Debugging the Yard

Memorial Day weekend is vital to the bug zapper industry because many big retailers mark down zapper prices and advertise heavily, said Stephen M. Sadler, vice president of sales for Stinger Environmental Products, a division of Dejay Corp. of Holbrook, Mass. Roughly 70% of all zappers are sold during such promotions, he said.

Add that to the industry’s dependence on the 60-day period starting May 15, during which three-quarters of all zappers are sold, and Memorial Day weekend emerges as the biggest burst of sales all year, Sadler said.

Sales of outdoor foggers, which blanket a back yard with an insecticidal mist, have risen as zappers have faded in popularity, said Barbara H. Jorgenson, a spokeswoman for Raid, the insecticide division of Racine, Wis.-based Johnson Wax. Black Flag, D-Con and Hot Shot compete with Raid in the fogger market. Raid Yard Guard is advertised as killing flies, mosquitoes, gnats, ants, wasps, moths and hornets.

But repellents that spray on the skin are simpler to apply, she acknowledged. “It’s easier to treat yourself than to run around and try to treat every nook and cranny of the yard.”

Barbecuers make up a large market for bug zappers and foggers alike. According to a survey by the Barbecue Industry Assn. in Naperville, Ill., “too many insects” is perceived as the third-biggest disadvantage to cooking outdoors. Poor weather and excessive messiness were the two greatest drawbacks.

Studying bug zappers can be pretty unpleasant. Roger S. Nasci, an assistant professor at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, La., enlisted Notre Dame graduate students to test whether a working zapper would reduce the number of mosquitoes alighting on nearby people.

The students did not wait for the mosquitoes to bite, instead trapping them by placing the end of a rubber tube over the insect, inhaling sharply and then exhaling to expel the mosquito into a container. A screen over the tube’s mouthpiece prevented the students from swallowing any mosquitoes, which were killed in the containers and counted. “That’s basically what grad students are, slave labor,” Nasci said.

To determine how many and what kinds of bugs a zapper kills, Nasci ran a zapper for 24 hours for five days. After each day of testing, he identified and counted the dead bugs lying in the pan under the zapper.

Imports of zappers made in Taiwan are shrinking fast, a victim of rising freight rates and the falling U.S. dollar, Sadler said. Transpacific freight rates for zappers have doubled recently, while the U.S. dollar has fallen 9% against the Taiwan dollar in the past 12 months. The imports are, he said, “really no longer a factor. They weren’t a factor last year and they’re even less of a factor this year.”