To Zap or Not to Zap!

 

#50  September 13: This has been the summer of the mosquito.  Our townhouse community seems to be especially hit and we had not noticed that many on the mountain until this season and now regularly light citronella candles and apply Off.  In Wednesday’s paper, they cited 2 studies from the late ’90s (the University of Florida and the University of Delaware) that verified that BUG ZAPPERS DO NOT WORK.  Mosquitoes hone in on our carbon dioxide not ultraviolet light.  The Florida study verified that in one single night 10,000 insects bit the dust, but only 8 were mosquitoes.  And in the Delaware study over half of the bugs killed were beneficial to the environment or ATE mosquitoes!  When the reporter for The Washington Post asked Black and Decker to produce studies to support their marketing claims (which they are required to do by the FTC) they did not respond. If this has been known since 1997, why is it still out there?  I will readily kill an offending bug (or revert to “damsel in distress mode” and call my husband to “slay the dragon”), but the “ZAP” of bugs dying has always been a little gruesome to me.  I will say that I got an ultraviolet glue trap for my kitchen and it has all but eliminated fruit flies.  It’s like a purple nightlight with a sticky card behind it and no zapping sounds.  This reminds me, I think its time to replace the card for a refill!  Zzzzzzzap!   9/14