Every year at the beginning of the summer, homes all across America are invaded by one of the most hated creatures on the planet: the mosquito. The many solutions for these pests can be expensive, odoriferous, and unsightly. The cure for my unwanted pests came in like thunder from the gods: The Zapplight light bulb. This simple indoor bulb has eliminated not only the mosquitoes, but also the Miller moths and clothes moths we fight with year-round.
The design of the Zapplight is genius. A two-feature light, it has a 920-lumen bulb base, topped with a LED bug-zapping chamber. The chamber features a blue light in the center of a small prison-like area. I prefer to think of this as the execution chamber: bugs go in, they don’t come out. No stinky candles, no sprays to inhale, and no chemicals to keep away from the kids and pets.
The light can be turned on normally, and will have both sections running the whole time. But what if you want the zapping function to work while the light is off? Simply switch the light off and right back on. The primary bulb remains off, while the zapping compartment stays in business. Unfortunately, the bulb is quite long, making it difficult to put in certain kinds of light fixtures. I found homes for 2 bulbs; they stick out of their covers a bit, but it is so worth it that I don’t mind it a bit.
Now, my least favorite feature of most bug zappers is the “zap.” I think it sounds horrible, and is distracting, especially with a zapper designed for indoor use. The Zapplight makes no sounds that we’ve noticed in the weeks ours have been running. We have one near the front door, to catch incoming pests, but this leaves it awfully close to our living area. Thankfully, we don’t even notice the deaths of our mortal enemies.
I put another bulb outside, in a well-covered fixture. Zapplight warns folks to take measures to protect the bulb from the weather to prevent electric safety risks. Keeping that in mind, I put one next to our front door. Our HOA requires porch lighting for safety, so we’ve been accruing a disturbing number of moths and other insects at night. I couldn’t handle dodging through the door every evening, doing my best to not let anything in. Within two days, the moths were all gone. Seriously, two overnights, and no more moth nest.
Now there was a risk to installing the light outside. I depend on spiders heavily to protect our house, yard, and garden from various invasive pests. Some zappers kill spiders too, often when they fall in while looking for food. This zapper hasn’t killed our friendly spiders. In fact, one built a new nest near the Zapplight. She doesn’t interfere with the function, and she benefits from the light drawing the food to her. As of yesterday, we have over 50 baby spiders on the new nest, all of whom will grace our neighborhood with their friendly neighborhood spider-iness. Of course, if you don’t want spiders, just chase mama away before she lays eggs. No harm done.
Unfortunately, there is a big-ish downside: Corpses are always left behind. This is a bigger issue with the indoor bulb, because the bugs that fall end up on the floor. We had to sweep a few times early on, but after installing a bulb outside, the number of dead things inside dried up to nearly nothing. Of course, the intricate chamber keeps most of them inside, but this isn’t ideal. If bugs build up, the chamber ceases to function.
The solution is as simple as a quick cleaning every once in a while. Each bulb comes with a brush to clean the bulb with. Make sure to turn off the light before cleaning, and you might have to take the bulb out. Instead, I use canned air to blow the bugs out, which takes about 3 seconds, and I don’t have to keep up with a dirty brush.
For a consumable $20 on Amazon, this is one of the most affordable bug solutions I’ve ever used. A single bulb can kill hundreds of bugs each week, and the bulbs are both high-efficiency. Zapplight quotes the life span as being 4.5 years, and the cost per year in power as $1.31. I heartily suggest a Zapplight for everyone. I, for one, won’t mind if every last mosquito dies, and the Zapplight is a non-stop killer. I’m encouraging all of my neighbors to invest in bulbs for their porches, to keep the whole neighborhood pest-free.
Disclaimer: Zapplight provided a unit for review, but the author has truly emailed all his neighbors and asked them to invest in the product.
