The electric insect zapper is the best way of ridding the area around you of insects, especially the flying ones like mosquitoes. The indoor insect zapper evaporates any insect from a mosquito to a gnat instantly on contact with a nice, loud, electrical ‘zap’!

However, this does not mean to say that the indoor insect zapper cannot be operated outside, so long as it is not too wet. It should be handled just like any other high voltage electrical item. Keep the indoor bug killer dry and please do not use it when you are standing in the pool!

Models do vary greatly, but there are basically only two types of hand held insect killer: the battery operated bug zapper and the rechargeable electric bug killer. Both models are equally effective at zapping bugs and employ the same methods.

The hand held insect killer looks like a ‘junior’ tennis racquet, but with three sets of ’strings’, which are in fact wires. The central grid of wires becomes live at the touch of a button while the other two networks, one on either side, are earths.

When a bug is caught between the wires of the indoor bug zapper, it creates a short, which vaporizes it instantly with a loud crack and a flash. The electric insect killer will kill other bugs too, but they just fry instead of just disappear.

I have had the rechargeable kind for about five years and am extremely satisfied with the indoor bug killer. In fact, the electric bug zapper has come a long way over the last few years. A fully charged hand held bug zapper is powerful enough to last for several hundred swipes and will hold it’s charge, if unused, for weeks without any noticeable discharge.

The rechargeable battery unit will put up with serious use for the best part of a year, although its capability to hold a charge for a few weeks slowly diminishes after six or seven months.

The latest indoor bug zapper I’ve used has a main on/off switch, a light that comes on when it is activated (the brightness of this light also indicates the battery’s strength) and a light that comes on when the zapper is on recharge.

The instructions suggest that it should be (re)charged for sixteen hours. I usually put it on charge over night once or twice every week or two, although the electric insect killer shows a marked increase in performance with only a couple of hours charging.

The latest model I’ve had also comes with a strong light called a ‘headlamp’. I have found this very handy when out in the garden, but I’m unsure whether it’s meant to attract the flies in the dark so that you can kill them if you’re feeling bored or just vindictive, rather like an Anglerfish.

I’ve used the headlamp on my electric insect zapper for that reason too, but the beam uses a lot of battery power. All in all, the hand held bug killer is a big asset to any outdoor event. The electric insect killer is useful to ‘clean out’ your bedroom before retiring; it’s unbeatable for evening mosquitoes and it will clear a lunch table of wasps as well.