Go Green Tip of the Day 6/10: Silence Your Bug Zapper

Silence Your Bug Zapper

• Study: zapped 8 mosquitoes, 10,000 other insects.
• Only 0.22% of zapped bugs are pests.
• 13% are insect predators and parasites.
• UV-based attraction fails.
• CO2 attractors work but are pricey.
  

Don't use electric mosquito zappers, which several studies have shown to be woefully inefficient at killing the pesky insects, while they turn beneficial bugs into crispy carcasses. There are better ways to keep biting bugs at bay.

When one Dateline NBC team took a closer look at a bug zapper, they counted only a paltry eight mosquitoes out of some 10,000 charred insects. Your zapper is much more likely to kill innocent, and ecologically important, moths, bees and beetles. In fact, researchers have estimated that only 0.22% of bugs zapped are pests, while 13% are insect predators and parasites.

Ironically, a study reported in Mosquito News showed that the probability of being bitten by mosquitoes increases in the vicinity of bug zappers. Part of the problem is that traditional zappers merely emit UV light as an attractant, although mosquitoes could care less about that spectrum. Newer models, such as the Mosquito Magnet, release CO2, which does excite the biting bugs. They work better, but do cost hundreds of dollars.