her colleagues persisted, and became better with practice.
Over several summer nights, they would head out into 14 Swiss meadows, half of that night-lighting deters or distracts pollinating insects. That, in turn, harms the plants they would typically visit.
