Regional Stock Reports

I don’t know if you have ever used a handheld, indoor bug zapper, but I think that they are marvelous. I’m talking about the handheld type that looks like a child?s plastic, toy tennis racquet. They come in two basic sorts. I rather the rechargeable bug zapper, for the reason that batteries end up costing more than the indoor bug zapper itself, although you could always buy rechargeable batteries, but then they are high-priced too.

My wife and I like to spend time in the garden. We meet friends there, dine there and in general loaf about outside, as do most folks about here, when they are not working. What’s more, it?s much cooler outside than inside. A comfortable chair, a few snacks, a cool drink and a book or a companion and life does not get much better. In fact, it’s idyllic.

That is until about six or seven o’clock when the first squadron of mosquitoes have judged that the sun’s rays have lost enough strength that they will not evaporate and they come out looking for blood. Some evenings are worse than others, of course. Normally, the mosquitoes are pretty tolerable, especially seeing as I have discovered the indoor bug zapper. (I don’t know why it is called an ‘indoor bug zapper’, it is equally as useful outdoors as in)..

It’s not that I like to slaughter things, but I find it hard to have compassion for mosquitoes. Nevertheless, I do get a certain amount of enjoyment from seeing and hearing mosquitoes and other bugs literally blow up with a flash and a spark as they come into connection with the electric and ground wires of the indoor bug zapper. These electric bug zappers can pack quite a charge, particularly if the batteries are new or the pack is completely charged.

The other day, I found a new use for my handheld, indoor bug zapper. I’ll tell you how it came about. I was in the garden, as normal, and my bug zapper was close at hand as the first squadron of mosquitoes was expected. I had my book in one hand and the bug zapper on my knees, when my wife asked me to go to the store for her. No problem, therefore, I set off on the five minute walk.

I was half-way there when I realized that I had the indoor bug zapper in my hand, but it was not worth taking it home and beginning the journey again. Anyway, on my return trip, I had my small bag of groceries in one hand and the indoor bug zapper in the other, when a local tyrant of a dog came running out of a garden right for me. This has occurred often and, although he has never bitten me yet, it is quite intimidating. He stood there glaring at me with teeth bared and his ‘pack’ of sundry neighborhood pals came out to surround me and join in.

I don’t really know what the best course of action is in this situation. I have tried holding my ground, but the intimidation just goes on and I have tried to keep walking, but he gets worryingly close by on occasion. This time, I unexpectedly lashed out with the indoor bug zapper and just caught him on the snout. Well, I’m not sure whether it hurt him, it did not seem to too much, but it gave him a very nasty shock in more ways than one, I can tell you! He leapt about four feet into the air as if he were on a pogo stick and then ran for all he was worth with all his pals following him. It was very gratifying after six months of aggravation from this dog.

Anyway, I don’t take my indoor bug zapper everywhere with me, but I will in future, if any further local dogs bother me. I know it works a treat. I have seen that one since, but he stays far away from me and doesn’t utter a squeak. I think I would take my indoor bug zapper with me, if I were wandering in an strange part of town or the park nevertheless.

Some of the commonest bugs we see indoors anywhere in the world are flies, spiders, fleas and beetles. No-one likes to see a bug indoors, so most people will go to almost any extremes to eradicate these common indoor bugs. The less common indoor bugs may be woodlice, earwigs, scorpions and millipedes or centipedes, although they are not less wanted.

It does not matter where you live in the world, it is very difficult to keep these common indoor bugs outside, unless you go to the extremes of keeping all your windows and doors shut at all times, which is obviously impossible. I now stay in Thailand and I know for sure that this is not possible.

So, just what can you do about it? Well, let’s deal with all the flying bugs first, as of all the common indoor bugs, I think they are the most obnoxious indoor bug. They are very annoying, buzzing around your head and mosquitoes and other flies can create irritating sores and besides that, all flies carry disease. I hate to see them walking on food, knowing that they have probably just come off some dung heap somewhere and now they are spitting on my food to taste it with their stinking feet!

My first line of defence is fine-mesh door and widow screens. They are not dear and can be fitted retrospectively to any window. My window meshes slide, so they will protect only one half of a window at a any one time, but I do not find that a problem. You can still create cross-winds, by opening two or more windows at opposite sides of a room. I love to see the flies on the mesh struggling to get in by day and the mosquitoes doing the same by night. At night, it is wise to switch on as little light indoors as possible so as not to attract these common indoor bugs.

My second line of defence is natural predators - lizards, like Geckos (Jin Jok, in Thai). Some people don’t like them in the house either and I can’t say that I’m all that keen on them indoors myself, but they are difficult to keep out and they do eat hundreds, if not thousands, of indoor bugs every day. I particularly like to see them lying in wait on the outside of the mesh, ready to jump on any bug trying to struggle its way through the wires.

My third line of defence is an indoor bug zapper. You know, the electric, handheld bug zapper that looks like a toy tennis racquet. They are brilliant at trapping and destroying any flying indoor bug. The bug literally explodes and vaporizes on contact with the fully-charged wires of the indoor bug zapper. If you haven’t tried using one, you really should. They are most satisfying. These three defences keep our house pretty much free of flying insects.

