Insect Killer (lantern style).

[Michael A. Terrell]

Hey, it's your yard, your money and your mosquitoes... and how you
manage them is up to you. My wife will tell you that I *HATE* biting
insects, but it hasn't stopped me. We prefer repellants placed
remotely to confuse the little buggers. It works. Also and blessedly,
we have breezes where we tend to sit the most - and that keeps the
bulk of them away anyway.

Now, if we were in Alaska...

Two, or more mosquitoes would carry you away, to drain all the blood
from your body where no one would find it. The biggest mosquitoes I've
ever seen were at Ft. Greely, Ak. in the early '70s. You could hear
their wings flapping as they flew by. They used to joke about
installing anti-aircraft guns at the landing field to kill the damn
things, to stop them from mating with the Huey copters.

The guy that fueled the copters claimed that he pumped 200 gallons of
fuel into a 'skeeter' one night, after mistaking it for a Huey on the
flight line. ;-)


--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

 

[Michael Kennedy]

Here's a trick that might interest anyone who enjoys repairing things.

Every year the local cheapo store stocks "bug lanterns" which they don't
roll out until half way through summer because they know the blue
fluorescent tube won't last the distance! The ballast is badly designed -
consisting of a pair of parallel capacitors (1u & 0.56u) in series with a
parallel pair of 100 Ohm 2W resistors (for 240V).

When the lamp fails, the zapper voltage multiplier is still in GWO but a
replacement tube is $B!W(B5 against $B!W(B8 for a new lantern. Normally not a good
investment, but in view of the very short tube life something else can be
done.

To avoid the cost of a replacement tube it should be tackled before
failure, the units I have it was found that removing the ballast
components left enough space on the PCB to glue on a board salvaged from a
7W CFL, if one of the ex ballast capacitors is added to the electrolytic
on the CFL board it will have a very long life and the tube should be good
for a couple of years continuous use. An incidental benefit is energy
saving, when I opened the 7W CFL I found it had tiny TO92 transistors, so
the board is obviously not going to draw as much power as the original
ballast resistors which had burnt the PCB black!

Interesting mod for a bug zapper. It makes it self cleaning.

http://www.geocities.com/tjacodesign/bugzap/zapper.html


Mike

 

[ian field]

Interesting mod for a bug zapper. It makes it self cleaning.

http://www.geocities.com/tjacodesign/bugzap/zapper.html


Mike

If you visit the local tip and salvage the 470uF reservoir caps and bridge
rectifiers from half a dozen or so TVs/monitors to make your multiplier you
can make a *REAL* zapper.

 

[z]

The much better money-saving idea would be to not purchase a bug-
zapper altogether. I am not sure of the range of species in the

Well, then how do you get rid of those pesky fairies that infest the
garden, flitting all about in the moonlight?

 

[ian field]

The much better money-saving idea would be to not purchase a bug-
zapper altogether. I am not sure of the range of species in the

Well, then how do you get rid of those pesky fairies that infest the
garden, flitting all about in the moonlight?

Easy - limit yourself to one bottle of Jack Daniel's per night.

 

[[email protected]]

www.mosquito-zapper.com The Flotron Mosquito Power Trap.I have seen
them for sale before at Home Depot stores.When I was in Vietnam in 1964,
there was a mosquito net mounted on some round iron bars on my bunk,
everybody over there had those mosquito nets.Sometimes, whomever was
maintaining the generators (for electricity) they would be switiching
over from one generator to another generator, sometimes, no electricity
for about ten or fifteen minutes.The heat and humidity over there was
something else, all day and night long.Between generators, I couldn't
sleep.First chance I got, I went to a store and I bought an electric
fan, I tied the fan to the head of my bunk. (behind the mosquito net)
After I did my year over there and I was packing my duffle bag getting
ready to come home,,,, Who wants my electric fan, for free?

I remember when I was a kid and the mosquito spraying truck was rolling
around our neighborhood, us kids always ran behind (or rode our
bicycles) right up close behind that truck spraying the whole
neighborhood with big clouds of DDT.I can still smell that DDT now.
cuhulin

 

[ian field]

www.mosquito-zapper.com The Flotron Mosquito Power Trap.I have seen
them for sale before at Home Depot stores.When I was in Vietnam in 1964,
there was a mosquito net mounted on some round iron bars on my bunk,
everybody over there had those mosquito nets.Sometimes, whomever was
maintaining the generators (for electricity) they would be switiching
over from one generator to another generator, sometimes, no electricity
for about ten or fifteen minutes.The heat and humidity over there was
something else, all day and night long.Between generators, I couldn't
sleep.First chance I got, I went to a store and I bought an electric
fan, I tied the fan to the head of my bunk. (behind the mosquito net)
After I did my year over there and I was packing my duffle bag getting
ready to come home,,,, Who wants my electric fan, for free?

An old PC fan is useful for killing larger insects like moths and straggler
wasps that come indoors after dark - just mount the fan close to a light and
the fly into the blades.

 

[Jimmie D]

Here's a trick that might interest anyone who enjoys repairing things.

Every year the local cheapo store stocks "bug lanterns" which they don't
roll out until half way through summer because they know the blue
fluorescent tube won't last the distance! The ballast is badly designed -
consisting of a pair of parallel capacitors (1u & 0.56u) in series with a
parallel pair of 100 Ohm 2W resistors (for 240V).

When the lamp fails, the zapper voltage multiplier is still in GWO but a
replacement tube is £5 against £8 for a new lantern. Normally not a good
investment, but in view of the very short tube life something else can be
done.

To avoid the cost of a replacement tube it should be tackled before
failure, the units I have it was found that removing the ballast
components left enough space on the PCB to glue on a board salvaged from a
7W CFL, if one of the ex ballast capacitors is added to the electrolytic
on the CFL board it will have a very long life and the tube should be good
for a couple of years continuous use. An incidental benefit is energy
saving, when I opened the 7W CFL I found it had tiny TO92 transistors, so
the board is obviously not going to draw as much power as the original
ballast resistors which had burnt the PCB black!

There have only been two uses for A bug zapper that I know are worthwhile.
One is removing bugs from inside a screened porch. The other is to hang one
with the bottom removed over a pond to feed the fish. They are pleasant to
watch on a Summer afternoon though. I especially enjoy seeing knats fly
through them and come out the other side with a smoke trail following them.


Jimmie