Insect Killer Lamps

[civet]

Having spent twenty quid on 3 LED Blue Light Insect Killer devices which plug in directly without a cable but are completely ineffective, I invested another tenner on a cabled stand up type with a high voltage grid. The tube went on the previous model after a couple of years. This one was fitted with a blue 25 W screw cap bulb. Although it worked temporarily I've got through two bulbs in a week which are not cheap. Just hoping this post will save another punter from wasting their money - stick with fluorescent tube insect killers.

[Graham.]

My understanding is that tubes cease to be effective long before they pack up altogether. I think they advice annual replacement, but it would depend on its usage cycle.

No idea about LED. Do they radiate significant amounts of UV?

[Dave Liquorice]

"Blue" and "white" LEDs might emit some UV as I believe they make the visible "colour" from fluorescing phosphors rather than direct generation of light as in older red and green LEDs.

This may or may not be of suitable wavelength and level to attract insects.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Different insects are attracted by different things. For house flies, a dollop of dog's mess would work much better. For mosquitos, you want an infrared light and a CO2 source. For moths, you want a near-UV source.

As I said in an earlier thread, insect eating plants work better for me.

[Huge]

I replace the tubes on our "occasional use" one in the kitchen every 2 or

3 years.

The cluster fly killer in the loft isn't a year old yet, but I'll replace the tubes in that annually, because it's on during daylight hours for about 4 months of the year.

[Huge]

I've never been able to keep Venus flytraps alive for any length of time, otherwise they'd be an ideal solution.

[Paul C]

VFT - dont give them tap water just rain water. No fertilisers of any kind. Keep them at 1-5 deg C in Winter as they like a bit of a rest!! Cut off any flowers that appear as it weakens them.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Same with me for Venus flytraps. They can only eat a few insects a year before they overdose on nitrogen anyway, so they aren't really suitable for insect control.

I use pitcher plants and a sundew. You just have to keep them saturated with rain water, as they expect to be growing in soil which has little/no nutritional value due to it being washed away by frequent rain, which is why they evolved to get their nitrogen from insects. (Some can't fix nitrogen from the soil at all.)

Some require rain to top up their pitchers (so you have to put them out whilst it's raining or save some rainwater and do it yourself), and some fill the pitchers by themselves and shield them from dilution by rain.

[Alan]

You can get UV LEDs.