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If you aren’t already acquainted with the electronic bug zapper, you are really going to like it and if you have used one before, I’m sure you’ll welcome it back like an old friend! The hand held bug killer does just what it says it does: it zaps bugs. But it does it really, very effectively.

Any insect that is touched by the wiring of the electric bug killer is electrocuted. Smaller insects like midges and mosquitoes are disintegrated with a very satisfying flash and a crack. Larger insect, like house flies and wasps are killed, but don’t explode like the smaller ones.

Think about it, how many times have these flying insects taken the edge off an otherwise enjoyable evening in the garden? Or how many times have you not been able to get a good night’s sleep, because you know there’s at least one mosquito in the bedroom. It has happened to me dozens and dozens of times, I know! It is very satisfying to get one’s revenge with the handheld bug zapper.

I don’t relish killing anything unnecessarily – I’m married to a Buddhist- but mosquitoes? I’m sorry, they can die. And the electric bug zapper dispatches them without any more ado. No waiting and hoping they’ll fly into the ultraviolet light and then into the mesh. No, one sweep of the hand held insect zapper and the mosie’s gone and you can hear whether you got her or not. (I say her, because the sucking mosquitoes always are females – honest, I wasn’t being sexist).

There are two basic types of electric bug zapper. There’s the battery operated bug zapper and the rechargeable electric bug zapper. Both work on the same principle, but I prefer the rechargeable type, although I guess you could use rechargeable batteries too. (I bet they would be more expensive that the bug zapper in the first place). Anyway, I have been using a handheld insect killer of the rechargeable kind for five years and I am ecstatic about them.

These days, I spend a lot of time in northern Thailand with my wife, so you can bet your life that my handheld insect killer gets a good work-out practically every night. We usually eat in the garden in the evening and all socializing is done outside by tradition, especially in the country, where we live, so it comes in very handy. I also use my handheld insect zapper to ’sweep’ the bedroom for bugs before we go to sleep at night, just like a secret agent.

The electric insect killer just seems to improve every time I buy one, which makes it difficult to give you definite specifications. The electric bug zappers I had four or five years ago, often failed within six to nine months of purchase, although their ability to store a charge reduced a lot after four or five months.

However, the latest hand held bug killer will easily last 9-12 months and still be formidable after nine months. My newest one even has a strong light called a headlamp incorporated into it. I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be for, but if you think that vengeance is sweet, you can lure mosquitoes with it and then kill them with your handheld insect zapper.

Have you ever heard of a handheld bug zapper? If you haven’t, or if you want to get a handheld bug zapper, just click one of the links to our website or blog.

It appears that there has been a decline in consumer confidence in the building and construction industry of late. This may be because of the scams highlighted on television or the bribery and corruption endemic in the corporate sector, but it is almost certainly the same motivation why so many are now carrying out home improvements by themselves.

And why shouldn’t they? A little knowledge of the technical aspects combined with an eye for creativity is often enough to carry out the home improvement on your own.

Why are people turning to do-it-yourself home improvements?

There are many people attempting to pass themselves off as construction workers, although they do not have a lot of experience in construction or home maintenance and they are literally are out there right now practising, learning their trades on homes like yours and mine around the country.

As a result, homeowners are discovering that the jobs are not being completed to their satisfaction. Sometimes they are even pre-paying for services that do not get done or were not part of the plan.

You do not have to trust and pay someone to enhance your home. Why not have a go yourself?

You can augment your home?s existing concrete surfaces using acid stains, acrylic paints, epoxy paints, and scoring techniques.

If you are bored with looking at dull gray concrete, there are some simple jobs if you are serious about having a go at home improvement DIY, you can easily give your patio, driveway or garage a revitalizing new look.

Attractive concrete work costs about double that of normal concrete, which is why many people cannot afford it.

However, there are inexpensive methods to beautify concrete after it has cured, without having to pay skilled tradesmen.

Acid-based concrete stains are becoming more and more fashionable for coloring concrete surfaces. They chemically react with the fibres in the cement material to produce permanent color with a variegated or mottled appearance similar to that of marble. This results in a natural, stylish looking surface.

Water-based concrete stains are an alternative to acid stains but are much more user friendly because they are so much less dangerous. These stains do not chemically react with the concrete; they are absorbed into the porous surface and act like a dye. The big benefit of water based stains is the wide array of colors available.

If you want to venture beyond the basic staining of your concrete, think about using some scoring techniques to create patterns on the surface.

You could make your concrete look like a tiled floor for example. It is just up to your imagination. A mini angle grinder with a 4 inch grinding wheel is the ideal device for this.

The key thing to remember when scoring is to draw the pattern on the concrete first and make sure you are happy with the way it looks because scoring is permanent.

Epoxy paints make an outstanding coating for garage floors and basement floors. Many commercial floors have epoxy coatings because of their durability and resilience to chemical spills as well as their appearance.

In recent years, however, it has become very fashionable for domestic use with the availability of an increasing number of different colors. This is not a difficult project, but the key to successful application is surface groundwork.

Epoxy paints have also become obtainable in a water based form making it safe for the DIY’er and perfect for indoor applications. They cost a little more than stains. For a 400 square foot area, you’ll spend about $200 for the materials required for this project.

You see? You do not have to spend big money to improve your home. You have the capacity to do it yourself. With some instructions and a little bit of work, anyone can turn dull concrete into a masterpiece of their own.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on several subjects, but is currently involved with Flowtron Bug Zapper devices. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Indoor Bug Zapper

The common indoor bugs we see all over the world are flies, spiders, fleas and beetles. No-one likes to see insects indoors, so most people go to just about any lengths to eradicate these common indoor bugs. Less common indoor bugs may be woodlice, earwigs, scorpions and millipedes or centipedes, although they are no less unwelcome.

