Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity - Gizmodo Comments

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

Hanael — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:46:06 EDT

ah.

poor man's taser.

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

eblack — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:20:35 EDT

@strider_mt2k: Um...it's not a meme or catch phrase, it's an observation that a number of Giz writers are either-
-Shut-ins who never leave the house
-Too busy to see if something has been posted before
-Faking the whole gadget interest thing

I like this site and I want to see higher quality content from it. It's friendly, constructive criticism.

eblack

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

MasterYong — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:21:22 EDT

I'm pretty sure you guys had a DIY on one of these several months ago- I could be wrong, and I'm too lazy to check. I recall the DIY project turning it into a personal taser using the plug from an extension cord as prongs. I use one of these at home where I live in Northern California, to take out those monster horse flies. They go DOWN. In flames. Awesome.

MasterYong

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

dantaylor08 — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:44:31 EDT

Much rather have a cattle prod. MUCH more satisfying crackle, and a whole lot more fun to use on your friends too.

dantaylor08

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

ackthbbft — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:06:29 EDT

These may work great for flying insects, but for bugs and spiders on walls I prefer my BugVac. Rechargeable, works at a distance, and gives a very satisfying and continuous crackle as the bug sizzles inside. >)

ackthbbft

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

Boognish — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:00:32 EDT

Bought mine at harbor Freight used it to kill Miller Moths during the '02 invasion in CO. Those moths stink like crap when they fry.
I found that a small light left on overnight with a bowl of soapy water underneath worked better and no stink.

Boognish

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

maven2k — Mon, 12 May 2008 11:13:25 EDT

They have these at Harbor Freight for $3. I want some of these just to whack people on the butt. And at no time in this comment did I say "This is old", oh dammit!!

maven2k

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

IrisMR — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:45:43 EDT

I think the difference here is that this one is RECHARGEABLE. Which is sweet.

death to bugs! Sweet, sweet grilled death.

IrisMR

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

dougiec29 — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:09:43 EDT

We broke off the top half of the hoop, rolled the two layers of the wire mesh back to each side, and then yelled "cattle prod" as we attacked friends and enemies. Shoving a 9 volt in there would have been better, but we had limited resources at the time...

dougiec29

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

lulu321 — Mon, 12 May 2008 09:33:35 EDT

I zapped a spider with that thing when i was a kid. It was very entertaining.

Me: "DIE SPIDER! DIE!"
Spider: "DONT TASER ME BRO!"
Me: ""DIE!"

lulu321

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

kylenalepa — Mon, 12 May 2008 09:30:21 EDT

Yeah, we've had one for a while now. It's so much fun to nail a fly with one and hear the "crack" as the electricity kills it.

kylenalepa

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

darb215 — Mon, 12 May 2008 08:41:22 EDT

saw these are target yesterday actually... prob different brand tho

darb215

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

strider_mt2k — Mon, 12 May 2008 07:55:17 EDT

Oh goody, a "this is old" fest.

Folks, saying "this is old" is old.

You are victims of your own meme.

strider_mt2k

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

incomplet — Mon, 12 May 2008 07:15:21 EDT

They also put bug spray in aerosol "'spray'" cans now, I have heard from the West.

incomplet

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

Shinryoma — Mon, 12 May 2008 06:47:30 EDT

Old. Like, really old. I know a guy who bought one in Syria.

Shinryoma

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

jewsrock — Mon, 12 May 2008 06:46:12 EDT

ive had this thing for a year. i think it was like 2 bucks. i live in israel btw.

its useful but its just crappy plastic that slowly falls apart. not worth 20 bucks.

jewsrock

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

x23 — Mon, 12 May 2008 06:41:13 EDT

arm yourself with two of these and go smash open the nearest wasps nest. it can be a battle of will and fortitude amongst your friends. whoever can kill / piss off the most wasps while staying within a chalked out 20' diameter circle (centered on the nest obviously.) 1 point per wasp / -5 points each time you step outside the circle.

once you get good enough there is "Pro" mode where you are naked and oiled up in fish grease first and the circle drops to a mere 10' around.

x23

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

Norcross — Mon, 12 May 2008 06:34:25 EDT

I have one from Harbor Freight. best 4 bucks I ever spent.

Norcross

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

gadjitfreek — Mon, 12 May 2008 04:50:35 EDT

I have no screens on the windows in the school where I teach, and no air conditioning, either. It is either leave the windows closed and have intolerable heat, or open the windows and invite a stream of vicious stinging insects. Hornets, wasts, yellow jackets...they all stand guard outside the window ready to invade and terrorize the kids. Heck, and me, too. My ol' trusty bug racket bit the dust last fall after years of faithful service, and I need to get another. The entertainment value alone in seeing their fat chem teacher flying all over the classroom to destroy a wasp at least three times more wily than he is guarantees hilarity.

gadjitfreek

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

willyolio — Mon, 12 May 2008 03:13:47 EDT

if you want new news. attach a bunch of these to a roomba.

the ensuing of hilarity is guaranteed.

willyolio

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

Aglet — Mon, 12 May 2008 03:01:21 EDT

What do you mean old news? Come on. Cut them some slack. I bet they just haven't reported about this before, because they haven't been outside for quite some time and hence haven't had any real use for this little thing.

But as you all start coming outdoors you'd better check more of these wondrous anti-bug stuff out. I heard there are salves, nets and even hats (big in Australia) to keep the buggers out of your face!

Aglet

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

Barfolemew — Mon, 12 May 2008 02:45:34 EDT

I bought mine about 5 years ago, several dozen burns, and several hundred dead mozzies later it's still going strong. Mine however doesn't have that bullshit safety netting on the front...

