Last night the local news ran a piece on Bug Zappers. I'm talking about those fixtures used at night to attract and "zap" harmful insects. They used a professional entomologist to advise them. Zappers were set up in a place where there were thousands of mosquitoes.

The first zapper used ultraviolet light to attract insects and zapped bugs by electricution. After two hours they had a pile of insects, cadisflies, katydids, even ladybugs but not a single mosquito.

The second model used carbon dioxide to attract insects which would die when stuck to sticky paper. They got one mosquito and four no-see-ums. Another version used the same attractant and a vacuum to draw the insects in. This time they got four mosquitoes and six no-see-ums.

It seems like the bug zappers are not as popular as they once were. I hope people are getting wise to the fact that the ultraviolet ones kill good insects but not harmful ones.

The issue of insects that are active in the day and how to control them was not addressed. What do you think about bug zappers?

Sam