Do Bug Zappers Work? Q. I assumed I read somewhere that bug zappers don’t really work. My neighbor’s zapper is driving me crazy with that ZZZZT noise all evening. I’d like to show him proof that each one he’s doing is annoying his neighbor. A. Yes, there is some scientific information on the usefulness of bug zappers, but first we need to differentiate between the bug zappers that homeowners use of their yards to (hopefully) kill mosquitoes, and the industrial insect zapper mild traps that pest control professionals use principally in eating places, food plants, and warehouses. These expensive industrial traps are used mainly to kill home flies and they do work. The comparatively cheap backyard bug zappers kill loads of flying insects, just not mosquitoes. Bug zappers use ultraviolet mild to draw mosquitoes to a steel grid where they're electrocuted or "zapped." People that personal these traps swear by them. They point to the piles of dead insects that they empty out of the lure every morning. And those insects do appear to be mosquitoes. But principally they're midges, harmless fliers that don't chew and are thought of useful. Bug zappers truly attract and kill only a few mosquitoes. Instead, the ultraviolet mild attracts hordes of insects into the yard that wouldn’t have been there in any other case. Yard zappers have by no means fared very effectively in research tests. One examine discovered that 89% of the zapped insects were midges