etan@tellab1.UUCP (Nate Stelton) (07/20/84)
<zap, snap, pop>
I live in a heavily wooded area where the insect population is
overwhelming. It seems to me that if I were to hang a zapper outside my
house, it would draw zillions of the little buggers, many of which would
fry, and perhaps an equal number that would be snacking on me while
waiting their turn. I have resorted to more conventional outdoor defense
tactics, such as fogging, yard gard, campfires, Cutters, and citronella.
My bug zapper hangs in my kitchen. (Barf out; gag me with a butter
knife). No, really! Before I lay me down to rest, I extinguish all the
lights in the house and turn it on. Snap-crackle-pop. No mosquitoes, no
mayflies, no nuthin'. I sleep well. A built-in tray catches most of the
carcasses. I paid $18 for the model I own, and I have since seen it for
as cheap as $10.
A funny thing happened this morning as I woke up. I heard the zapper
snapping and popping continously, and it wouldn't stop. Now as we all
know, a little bug gets caught in the mesh and it only takes one or two
pops and he's a crispy critter. One of those big fat moths sputters for
about five seconds. Visions of sugar-plum faries zapped in my head as I
went down to see what was caught in my machine (maybe one of the cats).
It turned out that two of the metal mesh strands were so close to each
other that they were arcing at a rate of about three times a second. How
they got that way is beyond me, but I quickly remedied the problem with a
nearby butter knife.
And I did pull the plug!
-etan