Outdoor Bug Zappers

Mosquitos are attracted to UV light only when they are not hungry.

I live in a village and here mosquitos are never hungry because they have plenty to feast on.
And I have a few very cheap UV lamps from aliexpress that attracts & traps them in a box using a fan. I always find mosquitos in there.

But I gave the same lamps to my mom that lives in a city and never caught a single mosquito there!
And I expected that because city mosquitos are crazy hungry!
Sleeping there is always a pain in the ass because even if I have one mosquito in the room it’s almost impossible to sleep and you cannot catch it. City mosquitos are smart asf.
But village mosquitos are very dumb and you can catch that easily even in the air

CO2 traps catch hungry mosquitos too, but they are way too expensive

I do kind of wish it didn’t need to be plugged in. You want it as far from your house as possible right? My yard is a half acre

There are two types of machines. Both use a attractants and both use propane. The propane only unit uses the propane to power the fan that sucks the mosquitoes into the trap, and theres an electric powered fan unit.

My brother has the electric powered unit with a 100’ extension cord. It uses about 1lbs of propane a day. So with an 18lbs propane tank, it lasts a couple weeks. I believe the propane only version uses quite a bit more, not sure. The propane only version is nice where you don’t have electrical power available.

Being 100’ away from the house, I couldn’t hear it run. There might be a light that goes on when the Octenol attractant runs out. Don’t remember.

Both units cover at least one acre. They are expensive, but all depends how much you enjoy being outdoors in a mosquito infested area.

edit… Also, when you empty the bag, all you see are mosquitoes. You don’t see it catching other types of moths and flying insects. It’s very selective.

Hey Robert, thanks for this info. I’m going to get the propane only version for sure. Sounds like it’ll cost me about a buck a day to run it 24/7 - small price to pay to not get eaten alive (:

Thanks!

Hmm… their website doesn’t seem to have one that’s propane only

That’s a fact. A long time ago a pair of entomologists did a study in Illinois of several dozen bug zappers over a summer they cataloged thousands of dead bugs Mosquitos were not even 1% There were lots of good bugs though4
with the Co2 ones they attract bugs that bite.

I’m not seeing it either. I’m not sure which model it was. You might want to call them and ask. Maybe I’m mistaken and there was one with a rechargeable battery pack instead. It’s been 7yrs or so.

Thanks!

currently my indoor place is slightly infested with flour moths. i go about them as in The Walking Dead (i only recently started watching it because it's on my Amazon Prime Free Trial, 10 seasons; i'm at S03E10, not sure if i keep watching all seasons, kinda slow stuff, what do you think?), i.e. eliminating 1 by 1. the ones which fly around in the early/late/warm evening i catch with my bug zapping racket (2xAA powered, using NiZn instead of Enepoop), the ones on the walls i vacuum with my Bosch handheld vacuum cleaner (4s1p 18650 modded), and during the hunt -day or night- i always use my 1x18650 headlamp for easy spotting. they're hell easy prey on white walls (unlike mosquitoes or flies) because they wouldn't fly away until you push them lol but on wood surfaces/brown furniture they can't be spotted easily so i don't even bother. Reducing their population by active killing like this is much more satisfying than buying silly expensive paper-glue-traps and cleaning the kitchen thoroughly haha. Sure, if all fails, i'd be willing to buy those paper-glue-traps and give them a serious try.

outdoor flies taking a sun bath on my roller shutter i shoot down with my bugasalt gun. maybe on 2 or 3 late fall evenings, when the last warm seasonal sun rays hit the house.

on cold days/nights —and i know where to find them around the house— i'd Bosch-vacuum the mosquitoes 1 by 1, maybe once a year. of course, outdoor mosquitoes don't bug me inside, so i'd do it only for phune.

All of this reminds me of a bug zapper my uncle (who was an electrician) and I built when I was a kid using some wire mesh he had from work and a high voltage DC transformer (from a neon light I think.). It would actually catch insects on fire sometimes. Wish I had that thing in the summers

That’s what I gotta do. Had an old racquet that was simply 2 layers of hardware-cloth offset from each other, and always worked, vs the stoopit-ass 3 layers of fine mesh that shorts out if you so much as look at it wrong.

Crank up the voltage, and fry ’em…

my racket is 1 layer. the best. easy to clean. love to buy more as spares but I can't find the sku on alix, only on amzn

?? How’s that work?

Older 2-layers were +/–, and you could zap yourself if you’d grab the racket by the “net” part.

Newer 3-layer ones were –/+/–, so that both external sides would be “grounded”, and you’d have to poke something through to get zapped.

1 layer??? I’d say look again, unless maybe they’re just parallel alternating tracks.

It is this model. Definitely overpriced. Super popular because it is so effective:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000MU2MJA/

poor build quality though. worth 1.5$ on Alibaba 10000pc/month

It even zaps tiny fruit flies and flies smaller than that!

Nowhere in the US, only in the UK, apparently. Even goggled it by name.

And yep, alternating layers. Interesting.

Yeh, I gotta make something like that, maybe a home version… :laughing:

The most enjoyable way to slay mosquitoes is with my 6 watt blue laser. The little bastards just explode instantly. They’re fast but photons are faster

Wish I had that kind of aim… and OD8+ goggles.

Had one f’er here today haranguing me. Got me in the morning (rude awakening, “YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” right in my ear), got bit a bunch of times, then it waddled off after getting a half-pint of blood.

Came back later, got me a few times on my legs and foot-arch before I felt the itches. Sat up (shorts), got my Tacklife (bright + diffusion-film), looked low, and nothing.

I’m telling ya, the mf’er just materialised out of hyperspace right in front of me and landed on my shin. Whacked it good! Blew apart into multiple pieces, coupla legs and antlers on my hand, half the blood-sotted body smooshed on my leg, and the wings and remainder of the carcass on the carpet.

I. Felt. Good.

you know that the itching virtually vanishes after 5sec of heat treatment by our flashlight beam? 10440 light is sufficient.

So, I wasn't done after all.

Today I received this dusk to dawn outdoor timer:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VHL6R7Z

I hooked it up today, and it works great.

It isn't confused by the light that the bug zapper outputs.

Also, I shined my FW3A right at the outdoor timer at night time, and the light sensor knew it was still night time.

Now I think I'm done with this project.

(Well, at least until the UV lights need to be replaced.)

Antlers?!Oh deer!