Are cats sensitive to the UV light from fly killers?

[fwaggie]

Those fly killers that attract flying bugs and then zap them, I know they give off "black light" which is what attracts the flies.

Does this light annoy / otherwise bother cats? Is it really bright for them or anything?

I have a fly killer in the utility room which is where Sqweeks food, water and litter tray are. The fly killer is on a timer that turns on about 5pm and off at 10pm (I think), so not on all night.

I just had a hunch as to some problems he had a few weeks ago, and wondered about this.

[Ace-T]

According to that Secret life of Cats programme on the other day, cats can see UV light (some small animals urine gives off UV apparently). So it may have been a really bright light source for him. A bit more research needed perhaps?

[fwaggie]

Had a read up and recent research has shown that cats and dogs can see UV light and things that reflect it like urine.

http://news.discovery.com/animals/pets/cats-have-s...

Also some ugly facts about fly zappers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bug_zapper

they can spread a mist of "zapped bug moisture" when a fly is zapped upto 2m from the killer.

So I'm guessing that my nice, new bright fly killer is probably giving Sqweek headaches if he's in there for any length of time, and also making the litter tray light up like a torch. I bet he can also see his footprints very bright all over the place on the floor from when he's been in the litter tray.

I shall have to move the fly killer to somewhere else - not sure where too, but away from his food and litter tray area.