The hand held insect killer is the best way of clearing your immediate vicinity of insects, especially the flying ones such as mosquitoes. The indoor bug zapper vaporizes any insect from a mosquito to a gnat instantly on contact with a nice, loud, electrical ‘zap’!
However, this is not to say that the indoor insect killer cannot be used outdoors, as long as it is not raining. It should be treated like any other high voltage electrical equipment. Keep the hand held insect killer dry and definitely do not use it while you are standing in the pool!
Models do vary a lot, but there are really only two types of hand held bug zapper: the battery operated bug killer and the rechargeable electric insect killer. Both models are equally effective at killing bugs and employ the same principle.
The electric insect killer looks like a ‘kids’ tennis racket, 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 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 insect killer will kill other insects too, but they tend to burn rather than explode.
I have been using the rechargeable kind for five years and am extremely happy with the electric bug zapper. In fact, the electric bug zapper has come a long way over the last few years. A fully charged electric insect zapper is strong enough to last for several hundred swipes and will hold it’s charge, if unused, for weeks without any significant discharge.
The rechargeable battery unit will take serious use for the best part of a year, although its capability to hold a charge for a few weeks gradually reduces after six or seven months.
The latest indoor insect zapper I’ve used has a main on/off switch, a light that shines when it is live (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 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 bug zapper shows a marked increase in performance after only a few hours recharging.
The latest version I’ve had 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 supposed to attract the mosquitoes in the dark so that you can zap them if you’re feeling bored or just vindictive, rather like an Anglerfish.
I’ve used the headlamp on my hand held bug killer for that reason too, but the beam uses a lot of battery power. All in all, the electric insect zapper is a big 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 as well.
Have you ever used an indoor bug zapper? If you haven’t, or if you are interested in getting an indoor bug zapper, just click one of the links to our web site or blog.