Summertime brings beautiful weather, barbeques, friends and family visiting, and good times to remember all in the comfort of your own backyard. One thing that you probably also know about summer is that with the warm balmy nights, bugs…especially mosquitoes also start showing up. An Electric bug zapper normally can take care of most pesky flying insects, however that’s not necessarily the case with mosquitoes. Mosquitoes can only be killed by specialty a mosquito zapper. Lets find out more about how you can control these irritating insects this summer at your home.
First it might be good to know a little history. Typical bug zappers are devices that both attract and then kill flying insects. While most people buy them because they are annoyed by mosquito activity in the evenings, as mentioned, they really are not all that effective on controlling mosquitoes. These devices attract by emitting light and unfortunately, mosquitoes are not very drawn by light like other bugs can be.
The original bug zapping device was invented way back in 1934 by two American’s, William Folmer and Harrison Chapin. While the technology has improved quite a bit since that time, the parts of the device remain essentially the same to this day. There is an outer housing which encases the rest of the parts but still allows insects to fly in. This housing can be just a square or rectangle but some look like lanterns to make them a bit more attractive hanging in the backyard. Within the case is a light that attracts insects – this is usually neon or ultraviolet. Surrounding the light are two or more wire meshes. These wire meshes are electrified so that when insects land on them or try to get through to the light, the current zaps them to death. The transformer, the final part of the zapper, is what supplies the electricity – over 2,000 volts at a time.
Mosquito control, however is a different type of mosquito zapper. These devices generally use carbon dioxide to attract mosquitoes and then kill them using some type of chemical once the bugs get near. Another effective solution for these types of traps is the use of physical nets to draw the biting insects into them. One company makes a box fan that attaches a fine meshed net onto it and it traps thousands of mosquitoes every single day by sucking them through the fan and then not allowing them to escape the netting. Very clever indeed. Make sure if you are looking to control mosquitoes, that you don’t just buy the typical electric bug zapper. Focus on a specialty mosquito zapper and see what kinds are offered on the market. A search online will enable you to compare the features of each type there is.
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