Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here, there are many ways to catch a fly. A sticky strips of paper, sprays, swatters, or a handy pair of chopsticks. If you're really looking for a challenge, can all do the trick. It turns out, however, that one of the most popular tools for staying bug free may do more harm than good. I'm talking about
bug zappers. They obliterate flies and other critters by emitting a UV light that indiscriminately attracts flying insects, and then electrocuting any winged object that comes into their path. There are a number of reasons that backyard grillers and chillers should ditch zapping machines. For the article this episode is based on House to Forks, spoke with Jonathan Day, associate professor of entomology with the University of Florida's Institute of
Food and Agricultural Sciences. Back then, they estimated that seventy one billion non target insects are slaughtered by these devices in the US alone every year. Most of these were pollinator moths and beneficial beetles, ants and midges, along with parasitic wasps, which control other insect pests. Several other studies from that same time period, including one from the University
of Delaware, found similar results. With the drop in insect populations that's being observed around the world, indiscriminately zapping bugs is bad environmental policy. Day still maintains that the biggest threat from zappers is what he calls this non target impact. The UV lights that the devices used to lure mosquitoes and flies in are also likely to attract a number of other bugs. Day said mosquitoes are a very small
part of the population attracted to bug zappers. Furthermore, when an insect is zapped, the devices send bug bits and any bacteria and viruses that they may be carrying flying into the immediate area. According to a study conducted in the year two thousand by researchers at Kansas State University, a bacteria that bugs pick up on the surface of their bodies or accumulate in their digestive canals aren't killed
by zapping. Instead, they survive on the small particles of an electrocuted bug body that go hurtling through the surrounding area and what goes flying into the air has to land somewhere, right, So there are a couple of reasons to ditch zapping machines, though, really the health threat of having a bug incinerated onto your burger while completely on appetizing is actually at the bottom of the list. And they said, I think that's a very minor concern with
bug zapper usage. That event is going to be a very rare one. It requires the bug zapper to be hung over your picnic table and an infected fly to come into that bug zapper at the same time that your sandwiches sitting within range. It's probably a lot more dangerous for you to have a fly walking over your food.
The good news is that backyard enthusiasts have a number of other options for combating mosquitoes and other bugs, where athletic clothing that bugs can't bite through, use a decent repellent, and turn on the fan. Day said, mosquitoes are poor flyers. There's nothing more effective than a fan. So the next time you invite your friends over for a cook out, you may want to reconsider how you go about warding off bugs. A wise fellow once said something about using honey.
Today's episode is based on the article are Bugsapper's bad News on house toffworks dot com. Written by Chris Optor. Brain Stuff is a production of iHeart Radio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.