Before scoring one of the electrified mosquito-swatting tennis-rackets I blogged yesterday, consider this research that shows that swatting a mosquito or a fly with one of these aerosolizes the viruses it its guts and shit-particles on its carapace over a radius of six feet. See update below!
When the houseflies hit the traps, their bodies literally exploded,
Urban said. However, the electronic zap did not destroy all the
viruses that had attached to the insect's body. As it turns out,
microbes on the fly's surface were far more dangerous than any they
had ingested. Overall, approximately one virus out of every 4,000 on a
fly's surface was spread by electrocution, and virus was spread an
average of 6 feet. Only about 1 in 1,000,000 of the viruses inside the
fly were released upon electrocution, although they also spewed out as
far as 6 feet, the study showed. "This is potentially significant
since flies moving about on filth such as feces are most likely to
become surface contaminated," he said
However, many of you sickos wrote to me to tell me how useful this thing is as an S&M sex-toy. Though presumably not after it's been used to render bugs into fine, infectious mist.
(Thanks, Dan!)
Update: Lolanose sez, "The link regarding spewed fly guts and viruses is about those backyard zappers — not the racquet-like swatters. The latter merely electrocute the offending insect, not vaporize it. Germs aren't spread — but of course you may want to pick up the little critter and dispose of it."
