“Don’t buy a bug zapper. Studies have shown that these do not reduce mosquito bites, and may actually increase mosquito populations by killing off beneficial insects that prey on mosquitoes.”
“To be clear, these devices massacre insects – something like 71 billion annually in the US – but according to a University of Delaware study, mosquitos comprise a mere 0.22% of the deceased.”
@nzdod Yeppers. Number one corpse type in the one I had was lacewings, which are a mosquito predator. OTOH, as a way to kill off swarming alates from an ant or termite colony, they can be really useful. It’s most properly a spot-need thing, not an area-treatment device. And for that, you want external on-demand power.
@nzdod are they any good for yellow jackets? I get sometimes swarms in my tiny yard and if I could position these far from where I am they could really help!
Lame!! If you wouldn’t kill every living thing for a green lawn, you’d have a balanced ecosystem with a controlled mosquito population. Actual butterfly effect people!
@bobesdee Actually, my green lawn is not causing all the mosquitoes around here. The unusual over-abundance of drought-ending rainfall here in Texas is causing both. (I have puddles throughout my yard tonight, right now, once again, and it quit raining about eight hours ago. It doesn’t soak it when the soil is already drenched.) I usually have high water bills by now, but not this year!
@bobesdee They don’t spray Alaska’s marshes or the Everglades, and yet summer in both of those places is marked by mosquito swarms that will drive you to call in a nuke strike from orbit. Urban environments are not wild ecosystems, they tend to become spot monocultures maintainable only via artificial supports, and mosquitoes are disease vectors that the apex predators (us) are not going to put up with. “Natural controls” for them basically don’t exist unless you live in a place so dry that they have no place to breed.
@bobesdee@werehatrack I used to canoe across north FL with adjudicated youth. There were some days we wore our rain gear to keep the mosquitos off us (the JD’s usually lost the insect repellant by about day 3 and I would have smuggled my own but since they have an odor it would have cause a war). Wearing heavy vinyl raingear in the heat of the summer was no fun, but it was even less fun to be covered by bites.
Bats eat a ton of mosquitos so maybe put out bat houses. So do birds so have bird feeders. Actually there are other insects that eat them too along with turtles, fish (well the eggs anyway), frogs…
@bobesdee@werehatrack There’s at least one great natural control for mosquitos: Just buy a fan and set it up on your porch. Mosquitos can’t fight the wind. Make sure to have a breeze at leg-level too, mosquitos go for the extremities.
There are effective mosquito control mechanisms but but zappers have never been it. See above. Mosquito dunks work for ponds/standing water for larva. For adults a much more expensive machine than a bug zapper and it’s still meh. So. Unless you are cooking bugs to feed your frog…
Bug zappers are worse than a scam, they’re an outright negative. They kill useful pollinator insects and bugs that songbirds feed on, and mosquitos are drawn to the vicinity but won’t land to get zapped. If you use them, you’re not just fucking up the ecosystem of your yard, but you’re also screwing up your neighbors’.
The Aegypti mosquito that have migrated across the globe to want to eat me for dinner, can reproduce in very small amounts of water and even in decaying fruit. They are awful and must die.
Mosquitoes also attach eggs to grasses, etc. After a rain, they hatch like crazy. They aren’t only laid in water. I think they are called container Mosquitoes, if you ever wonder how they appear so fast after rain. As another poster said, we have had so much rain, our drought is over, and I also have standing water in my yard. The Joys of South Texas… They are sneaky and often huge. I Hate Them! They Love Me! Good old Love Hate relationship. I needs more Garlic…
@nzdod so none of them work? Are they all this blue light / UV like this one promises? The woot one was only UV. Does blue light make a difference or just another way to attract buyers? I just have to believe there is something that will work! https://keilini.com
Hey, if they do get cancelled, maybe you’re better off - from “How-To Geek”:
Did You Know?
Bug zappers aren’t just a tacky backyard decoration, they’re extremely unhygienic too. Researchers found that microscopic particles of the vaporized insects, along with the bacteria and viruses on their bodies, were ejected in a roughly 6 foot (2 meter) circle around the devices, coating any nearby people or food in the process.
@dmeislin I’ve actually had good luck getting what I ordered, but they do sell some things that I find questionable sometimes. Although lots of other places sell bug zappers too. Yuck.
Save your money. They kill the wrong bugs…
“Don’t buy a bug zapper. Studies have shown that these do not reduce mosquito bites, and may actually increase mosquito populations by killing off beneficial insects that prey on mosquitoes.”
“To be clear, these devices massacre insects – something like 71 billion annually in the US – but according to a University of Delaware study, mosquitos comprise a mere 0.22% of the deceased.”
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/what-you-need-to-know-about-zika-virus-201602019114
https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/42086/20200808/bug-zappers-can-t-tell-friend-from-foe-that-s-a-problem
@nzdod thank you TIL
@nzdod Super helpful articles - THX much!
@nzdod Yeppers. Number one corpse type in the one I had was lacewings, which are a mosquito predator. OTOH, as a way to kill off swarming alates from an ant or termite colony, they can be really useful. It’s most properly a spot-need thing, not an area-treatment device. And for that, you want external on-demand power.
@nzdod Super! Another $20 wasted. Thanks for saving everyone else from buying it. Too late for me.
@katbyter @nzdod you can cancel your order if you let them know soon enough
@nzdod are they any good for yellow jackets? I get sometimes swarms in my tiny yard and if I could position these far from where I am they could really help!
@nzdod So these things kill 156.2 Million mosquitos annually. Cool! Always more than one way to read statistics
That’s what they told me when they sold me the Death Star in the first place. Fool me once, shame on you…
Mosquitoes are proof that god hates us.
