What is it? one hears you yowl. Well, I’ll explain. It is a sort of combo flyswatter and electric death ray that slashes a harvest of devastation throughout the flying communities of six legged creatures all around you. Fly swatter zappers are essentially transportable variations of those excellent O rings you see in butcher’s shops and industrial kitchen areas - the insect-o-cutor for the man about town, if you want. You can forget pesky flying critters destroying your summer’s nights, no more ruined bbqs - and no more bitten or stung limbs. You hear the buzz, you arm the bug bat, and you swat the sod. It fizzes out of existence in a shower of little sparks. You continue with your evening.
Bug bats have been about for a good while, but they are only just showing up in United kingdom marketplaces right now. That is due to the fact, safety precautions in place though they might be, fly swatter zappers are essentially simply just electric fences that you could hold. Not the best concept in the world for, say, a small kid or even a family dog. If you get one - and get one you must, should you ever wish to experience the guilt ridden excitement which arises from pretending to be Anakin Skywalker battling the Dark Jedi (i.e. mosquitoes), your “light sabre” crackling viciously as it exterminates them one at a time - be cautious where you store it. You will find protective layers surrounding the electrified part of the bat’s mesh, but they’re pretty easy to get past. They have to be in order to fry flies. Kids or pet dogs nosing around fly swatter zappers will probably get a very hefty surprise, then: keep them out of the way, in a tool store or garage, and don’t use them when your kids are up and about unless of course you would like to spend the next three hours explaining why Daddy (or Mummy) gets to become a Jedi although the children do not.
The bug bat is fantastic for frustrating (i.e., killing) bugs at your outdoor party, or in the conservatory in the evening - as well as on camping holidays, where night visits from mosquitoes and what not can be quite a real pain. Keep in mind, though - that internal mesh is charged with electricity, which makes sparks. Particularly when it is being earthed through the body of a moth. Fly swatter zappers are ideal for night time protection in the spaces between, say, tent and shower block - but don’t fire them up in the tent unless you want to turn your canvas house into a pool of melted plastic.
