Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Bugs attracted to color?

I seem to recall reading that bugs are attracted to lighter colors more so than dark? Does anyone have any experience with this? I'm looking for another tent and have the option of green or yellow. Do you think the yellow would attract more bugs than the green?

The tent will have bug netting, but its hard to sleep when you have 1000 bugs between the fly and netting...

I'll primarily be using this tent in Alaska when the bugs are out...

Yes , I had a prototype tipi out that I called the bomb pop, it was gold and brown. There must have been 50 flies on the gold section and only a couple on the brown. I have seen it with other colors as well, although not to the same degree.

i've had experience with yellow jackets coming to light colors. bad thing is i'm deathly allergic to bee sting.

There are a lot of "bugs" out and about in the world. For the important blood feeding insect Families Culicidae (mosquitoes), Simuliidae (black flies), Cerotopogonidae (punkies or no-see-ums), and Tabanidae (deer and horse flies) that you want to avoid attracting, the color of your tent probably matters less than the color of your clothes. I would get the green tent. Yellow is very attractive to some non-biting insects that can be a nuisance if they get in around , on, and in the tent in quantity. I would suggest treating the insect netting of any tent you get with a permethrin clothing treatment product as the the punkies can crawl right through the mesh ( I have seen them crawl through wool socks to bite ankles). The permethrin has "hot foot" repellency.

Is permethrin safe to use on synthetic fabrics? I hadn't thought of that. Thats a great idea.

The majority of the bugs will be black flies or 'white socks' and mosquitos which can't get through the mesh. My current tent is a light tan/green and the amount of bugs that get trapped between the fly and screen is unreal. I wasn't sure if it was due to the color or not.

Heading to Quetico in June when the black flies are out. Noticed last year that they avoided white clothes. I'll be decked out like a mountain goat this year.

Bugs come to certain yellows like a magnet. I got rid of a bright yellow tent used for spring and summer because it attracted every bug withing a square mile.

I have a bright yellow Polaris ATV. If I'm around soggy ground and mosquito's, They'll cover it up. It was so bad once that it looked brown instead of yellow. I'm of the impression it's the Yellow, not only the light color.

In my experience, bugs go for yellow most of all. I use yellow coffee can lids smeared with " Tanglefoot " to attract and snare the critters.

I have a yellow camera case. When its in my boat it gets covered with bugs.

Think big flower..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbh4rIC-4vI

Speaking of bugs, I'm going to try permethrin spray on my hiking gear. Sounds like you could spray a tent also.

For what it's worth, the guys at AK Raft and Kayak told me they don't recommend yellow rafts for the same reason.