I’ve seen a lot of memes/jokes related to moths looking for lamps. Why does the community love these memes? What’s the point?
I’ve seen a lot of memes/jokes related to moths looking for lamps. Why does the community love these memes? What’s the point?
Lamps are electrical sources of artificial light. Moths are insects which exhibit positive phototaxis, i.e. an inherent attraction towards light sources. So the memes riff on how moths are naturally attracted to light.
Now why talk about moths? I don’t know, but I think they’re kinda neat, and that’s enough for me.
If an extinction-level event happens soon and all this info is stored in an EMP-proof bunker somewhere, future alien historians will say that the moths and the lamps represented how helpless we felt in the face of our certain demise.
They’re attracted to electric light, which kills them. They’re not attracted to gaslight, which is one of the reasons people are protesting the replacement of gas lighting in Berlin.
Is this true? I remember using gas lights while camping in the 90s, they definitely attracted bugs, but I can’t remember if moths were specifically. Where I live now moths would be the primary issue and we have a bunch of old gas lamps. Maybe I should use them. Except for the pollution and other bug death.