As soon as it gets even close to nice weather here in Southern Indiana, the gnats, mosquitoes, and other annoying bugs are out in full force. It’s bad enough dealing with them when you are outdoors, but no one wants bugs indoors too. How do you get rid of them without bug sprays? One solution may be the Zapplight bug zapping light bulb. The sent one to me to try. Let’s see if the bugs in my home are no more.
The Zapplight is a 2-in-1 LED light bulb that not only features built in bug zapper grid, but it also has a very bright 920 lumen LED light. The bulb only uses 10 W of energy.
The Zapplight bulb screws into a standard receptacle / socket and does not have any switches, dials or buttons that you need to activate. The bulb itself is wider than a standard light bulb, so that’s something to consider depending on your light fixture.
The electric bug zapping grid is in behind a plastic cage to keep you from accidentally zapping yourself if you touch the bulb while it’s on – which is a really bad idea, so don’t ever do that. Only insert or remove bulbs when the light is turned off.
The Zapplight comes with a small plastic brush that can be used to brush off the dead bugs – ick. The brush is too wide to fit between the plastic grid, without turning it sideways.
This time of year we always get a few flies and gnats in the house. They seem to congregate in the kitchen so I thought that would be the perfect location to test the Zapplight. One Zapplight is supposed to cover up to 500 sq ft. My kitchen is tiny, so I was hopeful that it would do a great job in such a small space.
I didn’t have a good light fixture with a downward hanging receptacle, so I decided to improvise.
I bought a gooseneck extension adapter from Amazon that can be bent to the correct angle to let the Zapplight hang down.
Here we see the Zapplight installed and ready to go with both the LED and the blue bug zapper light turned on. By default, both lights turn on when you flip the light switch.
You can turn the LED light on and off by toggling the light switch for that receptacle on and off in quick succession.
I’ve tested the Zapplight for a couple days and so far I’ve not witnessed any bug zappage. The first night I left the lights on in the kitchen as you see in the image above. There were no dead bugs in the morning and I did notice a couple flights buzzing around the room. The next night I removed the extra bulb and turned off the Zapplight’s LED light so that only the blue zapper light would be illuminated in my kitchen. Again, no dead bugs the next morning. Bummer, I guess small flies aren’t attracted to the Zapplight (even though the label on the box says that it works with mosquitoes, flies, and wasps) or I just don’t have enough bugs in my house for it to make a difference. I guess that’s not something I should complain about.
You can also use the Zapplight outdoors as long as it’s under a roof. I don’t have a good place to test outdoors so I can’t comment.
I can’t recommend or not recommend the Zapplight at this point since I’ve yet to see it actually zap a bug. I’m going to try to find another location to test it and do an update when I get more info.
In the mean time, the Zapplight is a really bright LED light bulb, so at least it’s making my kitchen brighter!
Update 05/29/15
When I went to move the bulb from my kitchen to another location for further testing, I noticed that there was a bug stuck to the metal zapp element.
So it does work, but I’m still not convinenced that it is effective.
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Zapplight. Please visit their site for more info and Amazon to price check and order.
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I wonder if this light spreads out pieces of the dead bugs like older ones did a few years ago?
I bought one too, and I gotta tell you I am very disappointed. I think the blue light part is probably way too small to be attracting the bugs. I had some flying right past me as I was next to the bulb, with just the blue light on in the room. Not one zap. No dead flying insects. Nothing. And I have had it 2 weeks now.
I do not recommend this bulb at all and am highly doubtful it is effective, after two weeks of it on 24 hours per day and zapping one bug.
Bug zappers are as effective as ultrasonic bug repellents. There are many reports that support this in addition to the fact that, you know, they don’t work. Here’s one from a couple decades ago:
http://news.ufl.edu/archive/1997/07/snap-crackle-pop-electric-bug-zappers-are-useless-for-controlling-mosquitoes-says-ufifas-pest-expert.php
When I went to move the bulb from my kitchen to another location for further testing, I noticed that there was a bug stuck to the metal zapp element.
Scroll up and see the image I posted.
I live in Costa Rica most of the time and I have seasons here when mosquitoes overrun my condo. I bought two units at a Walmart and was happy that I had found a solution. Well, the unit never worked; as a matter of fact, just before I removed it from my front door area, I saw that there were more mosquitoes where the light was shining than in other places on the ceiling of my carport! I am so disappointed with this product.
Hello Sally, I’m sorry that you were disappointed. As you can tell from my review, I was disappointed too.
It looks like the blue light is way too dim compared to those classic blue zappers.
Jackie, that is a great observation. I agree with you 100% that the blue light is too dim…especially compared to my larger blue-light bug zappers I used in the past.
I got one of these several months ago. I never have seen it get a single bug. I got a larger indoor bug zapper that works much better when we get mosquitoes in the house
I bought 2; they attracted bugs. We had much less problem with bugs hugging the glass doors trying to get inside. However, the LED bulb in one stopped working in about 6 weeks. The bug zapper part had lots of dead bugs. I replaced the unit, and the LED in it went out in about 4 weeks. Very disappointed in this pricey light bulb.
I’ve got a bug zapper, as well. Got it before I found out that controlled studies indicate that “bug zappers” are ineffective against mosquitoes, biting gnats, etc.
Problem is mosquitoes aren’t attracted by UV light, they are attracted by the carbon dioxide emitted by mammals and birds. Mostly what gets fried are beneficial/non-nuisance bugs.
I think a lot of people who claim they work are actually confusing harmless crane flies (which ARE attracted to light) for mosquitoes.