Barfolemew

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

Yeebles — Mon, 12 May 2008 02:34:32 EDT

When i first saw one of these i though it was an egg slicer. (they were the ones wihtout the 'protection' layers)

Yeebles

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

markarian — Mon, 12 May 2008 02:10:40 EDT

These are a bad idea because you basically send disgusting insect parts flying everywhere. Mmm, nothing like breathing in aerosolized fly guts.

markarian

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

kaikai34 — Mon, 12 May 2008 01:21:30 EDT

there's a game show here in taiwan that uses these guys to zap the losing contestant.

kaikai34

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

Red Right Hand — Mon, 12 May 2008 01:03:41 EDT

The best part is the freshly bbq bugs make great treats for my koi

Red Right Hand

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

pevans34 — Mon, 12 May 2008 00:55:35 EDT

this is incredible

pevans34

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

jackbrown — Mon, 12 May 2008 00:43:05 EDT

My brother in law brought me one of these from Canada. I live in mosquito country. This thing is some of the most fun I ever had killing insects. It makes this satisfying crackling 'zztt' when you thwap one, and it falls to the floor, dead as a doornail. To be honest, it doesn't work great for small mosquitoes (gaps are a little too wide); only gets 'em one out of three swings (probly when wings are fully extended) but it is a lot of fun when you get one and it stays stuck to the wires. You keep triggering the electricity, 'zztt' 'zztt' and its evil little body keeps jumping and visibly sparking. Wow I really hate mosquitoes I guess.

jackbrown

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

snakepliskin — Mon, 12 May 2008 00:24:26 EDT

My family in vietnam has them for flies and mosquitoes. They break pretty damn easy though so theres like 5 of em around the house that dont wok.

snakepliskin

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

yablunk — Mon, 12 May 2008 00:09:57 EDT

As many have already pointed out, these things have been around for a while, but this does not change the fact that they are awesome... and painful...

yablunk

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

willyolio — Sun, 11 May 2008 23:59:58 EDT

if you smack someone's arm with it, a vague steak-like aroma will linger in the air for a few seconds.

willyolio

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

oopl — Sun, 11 May 2008 23:57:30 EDT

Fun to use!

oopl

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

Solidsky — Sun, 11 May 2008 23:48:22 EDT

I used to scare kids with that thing back in the days, i would put a coin on it hold the button and just watch the sparks fly.

seriously now, what's next.. "Lit torch works wonders with insects!" ?

Solidsky

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

MastaFalse — Sun, 11 May 2008 23:41:36 EDT

Yeah, those do hurt. My fucker of a friend smacked me with one. I mean, it was like ... getting slapped with a tiny ruler by a nun in rapid succession. Say, several hundred times a minute.

My finger was slightly numb for about five minutes afterwards

MastaFalse

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

YWFT_DG — Sun, 11 May 2008 23:24:57 EDT

I live in Thailand and everyone has these. They are like $3-$4 here and every home has about 5 of them at least. You will see people before going to bed, turn off all the lights in their room, use the 'light' feature on them to lure the mosquitoes towards the light, then zap em. Its pretty funny, me and my wife have had to do this a few times when our maid has left our door open to outdoors and we got invaded with mosquitos. But they typically fall apart, the plug part, after a few months, but you get what you pay for...

YWFT_DG

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

doofusgumby — Sun, 11 May 2008 23:17:02 EDT

Gosh Jack, didn't you check froogle first?

starts at $4.99 from various & sundry outlets online.

also, posts on this were in 2005 on quickonlinetips, boing boing, and *gasp* engadget!

what's funnay is at quickonlinetips there's posters saying how old it was THEN "back in 99 I was usin' these..." "I picked up 6 of these for 90 cents each a buncha years ago in thailand..."

doofusgumby

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

Wardofsky — Sun, 11 May 2008 23:13:52 EDT

Heh, these are banned in Australia... which is a bit of shame, we seem to have more bugs than anyone.

Wardofsky

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

athingunique — Sun, 11 May 2008 22:42:46 EDT

old news giz
but still fun :D

athingunique

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

linoleumknife — Sun, 11 May 2008 22:32:59 EDT

I got one at Harbor Freight last year for 4 bucks without batteries. Its good for a few minutes of entertainment in the back yard.

linoleumknife

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

xanderjanz — Sun, 11 May 2008 22:31:30 EDT

Giz osmetimes I wonder if you guys ever get out. I have had one for years, and so have many of my friends

xanderjanz

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

Gary_7vn — Sun, 11 May 2008 22:20:12 EDT

They sell them at my local dollar store... it's old tech.

Gary_7vn

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

sonburn — Sun, 11 May 2008 22:18:53 EDT

Yeah guys not exactly breaking news! I first saw one of these at least 5 or 6 years ago if not a little longer.

sonburn

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

LeonChan — Sun, 11 May 2008 22:15:42 EDT

I actually thought it was some kind of taser when my cousin used it on my friend.

Actually there is a second layer that will protects you from the shock unless that part touches the part that actually shocks you.

LeonChan

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

LJKelley — Sun, 11 May 2008 22:13:14 EDT

I used to use these to kill flies & misquetos in South Korea.

Its really kewl since it fries the insect into dust leaving you basically nothing to clean up.

LJKelley

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

livinzlife — Sun, 11 May 2008 22:11:03 EDT

more like centuries or millenia. They are available at harbor freight for like 2 or 3 dollars and work great.

livinzlife

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

evangelistc01 — Sun, 11 May 2008 22:07:59 EDT

These have been around for years.

evangelistc01

Bug Bat Swats Flies With Endless Love, Electricity

photophile — Sun, 11 May 2008 22:06:31 EDT

These things are awesome.

"Hey Bob, check this out."

"Sweet, what does it do?"

*swings racket into Bob's arm*

"@#$%^@#$"

photophile