A few days ago I ordered a bug zapper. It's like those bug zappers that hang in your back yard and electronically zap bugs, but this is a handheld tennis racket!

OMG it's so fun! The outside lights come on automatically in my apartment, so I went out and swung the racket around a few times. There was a huge moth looking thing that was yellow and black. I press the button and swing.. ZAPOW! It was pretty loud. There was a huge blue spark and the bug was lying on the ground dead.

http://www.buzzzapper.com/electric-fly-swatter-360.html

You can goto their main size, but I found this page on their site through Google and I got it for $4.89! They are normally $9.99. It's buy 2 get one free as well! I definately am going to order a set of 3 to give away to people.

Here's some fun and you don't have to spend a cent. Just drive along the back roads of Ontario on a hot summer night. The turtles love to come out on the road and catch the warmth of the pavement. Man, if you really know how to drive you could probably run over 100 maybe 200 turtles, and it doesn't cost you a cent..well maybe a little for gas. Let the good times roll, hee haw!!

Cheers
Dave

That's just wrong lol. I don't go around killing turtles. They don't harm me. Bugs on the other hand carry viruses and stuff.

Yep, here comes the huge yellow and black moth pandemic. Sorry, I'm just one of those twits that will pick a spider up in the house with toilet paper and place it outside. Having said that, I'll squash a mosquito as fast as the next person.

Cheers
Dave

Spiders I'll smush too. I don't think there's anything I'd pick up and place outside. They will all face the wraith of something.

Two days ago I saw two spiders. Which is weird because I don't usually see too many. One was about 2 to 2.5 inches long in my shower. Amazingly it didn't look like he got wet down there, but when I was finished taking my shower and saw him he got plenty wet.

The other was a baby spider crawling on my monitor at work.

Zapped bugs, prepared correctly, taste like chicken. However it does take quite a few of them to make a complete meal......

Mike

I know Shawn is having just too much fun, but for those thinking about buying a bug zapper..read this. http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/1996/6-14-1996/bugzapper.html

Cheers
Dave

I'm with the live and let live sect.

I wonder sometimes if bugs may have a different way of thought... maybe as a group... not the bee and ant thing..

anyhow for bug lovers here's a little story.

we lived in the wilderness for a time , without human contact I paid more attention to the little things.

My nephews and nieces joined us for a few days along with their ponies and horses... when they left they didn't take all of their horsefies with them which was a pain .

But along with the horseflies were these "HorseGuards as the kids called them" . They look simular to a large bumble bee but are black and white. They are big seemingly clumsy insects that just love to eat horseflies..
Well before long the horseflys were gone and we saw them go after normal flies... which were plentifull after the visit..
I had no screens on the Bus Camper and one of those clumsy things would come buzzing thru and right out the back door or a window... but they had seen their target and would swoop in thru the nearest windows and attack the hapless fly they had spied on their recon flight.
soon whenever we'd swat a fly we would leave the corpses on the table and one of the horse guards (we had 2) would make a big show of devouring them... that is they never stopped their wings from fluttering when they were on the table surface even when on their side... so it was quite noisy..
Now here is the part that showed some thought... if we were sleeping when they came in and there was no offerings they would buzz us.... actually come over and buzz on our faces..
I swear that is true they were quite used to us.. if we were walking down the center as they flew thru they would bump into us and bump, bump, bump their way around.

Great little story Rondon! I was beginning to wonder if I was the only bug lover around.

Cheers
Dave

BTW, for those who have never seen a Horseguard, I've attached one here.

Dave

Well, I bought my new camera to take pictures of bugs with the super macro mode. Similar to http://www.beautifulbugs.com

Doesn't mean I still won't smush the living hell out of them too tho.

BTW, for those who have never seen a Horseguard, I've attached one here.

Dave

*lol* Love it Duv.

No - not the only bug lover (well within reason...), but I thought best to leave this rather strange thread alone!

Thanks for weighing in Caitlin! Threads like this are definetly fun. Yuppicide is a young 'un, I'm getting feisty and cantankerous in my old age. Maybe he'll grow up..maybe I'll get young again and start smushin bugs. Vive le difference!..or is it la.

Cheers
Dave

Don't have too many problems with bugs here (too cold and wet), but get a lot of spiders when the field next door is harvested in Autumn.

Thats usually when my wife suddenly finds she has a use for me after all. It still amazes me that she can be afraid of anything so small and harmless.

