Insect Killer (lantern style).

With respect:

The much better money-saving idea would be to not purchase a bug- zapper altogether. I am not sure of the range of species in the British Isles, but in the US, excepting the housefly, and then only indoors, there are no "harmful" insects that are attracted by UV light. Typical annoying insects - mosquitoes, gnats, no-see-ums, blackflies, green-head flies, wasps, yellow-jackets, horse flies, deer flies and so forth will not be attracted by the UV light. On the other hand, beneficial insects such as some pollenating moths (all moths for that matter) are more often destroyed. In one study, the quantity of mosquitoes to all insects destroyed was eight (8) to ten-thousand (10,000).

And there are many more studies out there on the issue.

So, don't waste your money.

Peter Wieck Wyncote, PA

Last summer I had a bug lantern in the bedroom - its the first summer ever that I didn't get bites.

That's all I need to know.

don't

designed -

No screens on the window? Or how about mosquitoe netting?

I had one in the back yard away from where we are active. I can attest that the zapper does attract mosquitoes just by watching them fly into it.

I wonder if these are getting worse? Mine is a few years old and has a magnetic ballast, it's been run for years on all the original parts.

I always wanted to modify one of these with a capacitor bank to give the grid a little more kick when a bug flies through, I guess I have a little bit of Tim the tool man in me.

I've read this as well, however mine gets filled with thousands of mosquitoes during the summer when I have it up. Maybe it's a different species out here in the northwest but there's no doubt that bug zappers are effective here. The moths I wouldn't mind, but they fly all over the porch light and hit me in the face, I'd much rather they go after the bug zapper, however relatively few of them get through the grill.

But the greenie weenies will still swear blind they don't!

Screens on the windows until the weather gets too hot, then I shut all the windows and rely on the ACU - I've no idea how the biting insects get in.

Its also preferable they go in the bug zapper than munch their way through my linen closet.

If your bug zapper has a magnetic ballast it doesn't fall into the same category as the piss-poor design cheap units I bought, they probably have acceptable tube life left as they are.

These units usually use a Cockroft-Walton voltage multiplier or some variation of, don't be tempted to use a HV transformer, its ability to supply full current continuously would present a fire risk!

There's plenty on the web about Cockroft-Walton multipliers that can help with adding more stages or beefing up the existing caps.

I used mine when we were outside. I wasn't trying to save the neighborhood from the wrath of mosquitoes but rather distract the majority of them away from our outdoor activity area. My lot ends into a heavily wooded park so there are hoards of mosquitoes looking for a meal around dusk. The bug zapper definitely makes a difference when it was placed in the right area away from us. And as far as moths go, I think they are a very minor player in pollination. What concerns me much more is the problem we are having with honey bees which are responsible for much of the pollination.

The honey bees are in crisis - there are several thoughts as to causes but nothing certain and certainly no cure yet.

But, as it happens, many of the mosquitoes that wind up in bug-zappers just happen to be male - they are neither hunters nor biters, and so are not diverted by their next meal. And as mosquitoes are happily promiscuous, there is no need for many males.

From the University of Florida Study:

"While the UV light in these bug zappers draws a wide range of insects, mosquitoes and other biting insects are more attracted to the carbon dioxide exhaled by people and pets. They're also attracted to carbon dioxide that is passed through human skin.

"The main reason bug zappers don't work is that mosquitoes are extremely sensitive to carbon dioxide," Day said. "They see the UV light in your yard, but once they pick up even the slightest trace of carbon dioxide from people, they change direction and zero in on the source of that odor. They are expert at detecting carbon dioxide at levels as low as 50 parts per million." "

Peter Wieck Wyncote, PA

Key words "more attracted"

It goes without saying that this is so since it is how they survive. However, I see the female fly into zappers by the hundreds and each one of those is one less that is likely to bite me or my pets. So I stand upon my personal experience with zappers regardless of what quotes you can cut and paste.

Hey, it's your yard, your money and your mosquitoes... and how you manage them is up to you. My wife will tell you that I *HATE* biting insects, but it hasn't stopped me. We prefer repellants placed remotely to confuse the little buggers. It works. Also and blessedly, we have breezes where we tend to sit the most - and that keeps the bulk of them away anyway.

Now, if we were in Alaska...

Peter Wieck Wyncote, PA

How do you know the gender?

They carry little pink purses.

...not to mention a long snout for biting.

jak

The girlie one's scream as they hit the zapper.

Must be a different sort of bug zapper we're talking about. The American units I've dealt with all use a 60Hz HV transformer to feed the screens with raw HV AC, IIRC they're around 2KV and similar in design to small neon sign transformers. The OCV is not high enough to sustain an arc between screens, but in the event a moth does get in there, it will sit and sizzle for a while, it smells awful.

The zappers I'm familiar with look like this

Mine is at least 10 years old though and I haven't shopped recently so perhaps things are different now.