i was wanting to find a fluorescent street light to use outside my garage but now im thinking should i use sox? what do you guys think

Get both ! Thats what i do, but in my case its SON and PL-C

Some SOX and PL-L lamps might be able to run on the same gear (gotta look in the arc current/voltage specs). Then you can install both socket types connected to the same ballast in parallel and swap lamps as you want

Sox all the way, they are becoming so rare in north america the color makes your place really stand out at night, and you get next to nothing for bugs around them, they let you see the sunrise just after the sunset so you get to sleep in, and they also have no problems starting at -40. I use them in Edmonton all year round at my place, and they also match both the Oilers and Eskimos teams colors, the blue bombers have gold in there colors..

If you like bugs of all sorts, install a fluorescent. SOX attracts the least variety and number of bugs.

If you like bugs of all sorts, install a fluorescent. SOX attracts the least variety and number of bugs.

Yep I open my outdoor SOX fixtures like once a year and it's just to wash out the dust and dirt and there is only a few bugs inside ever, the dual PL 13 watt florescent light complete with a silicone gasket on the shade, somehow they still manage to get in, and they just pour out bugs every time I open it and it gets cleaned out several times a year because it fills up fast blocking the light..

The question is, how you intend to use the light. The SOX does e.g. restarts instantly as well as fluorescent, but after each ignition it needs quite some uninterrupted burn time (at least a hour) to prevent inner atmosphere degradation (and starting problems).

The SOX is indeed a kind of rarity, but that means it is expensive as hell...

If you are concerned about bugs, what about just a HPS (e.g. the 35W)? In the area where I live, compare to all white technologies (the worst seems to be MV), the HPS are just ignored by the bugs around (apparently no attraction at all). And it will light at way lower cost than the LPS.

What s the problem with the bugs ? If you dont want them attracted to your area, SOX or SON (and you may underdrive the SON a little to make it more SOXish). If you dont want them inside the luminaire, just repair the gasket..

The only issue I have with the bugs, well some of them bite and when your working or playing outside it's better if they are buzzing around a distance florescent light then annoying me, and the gasket is in perfect shape they still find a way inside, I thinking they are getting behind the fixture and crawling inside beside the wires..

That is how they get in, apparently there is a gap between the luminaire and the ceiling through which the light shows too. Or they just land on the luminaire and start crawling on it, getting to behind it

Most luminaires are supposed to have a gasket around the cable entry, to prevet this and to prevent water ingress from water flowing through the cable conduit in the ceiling (this is a problem in some installations). For heavier duty protection use an IP67 cable fitting

Ash it's a used fixture and the gasket wasn't included and there is screw holes all over the back side of it to allow for multiple ballast configurations, the effort involved in cleaning it is less then the work to take it down and coat the whole back side with silicone, and then it will trap water inside and rust out it's only up and turned on to attract insects and keep them away from the area lit up with a few SOX lights in my back yard around my fire pit.. 

Not something you can tack in couple minutes with Silicone through the front ?

Most luminaires can reach IP40 even with bad or missing gasket around the bowl perimeter, thats suff to stop the critters

Ash I bought it at a garage sale for 10 cents, and I only got it for the tubes inside and metal weight, it's pretty rough I'll just run it till it dies and scrap the copper and aluminum, until then it's a bug attractant and it's run for about four years like that so it should go another four years or more, it's sheltered from the rain / snow so it's dry its just the bugs, but while watering the plants I just hose it out and let it dry all day it gets about four hour of sun before the timer turns it on, really cleaning it only takes like 10 seconds. I just pop the clip, pull the shade and hose it out and clip the shade back on..

When I lived in Africa we used 48 inch indoor fixtures outside all the time they lasted forever even in the rain but we had little lizards help keep them bug free, they nested inside the fixture it's warm and full of food so I'm not worried about the one I have here and I do get about 8 months of no bugs all winter so I only have to clean it the remaining four months..