Bug Zappers

In the same way that garden owners take pleasure in their gardens, lots of bugs tend to enjoy and linger in the garden as well. They may be eating the crops, or bothering you by eating the food you’ve prepared for your outdoor fun, or “eat you” –in the case of mosquitoes.

There are many ways that the garden can be cleared of these pestering bugs, and various devices are also available. They range from elaborate traps to pesticides, simple “Citronella” candles, and to an electronic bug zapper.

What Are Bug Zappers?

A bug zapper, or more officially known as “electronic insect-control system”, attracts bugs into it, killing them by using electricity. The device works through luring bugs to its “ultraviolet light” surrounded by deadly electrical grid that “fries” bugs upon contact. While most insects get attracted to the “ultraviolet light” of bug zappers, these devices are “non-discriminating” and even the good bugs can be zapped.

Lots of people use bug zappers to reduce the population of pests in the garden or their patios. However, some main bugs that may be among those you’d want to eliminate, are quite immune to the lures of a “buzzing light” and avoids them. Other insects that pose no harm to the garden, like butterflies, can also get attracted to its light and suffer the same death.

Inside Bug Zappers

These devices may seem complicated, but they’re incredibly simple. There have been lots of improvements on its designs over the years, particularly on safety and how they attract bugs, yet the basics have stayed the same. The essential parts of bug zappers include housing, light bulb/s, wire grids or screens, and transformer.

Exterior Housing

This part protects the zapper’s electronic parts, usually having a “grid design” that stops curious kids from placing their fingers in the zapper, as well as pets from getting electrocuted.

Ultraviolet Light Bulb

This part emits the fluorescent light that attracts the bugs. Bugs better see “Ultraviolet” light than visible light, and they also get attracted with the flower pattern revealed in its light.

Wire Grids/Screens

These parts are wire meshes that surround the zapper’s light bulb, and are “electrified” to kill the bugs.

Transformer

This part is the device that “electrifies” the capper’s wire mesh, changing a 120-volt electrical-line voltage into 2,000-volts or more.

Bug zappers are able to attract and kill over ten thousand insects within one night. By design, they don’t discriminate the type of bugs that they ‘zap’, but their “luring strategy” has the tendency to kill insects that get very attracted to its ultraviolet light. Unfortunately, mosquitoes aren’t one of those bugs.

There has been some concern with bug zappers, as its process of “zapping” insects has been found to be unhealthy, as they explode into little bits of pieces that fly great distances. This means that if you’re sitting around bug zappers while enjoying a picnic out in the garden, tiny bits of the insects are being showered on you and your food. Additionally, its “non-selective” way of killing bugs also harm “good insects” that are beneficial to the garden.

If mosquitoes are the main concern in the garden, then it is sensible to avoid the use of bug zappers, as they’re not actually that effective on them. Using other methods that don’t harm beneficial insects is better, such as Citronella candles or other mosquito repellants. On the other hand, researchers have newly developed bug zappers that give off non-toxic chemical known as “Octenol” and carbon dioxide. The two chemicals are known to attract mosquitoes and may eventually prove effective.

Bug zappers remain to be an option for garden pest control. However, their use should be carefully considered, as they’re non-discriminating when it comes to the types of insects it kills.