We have regular battles with flying insects in my home. Some are fruit flies that come from fruit we buy at the market, and some are big horseflies that come in when our dogs like us to leave a door open for them so they can go in and out of the house. And we have mosquitos, who have no business being indoors but somehow always find their way to the corner of a door sill and get inside when the door opens.
Hand-to-hand combat is tough with these critters. Mosquitos are often slow enough that I can smash them between my hands, but the big flies are too fast and the fruit flies are hard to see. I don't want to resort to chemical warfare because I don't like the smell of most commercial pest toxins and the general idea of having my airspace filled with what is essentially nerve gas bothers me even though product labels say the levels of toxin in spray insecticides is not enough to harm humans.
A couple years ago we bought a large bug zapper. It does work but it's big, ungainly, and requires power. While it is effective, we find that unless conditions are right (room is mostly dark except for the bug zapper) it doesn't really get the big flies.
I looked to tech and science to find something smaller and maybe better.
I took a gamble on the well-reviewed Safer Home SH506 plug-in unit. This is a low energy LED device that plugs into the wall like a night light and generates a cool blue light. The device has a small panel you attach to it that is smooth one one side and sticky on the other. The light draws insects to it and they get stuck on the adhesive side.
It's a modern version of fly paper, which can be effective but is unsightly and exposed enough that you could accidentally stick yourself to it. It also depended on flies happening to connect with it, and the more effective it was the more unsightly it became as it turned into a fly graveyard. The SH506 keeps the carcasses of the insects on the wall-facing side of the panel, so you don't see the nastiness until you go to check it.
Did the SH506 work for me? Yes and no. I like that it's fairly unobtrusive and probably requires only low power. I like that it doesn't require chemicals. During the first week of use it did a nice job of drawing the fruit flies but didn't do a good job of catching the big flies. However, one bonus is that it did draw in one mosquito.
One other con: The plug design could stand to be a bit more compact. It needs one socket but it just large enough that it can interfere with use of the adjacent one in the classic two-socket configuration.
The SH506 runs about $15 for the unit with two sticky panels. Panel refills are about $2.25 each in refill packs. Both are available at Amazon.
Would I buy it again? Yes, I'd rate it 4 out of 5 stars. I'm disappointed in the bulky plug and that it didn't lure in the big flies that are the most annoying, but it's much less an eyesore than the bug zapper and probably runs on less power. Replacing the panel with a refill is super easy and will take all of 5 seconds. I will consider getting a second one.
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