[AE.Recommendations] Debugging tools... FOR A HOUSE?
I had quite a few people express interest in what products I’d found useful for home pest control, so this letter will include Amazon affiliate links for and descriptions of what has worked for us. If you prefer not to support Amazon, I would suggest just searching for the company and product name; I doubt any of them are exclusive to a single platform.
As a quick recap: our insect problems come mostly in a couple species of gnats thatwill nest in our unfinished basement when it’s wet, which is pretty frequently in the summer. We’re having the core problem (wet basement) addressed as we’re able to, but in the meantime we’ve been able to keep the clouds of invaders down with a few different technological solutions.
I’ll start by mentioning the old standby: a container of water or vinegar with a few drops of dish soap in it. Flying bugs are used to being able to walk on water because of surface tension, which the soap disrupts. This works well with fruit flies (especially with an aromatic vinegar) but hasn’t been as useful with the gnats. Your mileage may vary.
So what has worked?
It’s probably suboptimal listicle form to start with the big winner, but the thing that’s worked best for us is the FENUN Fly Trap. If this had been the first thing we tried I probably wouldn’t have a whole list here.
FENUN’s gadget requires a power outlet to run. It vaguely resembles a lantern, but the light is in the handle and is a dim purple-blue, at least in the spectrum visible to the human eye. It uses the light to lure insects over, a gentle fan to draw them down into the canister and keep them there, and then a disposable circle of fly paper on the bottom to kill them when they inevitably descend and land.
The product page recommends leaving it running for a minimum of 3 nights and I can confirm that we saw a shocking difference after 3 nights, to the point that now it’s more maintenance/vigilance. It’s hard to keep all the bugs out of an old house, but it no longer feels like an infestation.
The one downside is that I have yet to find a graceful way to empty/clean it when the sticky sheet gets too crowded. I suggest you do it outside and/or over a trash can.
But this is far from a daily chore, and it makes such a difference that I haven’t minded it.
In case this device doesn’t fit everybody’s needs, other things that have worked somewhat include:
Lipop Double Mosquito Bug Zapper: A USB-powered bug zapper with a fan creating an inward draft. You can theoretically charge it up and leave it running unplugged, but it will not last the whole night that way, especially with the fan, so we just got one of our longer USB cords out. It is a bug zapper so it will snap, crackle, and pop, but is safe for indoor use.
This was ordered at the same time as the FENUN but arrived after it had a chance to do its thing, so I can’t say for sure this wouldn’t have worked as well. It definitely does work.
And for the low-tech solution, we found these Trappify hanging adhesive traps are easier to deploy and take down without sticky accidents than those long hanging fly glue ribbons. And while I think it would have been hard to get enough of them to handle our swarms, they definitely do catch a lot of flying bugs.
We did also try some smaller wall-plug bug zappers from BRISON, which… worked. I mean, we could see the evidence in the morning, but it would be something like 2 to 5 a night, not nearly enough to deal with an established population. But the reason we started there is they were logistically easier to set up in our house than the bigger models, so maybe somebody else will have a use for them.
So to sum up: can’t recommend the FENUN more highly, but if it won’t work for your situation, there’s a few more things that work.
Hope that helps someone! And if it doesn’t, I hope that’s because don’t need it. Thank you for reading, and may your home be free of gnasty surprises.