Bugs Getting Confused by Asphalt

  • Dragonflies are one of the insects tricked by false light (Photo courtesy of the EPA)

Bugs are getting confused by the
reflections from manmade structures.
Rebecca Williams reports on a new study:

Transcript

Bugs are getting confused by the
reflections from manmade structures.
Rebecca Williams reports on a new study:

If you’ve ever noticed swarms of insects hovering over your car, there’s a
good chance they’re mistaking it for water.


Smooth, dark surfaces like cars and asphalt reflect polarized light. That’s
what bugs see – and that tricks insects such as dragonflies.


Bruce Robertson is an author of the study in the journal Frontiers in Ecology
and the Environment.


“Asphalt actually reflects polarized light more strongly than water and so it
looks more like water than water! And so these organisms are thinking
they’re finding a place to breed and hunt and lay eggs and mate when in fact
they’re finding a place that’s very dangerous.”


Robertson says these bugs swarm over buildings and roads in huge numbers,
and can die of exhaustion.


But he says it might be possible to stop tricking the bugs. Things like
adding white curtains to dark windows or adding a little bit of gravel to
asphalt to make the surfaces reflect less polarized light.


For The Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.

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On the Lookout for Fireflies

  • Researchers have started a project to document firefly sightings (Photo by Don Salvatore, courtesy of Museum of Science, Boston)

Scientists want your help counting
fireflies. Mark Brush reports researchers
hope to answer a commonly asked question:

Transcript

Scientists want your help counting
fireflies. Mark Brush reports researchers
hope to answer a commonly asked question:

People often ask, ‘Why don’t we see as many fireflies anymore?’

Don Salvatore is an educator at Boston’s Museum of Science. He says he and other
researchers don’t have a good answer. They don’t even know whether there are fewer
fireflies or not.

So Salvatore and a few bug scientists started up the Firefly Watch Project. They’re
asking people to help them out by spending a few minutes in their backyard.

“So what we want them to do is to go outside at night and then for a ten second period
count the number of fireflies they see. As well as that we ask them to just key in on a
couple of fireflies and give us just a little information.”

Salvatore says they hope to discover whether thinks like frequent lawn mowing, light
pollution, and pesticides are harming firefly numbers.

For The Environment Report, I’m Mark Brush.

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