Better not let her see the bug squisher, or I'm out of a job.

Oh, and Dave, I think its La.

I get some kind of bug in my bedroom a lot they come out of the central air conditioning vent. They're water bugs or something. Small, skinny but long, with lots of legs, fast as hell.

About that link, the one about he uselessness of bug zappers. I really must disagree. At my dad's place in MN, evenings outside are nearly UNBEARABLE. And I thought I knew what alot of "skeeters" was. Being in MS we have quite a few. But there, in MN, you just cannot imagine. Every night when we were outside, he plugged in the zapper. Within a could hours time there were SO MANY mosquitos you actually could only barely make out the light. He would unplugg it when we went inside, and when we checked the thing every morning, he woudl shake them out of it, and the green grass below would be absolutely covered by a large black pile of dead mosquitos. Yeah, there may have been a few other bugs in there, but I assure you, it was far more than 2/3 mosquitos. This is just to say that I know it does kill them, and alot of them, but as to whether it actually keeps you from getting bit, seemed the only thing for that was spray or wind, and LOTS of it.

Dawn

P.S. I squash spiders and wasps if they are in the house. And if I have the courage. Otherwise I bring out MY bug zapper - its name is Stanley. lol

Dawn, I think what the article was trying to point out was that bug zappers are "too" effective. The nature of zappers is that they "pull" bugs in from miles around. So yes, you end up with more skeeters than normal, more moths than normal, more bees than normal, more lady bugs than normal and more neat little critters I don't know the names of that will die by your big zapper. Of course, if you're a neighbour, you don't need to buy a zapper..your zapper will kill his bugs, his neighbours bugs and his neighbours bugs. But I bet you'll still get bit.
It reminds me of commercial fishing for Cod, yes, they catch they're Cod but also Octopus, Sharks, other inedible fish and of course lots of our favorite Flippers..all to die in the nets.

Frankly, I think you nailed it. Put lots of spray on. Or do what my family did..pack up and move out of Dodge. Billions of Skeeters in Ontario..virtually none on Vancouver Island, same as Seattle area.

It's all about choices. Work with the little bastards..you know they' ll win in the end or with them. In any case, I'll never agree to killing an innocent moth for the fun of it as in the original post.

I'm sure most down there would disagree with me but that's ok.

Cheers

Dave

I mentioned living in the wilderness some time ago.. It was on the St. Johns river in central Florida.We spent a whole year there and as we got into mosquito season they were eating me up...

after ruining my health in my 20's I was on a health kick, part of which involved vitamin supplements. I'd heard something about certain ones that would keep me from getting bit do I asked the senior citizen at the local health food store ..

As I recall she said "well let's see you are already taking BREWERS YEAST" and I think she mentioned 1 more.. So she said Vitamin B1 and something else... B5 or b6 I think .. you could ask someone you trust at such a store.

She also said to cut out all sugar in the early afternoon.. I didn't drink booze which also might have been a sugar.

anyhow... that was it... and I mean right off... they would land but never bite. I was able to open the curtains nights and enjoy any breeze'.

I could smell the B-1 coming out of my pores so that may have been it but I think the lack of sugar also was important.

I decided to attach a photo from that time... I worked on it some time ago and replaced the sky before I read Flora's wonderful tutorial here on cutting around the trees etc.... If you look closely at the far shore it looks mowed... it was cattle land on that side and once away from the river you could walk for miles on well manicured grass... It was beautifull with numerous palm groves for shade while traveling over there... you had to watch your step or you'd trample all the colorful mushrooms rising from the cow patties.... yes nature was good to us there.

A rather nicely composed image Rondon. Personally, I think all you need to take is 3 to 4 cloves of garlic a day.

Cheers
Dave

Yes, the garlics good, not only does it keep the bugs away, but everyone else as well.

Secret is to have a black dog, when I'm out with my two, the flies and bugs all congregate around them, and leave me well alone. Only trouble is when the dog comes and sits by you, so you have to keep shooing them away. Gives your dog a complex, but keeps you bug free.

I know I said we don't have many bugs here due to the wet weather, but I was wrong, its been hot for the last couple of days, and the bugs seem to be out in force, enjoying this freakish June weather.

Ahhh! Gary, I think you just caused me to have an epiphany. Now I am beginning to understand my own Avatar!

Cheers
Dave