It’s easy to expand your comfort zone outdoors with the Stinger Insect Zapper Lantern. This portable bug zapper contains a rechargeable battery that offers a run time of up to 3.5 hours, making it ideal not just for backyard use, but handy for picnics in the park and car camping too.
The purple light and “pop” of bug zappers are familiar to most of us, but they’re usually mounted right up against a house, close to an electric outlet. Although that’s fine for continuous use, bug zappers work by luring insects (specifically mosquitoes) to their doom with a specific range of UV light. In many cases, those bugs are going to fly past you on the way to their death, and some of them might stop for a quick bite. Ideally, a bug zapper should be located between you and wherever the insects are coming from. The Stinger Insect Zapper Lantern makes that easy, since it’s completely portable. Do you have a nearby wooded area, or body of water where mosquitoes breed? Just place the zapper between you and the source, and they’ll make it their first (and last) stop for the evening. With an effective area of coverage about 25 x 25 feet square, you’ll need to make sure it’s within 10-14 feet of you for best results.
Stinger includes an octenol lure, which is a chemical attractant for improved performance. A small container fits in the drawer in the bottom of the lantern, and lasts for about one month. With that installed, we tested our evaluation unit around the campfire one night. After a bit of guesswork, mostly based on the slight breeze, a spot about eight feet from the fire was chosen. While our mixed bundle of firewood provided the occasional crackle, there was no mistaking the satisfying sound of mosquitoes meeting a quick and painless death. Ride the lightning, mozzies! Of the three of us, only one reported any bites, and it’s possible that happened while away from the fire. The results were certainly better than what we usually experience, without any protection from insects at all.
Find the Stinger Insect Zapper Lantern on Amazon
Flies are annoying. Mosquitoes represent a real hazard though. As carriers of the West Nile Virus and other diseases, they are a genuine health concern. Sprays work, but we don’t like using them. We’ve had luck with bracelets containing repellents, but they lose effectiveness over time, and each person needs to wear one. The Stinger Insect Zapper Lantern is a good solution for multiple people in a decent sized area. With an MSRP of $29.95, it’s inexpensive insurance against winged party crashers. Instead of repelling insects, it attracts and kills them. If we have one complaint, it’s the octenol lure. Eight bucks for a month of use is reasonable, but once it’s open, it works as a lure whether the zapper is on or not. We’d rather see it in a resealable container, so that octenol only gets released when it’s needed. That would make more sense. And the white LED accent light is a nice touch, but we’d rather just leave it on the “zap” setting instead. stingerproducts.com
– Brian
Disclosure of Material Connection: We received the Stinger Insect Zapper Lantern for free from Stinger Products, in consideration for review publication
Very cool site, my website also features products similar to these and they really work well for what they are made for.
In that I mean the products are very good at repelling these insects.