Fed up with those pesky wasps/flies/mosquitoes? Like tennis? Then you’re in luck. The insect zapper is here, and it’s going to change your life.
What are we talking about? We’re talking about a rather fabulous invention that (totally efficiently and painlessly, we’d hasten to add) enables you to kiss goodbye to the multifarious flying creatures of the night – by swatting them with what sounds like about ten million volts of electricity. In a tennis racket. That’s right – the bug zapper is a hand held, tennis racket looking thing that lets you fry flying insects on the move.
We hasten to add, before we go any further, that the insect zapper itself doesn’t deliver anything like ten million volts of anything. It’s battery powered, and operates a low level charge that, at worst, would give a moistened human finger tip a tasty little shock. A moistened human finger tip, of course, is not a mosquito – when a mossie comes into contact with that little charge, he or she (apparently it’s only the females that bite. Dare we say “typical”?) fries instantly, with a satisfying little click. The zapper is “charged” using a button on the tennis racket handle – once the thing goes live it retains its power for some time, so remember to discharge it against something harmless if you don’t score any direct hits on the flying beasties in your neighbourhood. And do keep the insect zapper well out of the reach of children – it might not be particularly harmful, but it still delivers a bite that will have even the most carefree child wailing like a fire engine in no time flat.
The mesh on the zapper (what would be the “strings” of the “racket”) is quite remarkable, when you examine it (don’t do it literally unless you want to shock the tip of your nose) – and pretty much defines the size and type of creepy crawlie you can go for. When you look closely at one of these bug bats, you’ll see that it actually has three layers of mesh – two outer layers (one on each side of the racket) and one inner. It’s the inner layer that does the damage: the outer ones are there for your protection. What is supposed to happen is this: a bug crawls inside the protective mesh on the insect zapper and gets nuked by the live inner layer. Which means, of course, that you can’t toast anything that won’t fit through the holes. Buy accordingly and make sure you get the right size for your prize. Happy hunting!