The creeping common indoor bugs are less of a problem really. Door screens on springs will keep 99% of them out and the Geckos will help too. Spiders can get in pretty very easily, but then, I don’t mind them too much as long as they keep out of my way, as they eat other bugs too. They are on our side to be honest. However, for those who can not bear to trap them and put them outside, the handheld indoor bug zapper works well on spiders too.

Fleas can sometimes be a problem, if you keep cats or dogs, but then if you wash or dust the animal once a month, you should be able to keep these common indoor bugs under control quite easily. However, there are two final methods that we employ. Every week, before we go out for the day, we spray every room with fly killer and every six-months we spray any rugs or carpets with a bug killer containing permethrin, which will survive washing and vacuuming for that long without losing its ability to kill common indoor bugs on contact. If you follow these methods, you will be able to keep your home or office quite free of the most common indoor bugs and any less common indoor bug as well.

Have you ever used an indoor bug zapper? If not, or if you are interested in getting an indoor bug zapper, please click one of the links to our website or blog.

The hand held bug zapper is the best way of ridding your immediate vicinity of insects, especially the flying ones like mosquitoes. The hand held bug killer 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 hand held insect zapper cannot be used outdoors, so long as it is not raining. It should be handled just like any other high voltage electrical item. Keep the hand held insect killer dry and please do not use it when you are standing in water!

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

The indoor bug zapper looks like a ‘junior’ tennis racquet, but with three sets of ’strings’, which are in fact wires. The central network of wires becomes live at the touch of a button while the other two grids, one on either side, are earths.

When a bug is caught between the wires of the indoor insect zapper, it creates a short, which vaporizes it instantaneously with a loud crack. The electric bug zapper will kill other insects too, but they just fry rather than just disappear.

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

The battery recharge pack will take intensive use for the best part of a year, although its ability to hold a charge for several weeks slowly reduces after six or seven months.

The most recent indoor insect killer I’ve used has a main on/off switch, a light that comes on when it is activated (the brightness of this light also gives an indication of the battery’s strength) and an LED that comes on when it is plugged in for recharge.

The instructions on the wrapper suggest that it should be (re)charged for about sixteen hours. I usually put mine on charge over night once or twice every week or two, although the electric insect zapper shows a large increase in performance after only a couple of hours recharging.

The latest version I’ve used also comes with a powerful beam called a ‘headlamp’. I have found this very handy when out in the garden, but I’m unsure whether it’s meant to attract the flies 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 insect zapper for that reason as well, but the headlamp uses a lot of battery power. All in all, the indoor bug zapper is a huge asset to any outdoor event. The hand held bug 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 not, or if you are interested in getting an indoor bug zapper, please click one of the links to our web site or blog.

If you aren’t already familiar with the electric bug zapper, you are really going to like it and if you have had one before, I’m sure you’ll welcome it back like an old pal! The electric insect killer does just what it says: it zaps bugs. But it does it really, really well.

Any bug that comes into contact with the electronic bug zapper is electrocuted. Smaller bugs like gnats and mosquitoes are disintegrated with a very satisfying flash and a crack. Larger insect, like house flies and wasps die, but don’t explode like the smaller ones.

Think about it, how many times have these flying insects taken the edge off an otherwise enjoyable evening in the garden? Or how many times have you not been able to get a decent night’s sleep, because you know there’s at least one mosquito in the bedroom. It has happened to me hundreds of times, I know! It is very satisfying to get one’s revenge with the electronic bug killer.

I don’t like killing anything unnecessarily - I’m married to a Buddhist- but mosquitoes? I’m sorry, they have to go. And the hand held bug zapper dispatches them without any more ado. No waiting and hoping they’ll fly into the ultraviolet light and then into the mesh. No, one sweep of the hand held bug zapper and the mosie’s gone and you can hear whether you got her or not. (I say her, because the sucking mosquitoes always are females - honest, I wasn’t being sexist).

There are two basic sorts of electric bug zapper. There’s the battery operated bug zapper and the rechargeable electric bug zapper. Both work on the same principle, but I prefer the rechargeable kind, although I suppose you could use rechargeable batteries too. (I bet they would be more expensive that the bug zapper in the first place). Anyway, I have been using a hand held insect zapper of the rechargeable kind for five years and I am ecstatic about them.

These days, I spend a great deal of time in northern Thailand with my wife, so you can bet your bottom dollar that my hand held insect zapper gets a good work-out almost every night. We usually eat in the garden in the evening and all socializing is done outside by tradition, especially in the country, where we live, so it comes in real handy. I also use my electronic bug killer to ’sweep’ the bedroom for bugs before we go to sleep at night, just like a secret agent.

The electric insect zapper seems to get better every time I buy one, which makes it hard to give you definite specifications. The electric bug zappers I bought four or five years ago, sometimes failed within six to nine months of purchase, although their ability to hold a charge was less after four or five months.

However, the new handheld bug killer will last 9-12 months and still be very pokey after nine months. My latest model even has a powerful torch called a headlamp built into it. I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be for, but if you feel that vengeance is sweet, you can attract mosquitoes with it and then zap them with your electric insect killer.

Have you ever used a handheld bug zapper? If you haven’t, or if you are interested in getting a handheld bug zapper, please click one of the links to our web site or blog.