Stinger Indoor Insect Trap

Product Description

The bugs have arrived. Rats. And since bugs (or rats) are not the types of animals I advocate co-existing with, this is my advice to those of you with homes overrun with flies, mosquitos, gnats, and no-see-ums: zap the... [Read more]

Features

• Easy Pull Out Drawer For Emptying
• Environmentally Safe
• UV White Light Attracts Flying Insects To Trap
• Powerful, Quiet Fan Draws Insects Into Internal Trap Where They Dehydrate & Die
• No chemicals - environmetally safe
• UV white light attracts flying insects to trap
• Powerful, quiet fan draws insect into internal trap where they dehydrate and die
• Top snaps off for bulb replacement. Replacement bulb: B04-N
• Refer UserManual for troubleshooting steps and corrections

Top Reviews

It will PROBABLY work for you. Just not for mosquitoes.
by S. Phillips (4 out of 5 stars)
August 30, 2016

So I purchased one of these from Amazon in 2006 and I am just now writing a review. It's not that I have long-term experience with the product It's just that I am trying to figure out the disparate ratings and maybe what I have decided will be helpful to others.

First I purchased this in 2006 because my family returned from a vacation and the clementines & bananas; that I had been assured were taken care of ("Eat them or put them in the dumpster outside!") had only been tossed into the garbage pail that I had emptied an hour previously; had become a biology experiment worthy of Gregor Mendel and Thomas Hunt Morgan.

I battled them for 3-4 weeks before throwing in the towel and ordering one of these (for $25.90 + Shipping & Handling. BP you know, Before Prime.)

Initially I needed to empty the filter screen twice a day because airflow was being impacted. But after a week things were totally under control. I might have switched it on once or twice a week for the following month to mop up any stragglers.

I think I broke it out again for the Great Pantry Moth Infestation of 2008 (Who knew General Mills would send hitchhikers in my Raisin Nut Bran? Evidently it's not that uncommon for any cereal.) Most of those I vacuumed up or smacked and swept with a broom but the Stinger "Nosquito" was brought out of retirement for a week, again to catch any shifty mavericks.

I still have my old Stinger in the garage and I would put it to use but my clementine/banana smoothie drinking ex-spouse has the garage. (Don't feel bad for me, it was in Garland, Texas.)

So I decided I wanted another one for the occasional fungus gnat/fruit fly insurgence. I went straight to Amazon and found my desire, read the reviews as is my wont and was surprised to see so many negative reviews of a product I had found rather useful and effective.

I usually toss out the one & two star reviews unless they all mention a specific malfunction (FIRE! or Attracts Zombies!) But in this case 28% is a pretty darn significant number even when you consider that people are 5 times more likely to make a review if they are unhappy then if the product pleases them. (Take myself for instance...)

INVESTIGATION

Many of the complaints mention mosquitoes not being captured. Well I had never used it to capture mosquitoes so I have experience using this to capture such critters. I DO however have extensive personal experience with mosquitoes. Big nasty-looking tiger mosquitoes, great swarms of aedes aegypti that fly straight towards your mouth & nose and are rumored to carry off small children. I have had Dengue Fever, TWICE.

So I went off to Google to confirm my personal experiences. Yeah. Mosquitoes are one of the few flying insects that aren't attracted to light.

If you look at the product for sale it doesn't say "Mosquito" anywhere. But if you look at the photo of the box, it does. It even says it is "proven effective against mosquitoes." Maybe you're meant to throw it at them when when they land on a surface?

The cute little label on the grill has changed from the catchy "Nosquito" logo (still visible on the unit pictured on the box) to the more generic "Stinger" logo. So except for the box they have removed any reference to mosquitoes. Probably because it was setting them up for liability problems with the zika virus. I looked for the product on the Stinger website but it's been scrubbed clean of any mention of the product. So I went to the Internet Archive (The Wayback Machine) and found earlier renditions of their site where the Trap was for sale but interestingly all product images had been deleted even though other discontinued item images were still showing up on their server. (The Archive doesn't snag photos, it just copies their original location on the server and displays them if they are still located there.)

A few further minutes of digging around and I came up with the Owner's Manual from 2005! (I promise never to use my powers for evil.)
[...]

