September 28, 2026 · The GREENIC team

Do Yellow Bug Lights Work? What the Studies Found

A yellow bulb on the porch is an old trick. The research behind it is newer, and it comes with a surprise about earwigs.

Why color matters to insects

Many night-flying insects steer by light, and they see short wavelengths, blue and near-ultraviolet, far better than long ones. A white LED puts out a lot of blue. A yellow or amber bulb puts out much less.

A team from the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute tested this in a rainforest in Peru, with traps under white, yellow-filtered and amber-filtered LED lamps.

The amber-filtered traps had 34 percent fewer species and 60 percent fewer insects in total than the white light traps.

Smithsonian Magazine, Using Amber-Filtered Bulbs Instead of White Light Attracts Fewer Bugs. Read 28 September 2026.

Yellow bug lights against warm LEDs

A smaller study in Virginia, reported by Science, compared the kinds of bulbs people buy for a porch, including the yellow bulbs sold as bug lights. It counted insects caught per hour.

The "bug lights" and warm-colored LEDs were roughly tied for least attractive, at about 4.5.

Science (AAAS), Which light bulb attracts the fewest bugs? Study reveals surprises. Read 28 September 2026.

So a yellow bulb and a warm white LED did about as well as each other, and both did far better than an old incandescent bulb, which averaged about eight per hour in the same study.

The earwig problem

The same study found a catch that marketing leaves out.

But the bug lights had a downside: They were more enticing than the warm LED to two insect orders that many people consider pesky

Science (AAAS), Which light bulb attracts the fewest bugs? Study reveals surprises. Read 28 September 2026.

The two orders it names are stink bugs and earwigs. If those are the pests on your porch, a yellow bulb will not help with them, and may make it worse. We would rather you know that before you order.

Our yellow bulbs, side by side

GREENIC makes two yellow bulbs. The 9 watt bulb holds back blue light with a coating and stays on until you switch it off. The 15 watt bulb is brighter and has a dusk-to-dawn sensor. The table shows both, with the color bulbs that share their socket.

Figures from each bulb's page. Prices from our last update, 28 September 2026. Price per bulb is the pack price divided by the bulbs in the box.
BulbShapeWattsSensorBulbsPrice per bulb
Colored bulbsA199None4$2.25
Orange bulbsA199None4$2.50
Yellow bug bulbsA199None2$5.00
Yellow dusk-to-dawn bulbsA1915Dusk to dawn2$13.49
Red flood bulbsPAR38 flood15None2$6.75

A porch that draws fewer insects

The researchers behind the amber study gave simple advice for homes as well.

Deichmann recommends cut-off lighting that doesn’t shine upward into the night sky or motion detector switches for outdoor lights, and Seymoure suggests closing curtains and keeping unnecessary indoor lights off.

Smithsonian Magazine, Using Amber-Filtered Bulbs Instead of White Light Attracts Fewer Bugs. Read 28 September 2026.

In practice: aim the fixture down, not out, use a yellow or warm bulb, and let a motion sensor switch it, so the light is on only while someone is there. A radar or PIR motion bulb in a porch fixture does that without any wiring.

  • Yellow bulbs attract fewer of many flying insects. They do not repel or kill anything.
  • They do not help with every insect. The Virginia study found more earwigs and stink bugs at them.
  • A light that is off attracts nothing at all.

Sources we read

This guide is general information about home lighting. It is not medical, legal or safety advice.

GREENIC colored bulbs in this guide

All GREENIC colored bulbs