No matter where you live in the world, it is very hard to keep these common indoor bugs outside, unless you go to the extremes of keeping all your windows and doors closed at all times, which is quite impossible. I now stay in Thailand and I know for sure that this is not possible.

So, just what can you do about it? Well, let’s sort out all the flying insects first, because of all the common indoor bugs, I find them the most obnoxious indoor bug. They are very irritating, buzzing around your head and mosquitoes and other flies can create irritating sores and besides that, all flies spread disease. I hate to see them walking on food, knowing that they have more than likely just come off some dog’s muck somewhere and now they are spitting on my food to taste it with their stinking feet!

My first line of defence is fine-mesh door and widow screens. They are not dear and can be fitted retrospectively to any window. My window meshes slide, so they can protect only one half of the window at a any one time, but I do not find that a problem. You can still create cross-winds, by opening two or more windows at opposing ends of a room. I just love to see the flies on the mesh trying to get in by day and the mosquitoes doing the same by night. At night, it is wise to turn on as little light indoors as possible in order not to draw these common indoor bugs.

My second line of defence is natural predators – lizards, like Geckos (Jin Jok, in Thai). Some people don’t like them in the house either and I can’t say that I’m all that keen on them indoors myself, but they are hard to keep out and they do eat hundreds, if not thousands, of indoor bugs every day. I particularly like to see them lying in wait on the outside of the mesh, ready to jump on any bug trying to wriggle its way through the wires.

My third line of defence is an indoor bug zapper. You know, the electric, handheld bug zapper that looks like a child’s tennis racquet. The come in two forms: battery and rechargeable kinds. They are fantastic at catching and annihilating any flying bug. The bug literally explodes and vaporizes on contact with the fully-charged wires of the indoor bug zapper. If you haven’t tried using one, you really ought to. They are most gratifying. These three defences will keep your house pretty much free of flies.

The crawling common indoor bugs are less of a problem really. Door screens on springs will keep 99% of them out and the Geckos will help too. Spiders can get in pretty very easily, but then, I don’t mind them too much as long as they keep out of my way, as they eat other bugs too. They are on our side really. However, for those who can not bear to catch them and put them outside, the handheld indoor bug zapper works well on spiders too.

Fleas can sometimes be a problem, if you have cats or dogs, but then if you wash or dust the animal once a month, you should be able to keep these common indoor bugs under control fairly easily. However, there are two final methods that we employ. Once a week, before we go out for the day, we spray every room with fly killer and every six-months we spray any rugs or carpets with an insect killer containing permethrin, which will survive washing and vacuuming for that long without losing its ability to kill common indoor bugs on contact. If you follow these methods, you will be able to keep your home or office quite free of the most common indoor bugs and any less common indoor bug too.

Have you ever used an indoor bug zapper? If not, or if you want to get an indoor bug zapper, please click one of the links to our web site or blog.

The indoor bug killer is the best way of clearing the space around you of insects, especially the flying ones such as mosquitoes. The indoor bug killer vaporizes any insect from a mosquito to a gnat instantaneously on contact with a pleasingly loud, electrical ‘zap’!

However, this does not mean to say that the electric bug killer cannot be operated outside, so long as it is not too wet. It should be handled just like any other high voltage electrical item. Keep the hand held insect zapper dry and please do not use it when you are standing in the pool!

Models do vary a lot, but there are basically only two kinds of hand held insect zapper: the battery operated bug killer and the rechargeable electric insect zapper. Both models are equally effective at zapping bugs and employ the same methods.

The indoor insect killer looks like a ‘kids’ tennis racket, but with three layers of ’strings’, which are in fact wires. The central network of wires becomes live at the push of a button while the other two networks, one on either side, are earths.

When a bug is caught between the wires of the hand held bug zapper, it creates a short, which evaporates it instantaneously with a loud crack. The indoor bug zapper will kill other insects too, but they tend to fry rather than explode.

I have been using the rechargeable kind for about five years and am extremely satisfied with the hand held bug killer. In fact, the electric bug zapper has come a long way in the last few years. A fully charged indoor bug killer is powerful enough to last for a few hundred swipes and will hold it’s charge, if unused, for weeks without any appreciable discharge.

The rechargeable battery unit will take intensive use for the best part of a year, although its ability to hold a charge for a few weeks slowly reduces after six or seven months.

The latest indoor insect zapper I’ve used has a main on/off switch, a light that comes on when it is live (the brightness of this light also indicates the battery’s strength) and a light that comes on when it is plugged in for recharge.

The instructions suggest that it should be (re)charged for sixteen hours. I usually put it on charge over night once or twice every week or two, although the hand held insect zapper shows a marked increase in performance with only a couple of hours charging.

The latest model I’ve seen also comes with a powerful beam called a ‘headlamp’. I have found this very useful when walking in the garden, but I’m not sure whether it’s meant to attract the flies in the dark so that you can zap them if you’re bored. You know, like an anglerfish.

I’ve used the headlamp on my hand held insect killer for that reason too, but the beam uses a lot of battery power. All in all, the hand held insect zapper is a huge asset at any outdoor event. The electric bug zapper is useful for ‘clearing’ your bedroom before retiring; it’s unequalled for killing evening mosquitoes and it will eradicate wasps at a lunch table as well.

Have you ever used an indoor bug zapper? If not, or if you want to get an electronic insect killer, just click one of the links to our website or blog.