I bought mine in December 2014 and it still works perfectly, I just have to swap out the 2 AA batteries every now and then. I checked and the exact model I have is no longer for sale on Amazon, but they do sell the same thing from the same company (and same name) but with a translucent colored plastic (pink, purple, yellow, or blue). Hopefully the newer models are as well-made.
Based on my experience, whatever you get, make sure to get one with a single layer of wires. The ones that have multiple meshes require a bug to hit both meshes, so it’s less likely to zap them, and sometimes they get stuck in between the two meshes.
To reshare a favorite anecdote: one time I was working on the computer in the study, with Bessie the Labrador lying on the floor next to the desk, keeping me company. A fly repeatedly buzzed around my head and the monitor, and I had to keep waving it off. It then made the mistake of harassing Bessie. She suddenly snapped at it, stunning it so that it fell out of the air like a Luftwaffe fighter trailing smoke, landing on the carpet next to Bessie, who casually reached over and ate it.
It’s not anywhere as bad as you might think. The pump-shotgun Bug-a-Salt gun sends out a tiny puff of salt that deals with flies quite nicely. They sell a laser sight they call the “Bug Beam” and that’s bee’s knees.
I do hesitate to use it anywhere near ferrous surfaces after I caused some rust issues in my machine shop some years back.
For those you need their next model up, “The Shred-er”, a CO2-powered salt revolver that really does shred whatever you shoot. The original Bug-a-Salt gun is weak enough that you can easily shoot your palm with it and not be hurt. The Shred-er, not so much: it tears things apart.
I have both, and I reserve the use of the Shred-er for centipedes, large spiders, hornets, and wasps. In my house it’s mostly centipedes.
And the “Bug Beam” laser sight is a necessity on the Shred-er. I have it dialed in for 18 inches.
I live in the UK and in recent years I and others have noticed a big decline in the fly population. The only thing that we can come up with to explain this is the introduction, around two decades ago, of wheely bins with fairly close-fitting lids. These replaced the previously ubiquitous black bags.
Seven or eight years ago, the council switched to fortnightly collections (recyclable one week and landfill the next). I recall a long letter in the local paper from Professor Knowitall, who pontificated about the life cycle of the common housefly and was convinced that we were all about to be driven out of house and home by the pesky things.
Someone else was convinced that rats would thrive as well. I never understood how a rat would be able to climb up the bin and open the lid.
My cousin married a woman from Thailand. Her brother was a Thai competitive kickboxer.
One afternoon, he and I were standing in the driveway, chatting, and – thinking I’d impress the hell out of him – I reached out and grabbed either a bee or a hornet or a wasp or … straight out of the air.
And I mean … lightning fast.
NB: don’t EVER do this. That sting hurt like hell … for days
If the bug bodies annoy you, you could try my dad’s trick. He took to using a vacuum cleaner hose. He tended to get them when they were sitting still, but got more than a few mid-air.
Speaking as an experienced mid-air-fly-swat-attempter, I can say that even for an expert, the mid-air success rate is fairly low. The problem is not just being able to hit the sucker – my long years of experience have taught me that a mid-air hit usually just stuns the enemy, but doesn’t kill it. So now instead of waiting for the enemy to land somewhere so you can really give it a good whack, you have to find the stunned body before it revives, which can be difficult. If you don’t find it, the fly eventually yawns, stretches its six legs – rubbing them in spots where they may be a bit sore from the mid-air swatting, flexes its wings, and resumes its duties.
