Let’s talk shit.
You may have seen those UV insect zappers widely used in warmer climates, especially in Asia. A couple years back I came across this kind of zapper on Ebay, but it was the size of a battery charger with built-in plug. Well I had doubts, so I checked Amazon reviews for similar items. That’s very advisable thing do to do: read reviews on Amazon which has reviews but has dreadful shipping especially to my country, and buy on Ebay, which seems to have one of the best prices on the web, but doesn’t offer reviews next to items. Besides, Amazon has some really artiste and hilarious reviews. This zapper also had one, like “plugged it in over a year ago, still waiting for the first mosquito to be caught. Well it’s clear that item just doesn’t work, so I decided against purchasing it. But a couple days back a local variety store distributed paper spam to my mailbox, offering this zapper for less than 3 bucks. So I went there, purchased one and decided to show it to you my dear viewers, so please like and subscribe, don’t be shy, that doesn’t hurt. Unboxing! Well it’s light and compact. Let’s try to turn it on. The main requirement is that is should emit UV light. This spectrum attracts the mosquitoes. And using LEDs to get UV is at least strange. Leds spectrum is too narrow, almost monochromatic, and luminescent UV tubes like those used in tanning beds is a much better choice. I don’t have a spectrometer, so I pissed over a cloth and put it against the light. Urine should glow in UV. It doesn’t. But the lads seem to be UV, as the acid green or the red color of the switch somewhat glows. All of my windows are covered with anti-mosquito mesh, and I don’t know when I’ll be outside town, so I don’t have an opportunity to test the device. But even if it doesn’t attract insects, replacing leds with an small UV light from like banknote detector should be easy enough, and will dramatically improve the device performance.