My Whole Family Fights Over This Electric Fly Swatter

A pink and sparkly handheld bug zapper called The Executioner.

For most of my life, I didn’t believe in any kind of self-defense against the onslaught of summertime insects. Sure, some methods might work in your backyard, but they’re no match for the Ontario wilderness, where I worked as a canoe trip guide for eight years, or the woods of Quebec, where my family decamps each summer.

I’ve seen things you wouldn’t believe. In the depths of the Canadian woods, I could take a bath in pure DEET and still be swarmed by ravenous black flies, no-see-ums, and mosquitoes. Just about every bug repellent we tried — repellent coils, spatial diffusers, hypersonic machines, special wristbands — was easily overwhelmed by the sheer number of bugs flying about. Mostly, I gritted my teeth and surrendered to the fact that I was in the dominion of the bugs, and I was going to get bit.

A few summers ago, my wife and I steeled ourselves for peak bug-biting season. But to my surprise, my family had figured out the bug problem with the most inelegant, brute-force tool possible: The Executioner, an electric fly swatter that has cured my bug-defense skepticism.



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