It mentions catching "flying insects" numerous times but only one nebulous mention of mosquitoes:
"Often insects will breed and "over-winter" or hibernate inside your home. Also during brief periods of warm weather, mosquito, fly and ladybug activity may increase."

FACTS & CONCLUSIONS (No links, no alternate recommendations)
1) This Trap isn't going to cure your mosquito problems unless one wanders by, gets sucked in and his friends come looking for him.
2) Ignore the writing on the box.See #1 above.
3) This unit might kill mosquitoes if you use a lure in conjunction. There are (mosquito) effective fan Traps that use a lure. Amazon has lures.
4) Flying insects are attracted to blue light, UV crosses into that spectrum. Blacklight UV works better. In the Q&A someone asked for a blacklight bulb and a link was given.
5) Lesser house flies aren't attracted to UV light either and I can't identify the differences between common and lesser houseflies.
6) There are THOUSANDS of fungus gnats, fruit flies, frit flies, true flies, ad infinitum and any number of them might be negative phototaxis
7) 1-6 explain why there are so many negative reviews.
8) I can't recall but I am sure it wasn't pithy.
9) Time flies like an arrow but fruit flies like a banana.
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complete failure
by L. McNerney,Top Contributor: Smart Home (1 out of 5 stars)
December 7, 2015

This was set up in a fly filled house. Both fruit flies and regular house fly's. It operated 24/7 for a week, all the while we were battling these pests. I decided to empty the trap, thinking it must surely be full by now. It was dead empty. Literally, not even dust!

For those that say something about placement, this was in the middle of the room with the most problems, on a counter at medium height (so literally, middle...height included).

We killed hundreds with a basic fly swatter during this time....this thing trapped and killed an alarmingly amount of zero, even though by the sheer number of fly's one surely would have climbed into the thing on it's own accord and by accident. This device seemed to actually scare them away.

I returned, and the process was hassle free. There were no arguments, no problems. Although it did take prompting them a month after they received the product in order to get the money sent back. They paid shipping. At least there is that....
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Made a nice nightlight and white noise generator, but poor bug catcher
by GrigLars (2 out of 5 stars)
September 13, 2016

I had this model for 2 and a half years, where it continuously ran in a bathroom environment before dying. I live near a shopping center, and in the summer, a lot of flies from the dumpsters in the alleyway find their way into my house, along with the occasional mosquitos and moths. The bathroom this was in was at the end of some air flow path, so any airborne bugs would usually end up in that single room. Originally I got this to suck those bugs up, but ended up serving as a decent white noise generator and utility light for guests, since it was a guest bathroom.

The bulb lasted about a year, which was far longer than promised. The fan finally died after about 2 1/2 years, and I tossed the unit out as I was worried about a fire. Still, running for almost 2 1/2 years solid ain't bad for a cheap fan.

Catching bugs was not that great, though. Maybe the fan wasn't strong enough. It caught mostly moths, and sometimes a fly and a mosquito or two, but I had to find alternate methods to get rid of them since this fan really just ended up sucking a lot of lint and dust which had to be cleaned out periodically.
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Works only at night with all the lights off
by TT (5 out of 5 stars)
October 22, 2013

There are a lot of mixed reviews for this product, but it works amazingly well for me. I think it depends in how you use it.

For some reason, mosquitos like hanging out by my doors, so whenever someone goes in or out of the house, a mosquito usually sneaks in. So there's usually at least one mosquito inside at any given time.

My house is one story and rectangular. I put this trap on top of the refrigerator, and the light from the trap is beamed through most of the house, including down the hallway to the bedrooms. I think the main reason this trap works so well for me is because of the layout of my house.

The light will attract bugs only if there are no other "competing" lights. I turn the trap on before I go to bed, and I turn off every other light. The light doubles as a night-light, and the kitchen is far enough away from the bedrooms that I can't hear the fan when I'm in bed.

Every morning I find at least one mosquito trapped in there. This trap is so effective, that there are hardly any mosquitos in the house any more. Any ones that happen to sneak in during the day are trapped overnight. Even though I only use the trap at night, I rarely see any mosquitos during the day.

