Hand-held Mosquito Zapper
The electric bug zapper is the best way of clearing the area around you of insects, especially the flying ones such as mosquitoes. The hand held bug zapper evaporates any insect from a mosquito to a gnat instantly on contact with a nice, loud, electrical ‘zap’!
However, this does not mean to say that the indoor insect zapper cannot be used outside, so long as it is not raining. It should be handled just like any other high voltage electrical equipment. Keep the indoor insect zapper 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 indoor bug killer: the battery operated bug zapper and the rechargeable electric bug killer. Both are equally effective at killing insects and work on the same principle.
The hand held insect zapper looks like a ‘junior’ tennis racquet, but with three sets of ‘strings’, which are in fact wires. The innermost network of wires becomes live at the push of a button while the other two grids, one on either side, are earths.
When an insect is caught between the wires of the indoor insect zapper, it creates a short, which vaporizes it instantaneously with a loud crack. The hand held bug zapper will kill other bugs too, but they just burn rather than just disappear.
I have been using the rechargeable sort for more than five years and am extremely happy with the electric insect killer. In fact, the electric bug zapper has come a long way over the last few years. A fully charged hand held bug killer is strong enough to last for a few hundred swipes and will hold it’s charge, when unused, for weeks without any appreciable discharge.
The rechargeable battery pack will put up with intensive use for the best part of a year, although its ability to hold a charge for a few weeks slowly diminishes after six or seven months.
The latest indoor insect killer I’ve had has a main on/off switch, an LED that comes on when it is live (the brightness of this light also indicates the battery’s strength) and an LED that comes on when the zapper is on recharge.
The instructions say 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 zapper shows a marked increase in performance with only a couple of hours charging.
The latest model I’ve used also comes with a powerful light called a ‘headlamp’. I have found this very handy when walking in the garden, but I’m unsure whether it’s meant to lure the mosquitoes in the dark so that you can kill them if you’re feeling bored or just vindictive, rather like an Anglerfish.
I’ve used the headlamp on my indoor bug zapper for that reason as well, but the headlamp uses a lot of battery power. All in all, the hand held bug zapper is a huge asset at any outdoor event. The electric insect killer 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.
Have you ever heard of an indoor bug zapper? If you haven’t, or if you want to get an electronic insect killer, just click one of the links to our website or blog.
