Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

UPDATED AUG 17, 2020: DO NOT BUY. Changed from 5 stars to 1 star. After many years, my bulb failed, and I ordered another unit. The product now has a more "clear" bulb vs the blacklight style bulb of the former unit and doesn't attract bugs the same way. Or at all really. Returning. It's sad when a company has a really great product and then ruins it because of a slight change. I don't know how long this product had been changed with my former review up. FORMER REVIEW June 23, 2015: We live between a swamp and two ponds in a heavily wooded area, therefore we are always waging war on mosquitoes. This spring we placed a propane powered mosquito vac in our yard, and had to clean it every day, because the basket will fill to the point where it would loose suction and stop sucking mosquitoes. And while it did collect at least a few hundred mosquitoes a day, it would loose suction from all the bugs and the cottonwood tree fluff. So we placed this Flowtron (1/2 acre) bug zapper unit within 5 feet of the propane powered vac in hopes that it would take some of the load off of the mosquito vac. I would have been happy if the bug zapper got even half as many mosquitoes as the mosquito vac, but that was not the case! What we found was that this zapper kills at least 1000 times more mosquitoes than the propane unit!! IT'S INCREDIBLE! I included a picture of what the unit looks like in the morning after hosing it completely out. THOUSANDS of little buggers! There were maybe a few dozen bugs that weren't mosquitoes, all the rest were mosquitoes. I wouldn't expect this type of performance with just the stand alone bug zapper, I think it is due to the combination of the propane mosquito vac luring them in, that that's right beside the bug zapper. However, this mosquito carnage comes with a downside. Now we have to clean this unit out every day as well! The grid simply becomes so solid with fried mosquitoes it blocks all light from the bulb! We simply unplug, hose out with a light spray of water, and dry by setting it on our central air condenser unit for 30 min or so (gentle blast of warm air!). So 5 stars for inflicting massive damage to the mosquito population, (thousands per day!) 4.8 stars for needing to clean it out every day. I can't give 4.9 stars, .so 5 it is! WARNING: Do not hang this unit over a deck, or near anything that could burn as it will occasionally rain flaming (as in on fire!) bug debris! Seriously, there should be a warning sticker on it. FLAMING BUGS WILL FALL FROM THIS UNIT. I would not be surprised if the whole bug zapper just burst in to flames some night. (and I wouldn't at all be disappointed! DEATH TO MOSQUITOES!) We've decided to order another Flowtron, the larger 1 and 1/2 acre unit as well to hopefully better handle the mosquito load. We hang this in our yard, at the end of a 50 foot extension cord -it only has a 6 inch cord, you will need an extension cord!- on a shepherd's hook. I would never recommend hanging this on, or near anything that you weren't ready to burn to the ground. Update July 1, 2015: The 1 and 1/2 acre flowtron was a complete failure at killing mosquitoes. It didn't even really hardly kill any bugs at all! The bulb on the smaller 1/2 acre unit is like a black-light. Deep purple, not very bright. Lures in bugs like crazy. The bulb on the 1 and 1/2 acre unit is blue and super bright. Light up the whole back yard bright, including the neighbor's house bright! Crazy bright! I'm not sure if the color is wrong to attract bugs, but it actually seemed to repel them away from the mosquito vac! I'm not sure what I'll do with the 1 and 1/2 acre unit with the super bright bulb. I would never buy it again, and recommend people steer clear from it. Go with the 1/2 acre unit, it's wonderful.