Other reviewers have said that the bulb loses effectiveness over time. I intend to change the bulb every six months. If you can find a good place to put the trap, I think it will work for you.
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Works great with a few modificationa
by Chris M (4 out of 5 stars)
March 23, 2013

I bought this produce about 3 years ago. It worked moderatly well, caught a few bugs here and there. I placed the trap in my kitchen area where we were having problems with bugs flying in when a door was open.

The problem with this trap is eventually dust will collect on inside of the trap drawer and greatly reduce the suction power of the already weak fan. Thus enabling the insects inside to escape.

To prevent this from happening the following should be done;
1. Buy some glue trap paper. Before removing the protecting film cut the glue paper into small strips. Approximetly 11/2 inches long and 1/4 inch wide.
2. Remove the protective film from the glue paper and place only two of the strips in the insect collection drawer, sticky side up.
3. Replace insect collection drawer and turn on unit. Be careful not to flip the glue sheets when inserting drawer. They must be sticky side up.

Check the unit in a few weeks and you will find all the bugs will be on the glue traps. The glue also acts as an attractant because it smells sweet. Simply throw away the glue sheets and clean the insect collection drawer the mild soap and hot water. Replace the glue sheets and the drawer and your done. This should be repeated at least once a month.

Mission accomplished! No more escaped bugs!
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Never caught one mosquito
by Blue Honolulu (1 out of 5 stars)
October 5, 2014

We live in a buggy paradise. We purchased this unit in 2009. It never caught a single mosquito. We pitched it. We then purchased a Dynatrap indoor unit. It never caught a single mosquito. We pitched it. We purchased mosquito punk but, concerned over its toxicity, we pitched it. In 2/2014, desperate to escape mosquitoes that constantly followed us indoors, we purchased a Flowtron (1/2 acre) OUTDOOR unit and placed it on our kitchen counters (away from flammables and without the insect attractant due to toxicity concerns indoors). It immediately started zapping mosquitoes. It is now 8 months later, the Flowtron (read: NOT the Stinger) has been working 24/7 (never turned off) and has zapped dozens of mosquitoes and literally hundreds of other insects. Our house is mostly bug tight, the insects cannot come through the screens, so these are the insects that follow us and our dog indoors. For the first time we now have a tried-and-true basis of comparison to the Stinger. The Stinger is worthless. Don't waste your money. There are better units, like the Flowtron, on the market for our hard-earned dollars.
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Not good for mosquitos but gangbusters for moths.
by Niloc0 (2 out of 5 stars)
June 25, 2016

Living in Florida there are tons of bugs and a few are likely to fly inside every time you open the dang door. The only ones that really bother me are those that bite or sting - mosquitoes in particular.

I've owned 3 of these Stinger traps - I used 2 indoors and 1 in the garage. The first indoor one caught a bunch of moths (better than nothing but I don't really care about them) but only a very few mosquitoes. It just seems like the mosquitoes aren't attracted to the UV light this thing uses (though moths really, really are) - I've read that mosquitoes are attracted to carbon dioxide, body heat and odors like sweat and perfume.

The one in the garage caught all sorts of bugs including bizarre nightmarish albino bugs I've never seen before or since. Still very few mosquitoes though - seems like only the ones that happened to wander close to it.

When the first indoor one stopped working I bought another one on sale - same deal though, caught lots of moths over time, not much else.

Now the fan motors have stopped working on all of them - I don't plan to replace them again. Looking for an alternate product that really works on mosquitoes specifically.
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Works!
by M. Kienzle (4 out of 5 stars)
June 2, 2016

I've had it for just over a week and I am already really impressed. There are some downsides, which I will get to, but it does and has already caught several flies, moths, and mosquitoes. More than I thought were inside the house, I was kinda shocked.

CON: Large unit, loud (fan loud, doesn't rattle or whine, just a loud fan or like white noise), bright (which it has to be).

PRO: It works! Easy set-up and it's easy to remove the "bug trap"

This unit works for me because I don't need it in a room I sleep in, its kept in a dining room next to a slider so bugs tend to enter that way but its away from our bedrooms so it doesn't disturb us.
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A simple hack to make this better for Mosquitoes
by Wildo! (4 out of 5 stars)
September 6, 2014

It is hard to imagine how a an artifical UV light can work as a lure to mosquitoes. I found a hack that some of you may find useful.

