We’re sorry to break the news, but yes, LED lights still attract bugs. Whether they attract more or less than incandescent lights is disputable, but YES, you will still have some little buggers flying around that LED porch light. Around 20,000 insects have been determined by scientists to be attracted to LED lights.
Nocturnal bugs look to moonlight as a beacon to navigate, but being the oh-so-intelligent creatures they are, they mistake bright lights, like porch lights or street lamps, as the moon and, as a result, gravitate toward them.
While LED is generally better for the environment (Fun fact: the inventor of the popular blue LED won the Nobel Peace Prize for physics in 2014), it has its downfalls. Because they are so bright, scientists hypothesize that an increased usage of LED in many parts of the world may lead to a disruption of the natural ecosystems and food chains among animals that depend on bugs for food. It’s a matter of choosing the right color of lighting that will help lessen the crowd of bugs flying around LED lights.
One possible solution to lessen bug attraction to your porch light would be to purchase LED lights in the warm white color spectrum. While they may not be as bright as the typical cool white light provided by LEDs, lighting in the warm white spectrum tend to nicely illuminate the night time settings without being too overwhelmingly bright.
Guess LED lights aren’t exactly perfect, but you have to give them credit for being more awesome than those incandescent lights.