#BugZapper August 25

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August 2026 several of us are going to take on the 30-Day Plugged in Coach4aday Challenge. Each day, we will feature an item from home or office that requires being plugged into a source of electricity to operate. We will reflect on how it makes life easier. For Day 25 it is on outdoor BUG ZAPPER.

Growing up in the 1960s, I remember a few homes having an ultraviolet light hanging in the backyard during the summer. When it was turned on, you could hear the occasional “zap” or buzz as a mosquito or fly met its demise in the bug zapper. It was a simple but fascinating example of electricity being used to take care of one of summer’s most annoying pests.

Day 25-Bug Zapper

The device itself is getting close to its 90th birthday and there have not been many changes to it.

Here is a timeline

The outdoor electric device evolved from several early inventions rather than having one universally accepted inventor.

• 1911: An early version appeared in Popular Mechanics. Two unnamed men in Denver built an electric fly trap using light bulbs and an electrified wire grid. It was considered too expensive to be practical.
• 1932–1934: The technology became much more practical. William F. Folmer and Harrison L. Chapin developed an electrical insect exterminator and received a U.S. patent in 1934. Their design used high-voltage conductors that electrocuted insects when they completed the circuit.
• 1934: University of California entomologist William Brodbeck Herms also developed an electronic insect killer that became an important model for later bug zappers.
• 1950s–1970s: Improvements in electric grids, ultraviolet lights and manufacturing helped make the familiar hanging outdoor bug zapper practical for homes, patios and businesses.

Video-10 Hours of Bug Zapper

I found a 10-hour YouTube recording of a bug zapper going off on a summer night—10 hours of nothing but the familiar buzz and zap of insects meeting their fate.