Insects are attracted to white wind turbine bases: evidence from turbine mimics

Wind power is one of the fastest growing forms of renewable energy, but the interactions between wind turbines and insects are largely unknown beyond the observation that the accumulation of dead insects on turbine blades drastically reduces the power produced. Insects may be attracted to wind energy facilities because of topography, the heat that turbines produce, the lighting, or the visual cue of the turbine itself. Turbines can present a striking visual contrast rela-tive to the surrounding landscape, particularly when they are painted bright white and reflect ultraviolet wavelengths. To test the hypothesis that wind turbine color attracts insects, we sampled insects near experimental wind turbine mimics of 9 colors. The mimics were located on a hill with characteristics similar to sites of nearby wind energy facilities. Passive traps painted the same colors and placed next to their corresponding turbine mimic provided an estimate of insect attraction to turbines of different colors. Insect abundance was highest next to the white, violet, and blue turbine mimics, and lowest adjacent to the green, orange, yellow, light gray, and dark gray turbine mimics. Our results suggest that white, the predomi-nant color of wind turbines globally, is one of the most attractive colors to insects. We encourage others to investigate whether painting turbine bases a less attractive color (e.g., gray or green) may drastically reduce the attraction of insects to wind energy facilities.