Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Hand-held Mosquito Zapper

By Owen Jones


The electric insect zapper is the best way of ridding 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 pleasingly loud, electrical 'zap'!

However, this is not to say that the electric insect zapper cannot be used outdoors, as long as it is not raining. It should be treated like any other high voltage electrical equipment. Keep the electric bug zapper dry and definitely do not use it while you are standing in water!

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 zapping insects and employ the same principle.

The indoor bug zapper resembles a 'kids' tennis racquet, but with three layers of 'strings', which are in fact wires. The central network of wires becomes electrified at the push of a button, while the other two grids, one on either side, are only earths.

When a bug is trapped between the wires of the indoor insect zapper, it creates a short, which evaporates it instantaneously with a loud crack. The indoor bug killer will kill other insects too, but they tend to fry rather than explode.

I have been using the rechargeable kind for five years and am extremely satisfied with the indoor bug killer. In fact, the electric bug zapper has come a long way in the last few years. A fully charged electric bug zapper is strong enough to last for several hundred swipes and will hold it's charge, if unused, for weeks without any appreciable discharge.

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

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

The instructions on the wrapper suggest that it should be (re)charged for about sixteen hours. I usually put it 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 recharging.

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

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




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