The Next Travel

Electric Bug Killer

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

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

Models do vary greatly, but there are really only two kinds of electric insect zapper: the battery operated bug killer and the rechargeable electric bug zapper. Both are equally effective at killing bugs and employ the same principle.

The electric insect killer resembles a ‘junior’ tennis racquet, but with three layers of ’strings’, which are in fact wires. The central grid of wires becomes live at the touch of a button, while the other two grids, one on either side, are harmless earths.

When a bug is caught between the wires of the hand held insect killer, it creates a short, which evaporates it instantly with a loud crack and a flash. The hand held insect killer will zap other bugs too, but they just burn instead of just disappear.

I have had the rechargeable type for about five years and am extremely happy with the hand held insect killer. In fact, the electric bug zapper has come a long way over the last few years. A fully charged indoor bug killer is powerful 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 unit will take 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 activated (the brightness of this light also gives an indication of the battery’s strength) and a light that comes on when it is plugged in for recharge.

The instructions say that the bug zapper should be (re)charged for about sixteen hours. However, I usually put it on charge over night once or twice every week or two, although the hand held insect killer shows a large increase in performance with only a few hours recharging.

The latest model I’ve used also comes with a strong beam 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 flies 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 electric insect killer for that reason too, but the beam uses a lot of battery power. All in all, the hand held insect killer is a huge asset at any outdoor event. The electric bug zapper is useful for ‘clearing’ your bedroom before retiring; it’s unbeatable for killing evening mosquitoes and it will eradicate wasps at a lunch table as well.