I remember that!
Lame!! If you wouldn’t kill every living thing for a green lawn, you’d have a balanced ecosystem with a controlled mosquito population. Actual butterfly effect people!
@bobesdee Actually, my green lawn is not causing all the mosquitoes around here. The unusual over-abundance of drought-ending rainfall here in Texas is causing both. (I have puddles throughout my yard tonight, right now, once again, and it quit raining about eight hours ago. It doesn’t soak it when the soil is already drenched.) I usually have high water bills by now, but not this year!
@bobesdee I wish my lack of caring for a green lawn could counteract the mosquito swarms that come from the wetlands that border our backyard!
@bobesdee mosquitoes lay eggs in water not green lawns.
Don’t spread hippie propaganda. Lots of other good reasons to not lay down fertilizer and weed killer. Also mosquitoes all need to die.
@bobesdee They don’t spray Alaska’s marshes or the Everglades, and yet summer in both of those places is marked by mosquito swarms that will drive you to call in a nuke strike from orbit. Urban environments are not wild ecosystems, they tend to become spot monocultures maintainable only via artificial supports, and mosquitoes are disease vectors that the apex predators (us) are not going to put up with. “Natural controls” for them basically don’t exist unless you live in a place so dry that they have no place to breed.
@bobesdee @werehatrack I used to canoe across north FL with adjudicated youth. There were some days we wore our rain gear to keep the mosquitos off us (the JD’s usually lost the insect repellant by about day 3 and I would have smuggled my own but since they have an odor it would have cause a war). Wearing heavy vinyl raingear in the heat of the summer was no fun, but it was even less fun to be covered by bites.
Bats eat a ton of mosquitos so maybe put out bat houses. So do birds so have bird feeders. Actually there are other insects that eat them too along with turtles, fish (well the eggs anyway), frogs…
@bobesdee LOL, my yard is essentially wilderness. Turns out mosquitoes don’t need a manicured lawn any more than I do.
@bobesdee @werehatrack There’s at least one great natural control for mosquitos: Just buy a fan and set it up on your porch. Mosquitos can’t fight the wind. Make sure to have a breeze at leg-level too, mosquitos go for the extremities.
There are effective mosquito control mechanisms but but zappers have never been it. See above. Mosquito dunks work for ponds/standing water for larva. For adults a much more expensive machine than a bug zapper and it’s still meh. So. Unless you are cooking bugs to feed your frog…
Price is worthy, but guessing they aren’t……
So, not chargeable by USB? (I’m spoiled, I guess.)
That means if I stick them where the sun don’t shine, I’ll still have mosquitoes to worry about?
Bug zappers are worse than a scam, they’re an outright negative. They kill useful pollinator insects and bugs that songbirds feed on, and mosquitos are drawn to the vicinity but won’t land to get zapped. If you use them, you’re not just fucking up the ecosystem of your yard, but you’re also screwing up your neighbors’.
July 22nd…still not shipped. WTH!!! Bought 7/4.
@dmeislin 24th still not shipped, makes me wonder if they will get canceled
To quote my favorite movie scene, “Don’t look at the light! It’s from Meh!”
@hchavers Don’t you mean it’s meh’s way to tell us to come to the light?
The Aegypti mosquito that have migrated across the globe to want to eat me for dinner, can reproduce in very small amounts of water and even in decaying fruit. They are awful and must die.
11 days and still not shipped??? Wish I could cancel the order!
This product is pretty-much ‘crap’. They barely illuminate, and do not ‘zap’ anything - but your credit-card. Very disappointing, but then … ?
@sdslim Yup,you couldn’t find these in the dark if they were fully charged !
Specs
What’s Included?
Price Comparison
$69.98 (Similar) at Fine Life Products
Warranty
90 days
Estimated Delivery
Monday, Jul 12 - Wednesday, Jul 14
If you can see the light, it’s not UV light.
They look like a fancy lollipop with the stick on the bottom. I think I might need to have me a lick!
Sure
/giphy beige-prissy-waffle
@dasred “STROOP there it is!”
These look larger…like 8-10" high but I know there is photo trickery frequently used.
How tall and what is the approximate diameter?
@RedOx the “similar one” is 5 × 5 × 7 in
@patentdude @RedOx So, pretty tiny. Meh, indeed. Given the capabilities of solar cells, that’s what i was expecting.
OH MY GOD THEY ZAPPED GLEN!!!
Mosquitoes also attach eggs to grasses, etc. After a rain, they hatch like crazy. They aren’t only laid in water. I think they are called container Mosquitoes, if you ever wonder how they appear so fast after rain. As another poster said, we have had so much rain, our drought is over, and I also have standing water in my yard. The Joys of South Texas… They are sneaky and often huge. I Hate Them! They Love Me! Good old Love Hate relationship. I needs more Garlic…
@nzdod so none of them work? Are they all this blue light / UV like this one promises? The woot one was only UV. Does blue light make a difference or just another way to attract buyers? I just have to believe there is something that will work!
https://keilini.com
ESTIMATED DELIVERY Monday, Jul 12 - Wednesday, Jul 14
Its the July 17 and still not shipped…this is BS!
Hey, if they do get cancelled, maybe you’re better off - from “How-To Geek”:
@Kyeh Thanks for the info. I hope they do get cancelled. This is not away to run a business…
@dmeislin I’ve actually had good luck getting what I ordered, but they do sell some things that I find questionable sometimes. Although lots of other places sell bug zappers too. Yuck.
3 weeks today. Should get an automatic refund. So not happy.