Thread: Night timer crawlers... caterpillar?

We have quite large down lights in the lounge room. Directly below one of them is a lounge chair. At night whilst watching TV we hear a thud on the arm rest and will see a brownish grey Grub/caterpillar has fallen from the down light. This has been happening for a week now so last night I climbed up into the roof with torch in hand. We have blown in insulation, the grey fluffy type. I focused directly over the downlight and shone the torch and could see nothing. No dead animals not grubs. I brushed away the insulation and eventually found one of the critters. Only one. I sprayed some insect repellant, half a spray can almost around the area and climbed back into the house.
Well 1/2 an hour later, thud, thud, 2 more of these beasts fall out from the down light and bounce off the arm rest of the chair.
It seems these caterpillar like critters are living in the insulation, maybe feeding on it as there is no food up there, the rafters are intact, no munching signs. They seem to be attracted to this one down light, so light attracts them, they don't mind a bit of heat to crawl up the case of the light then drop through the small gap of the light bulb socket.
We never have them fall during the day.
I keep squishing them, and should post a picture when I next see one.
Just weird what's happening.

Originally Posted by FeatherWeightDriver

I hope your insulation is nowhere near your down lights or transformers!

You can get cans to put over the light to stop dust and other nasties (read bugs!) getting in. They need to be fire rated, and are not cheap, but might be worth a look if bugs are an issue.

These are not the ones I had in mind but: Products Page | Tenmat Downlight Covers

PS: I'm not convinced burying a downlight under insulation as show in the pic is a good idea, even with that cover.

No there is no insulation near the downlights. The insulation is cellulose. The downlights are the older deep dished ones that sit high above the ceiling plaster , so these critters have to climb up the side of the downlight sides. I waited camera ready lastnight, but they were camera shy.