Short description:

Get this unit.

Get the correct mosquito bait.

Drop mosquito bait in the drawer unit.

Turn on and let it do its thing.

Google "Mosquito life cycle" and find which mosquito you have and which bait is effective for you.

Brief background: I originally purchased this over 2 years ago for a fruit fy problem. Turns out my neighbor downstairs was harversting rotten fruit (she was very old and sadly, her dementia was getting the best out of her). This Stinger unit did a fair job of getting some (less than half) of the fruit flies. Considering that this item is named "Nosquito," I figured my review should be based on its performance towards mosquitoes otherwise I'd give it 2-3 stars for just the fruit fly issue; which by the way, a wet towel and fast reflexes often does the trick to those little buggers. Think men's shower room pranks....ok, don't think about naked men. [shivers]

The mosquito population seem to have grown in my neighborhood over the years. Maybe people are growing more vegetable gardens around here. Swatting (and shocking) enough mosquitoes to its demise, I've noticed that we have at least 2 different varieties of mosquitoes. After doing some brief research on a mosquito's life cycle, I found it was essential knowledge to know which variety you have so you can target the problem better. I'm still reading up on this so google "mosquito life cycle" to start your research.

The ones I see here in New York are black and white and I believe they are from SE Asia and the same type that can carry dengue fever. Thankfully, that's not common here. The other kind I see is black and slightly fuzzy (hairy).

Unconvinced that the blue light itself is sufficient to catch mosquitoes, I felt an added 'bait' should help the problem. Looking through Amazon products and using my Google search as a start, I figured I would try Octenol as a bait to lure the mosquitoes inside the trap. If I recall, Octenol works better on mosquitoes populated in the North East USA. There are other lures you can try if you are from the midwest or west coast or south east coast.

On my first hour of using this, I had caught 2 black mosquitoes. I'm gonna leave it running all night to see if it catches more. I;ve also used mosquito traps with different bait outside to see if they work too.

Once you understand a mosquito's life cycle it helps to tackle the problem from its sources. This will drastically reduce your problem if you have access to its breeding grounds.

The other reviews indicate that this unit has a loud fan and it does. I wouldn't sleep with this on. The bright blue light is also too bright to leave in a bedroom if you are sleeping. For this, I keep it out of my bedroom and leave it in the living room. Or the bathroom since I find mosquitos 'hanging out' there after a full meal.

There is a design issue I would like to suggest. RIght now, the only way to check for trapped mosquitoes (or any bugs) is to slide the switch to the off position which also mechanically closes the lid where the entry to the trap is. When you slide the tray out to check, it exposes the whole 'cage' and any living mosquitoes can fly out. I ask myself what was it that prompted the designers/engineers of this product to do it this way? Each time I want to check for mosquitoes to see if the unit is working, I risk having surviving mosquitoes flying out.

What I would like to know is how fast do 'dehydrate' when trapped inside of the unit with the fan on?

If you have better ways to use this unit for mosquitoes or found a better method/trap, comment below. We are in this together. :)

Update 9/9/14: Turns out the designers had included the ability to keep the entire cage together. This means you can indeed slide out trap to check on bugs. You have to ensure the tiny tab at the center of the top back trap is locked in place. I assume that through time, wear and tear will get the better of this.
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Not a zapper, but just as deadly...
by booly_booly (5 out of 5 stars)
October 2, 2018

This works with an internal fan, to suck insects into a little trap inside the unit. Once inside, they are just stuck there until they die of starvation. Because it is not a zapper, there is no cooked insect smell, just the satisfying feeling that they are doomed.... A handy drawer assembly allows the user to periodically empty out the bugs for local insect funeral services. I hoped this thing would work better than some others I've had, and it does. It's big enough to attract and draw in almost any size bug that can get into your house. I actually did not think it was working until I emptied it the first time and there were lots of moths, mosquitos, and other flying insects that got sucked in, and met their demise.

Just a note, set this away from other light sources, tv, computer, etc. also set it across the room from people. This way it draws bugs away from you, or where you are. The only attractant is a uv bulb, but that seems to work well.

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