Sunday, August 23, 2009

Electronic Bug Zapper

By Owen Jones

The hand held bug zapper is the best way of clearing the space around you of insects, especially the flying ones such as mosquitoes. The indoor insect killer vaporizes any insect from a mosquito to a gnat instantaneously on contact with a nice, loud, electrical 'crack'!

However, this is not to say that the hand held bug zapper cannot be operated outdoors, so long as it is not raining. It should be handled just like any other high voltage electrical equipment. Keep the electric bug killer dry and please do not use it when you are standing in the pool!

Models vary greatly, but there are basically only two types of electric bug killer: the battery operated bug zapper and the rechargeable electric bug killer. Both are equally effective at killing insects and employ the same principle.

The electric insect killer looks like a 'kids' tennis racquet, but with three layers of 'strings', which are in fact wires. The central grid of wires becomes live at the push of a button, while the other two grids, one on either side, are harmless earths.

When an insect is trapped between the wires of the indoor insect zapper, it creates a short, which evaporates it instantly with a loud crack and a flash. The hand held insect zapper will zap other insects too, but they just burn instead of just disappear.

I have been using the rechargeable type for about five years and am extremely happy with the indoor insect zapper. In fact, the electric bug killer has come a long way in the last few years. A fully charged indoor insect zapper is powerful enough to last for a few hundred swipes and will hold it's charge, when unused, for weeks without any noticeable discharge.

The battery recharge unit will take intensive use for the best part of a year, although its ability to hold a charge for a few weeks gradually diminishes after six or seven months.

The latest indoor insect killer I've had has a main on/off switch, an LED that shines when it is activated (the brightness of this light also indicates the battery's strength) and a light that comes on when it is plugged in for recharge.

The instructions suggest that it should be (re)charged for sixteen hours. I usually put mine on charge over night once or twice every week or two, although the hand held bug killer shows a marked increase in performance with only a couple of hours charging.

The latest version I've seen also comes with a strong beam called a 'headlamp'. I have found this very useful when walking in the garden, but I'm not sure whether it's supposed to attract the flies in the dark so that you can zap them if you're feeling bored or just vindictive. You know, a bit like an Anglerfish.

I've used the headlamp on my electric insect zapper for that too, but the light uses a lot of battery power. All in all, the indoor insect killer is a big asset to any outdoor event. The hand held insect zapper is useful to 'clean out' your bedroom before retiring; it's unbeatable for evening mosquitoes and it will clear a lunch table of wasps too.

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