We've just got to our new property and were beseiged by Mozzies and other flying insects the first night, so we decided to get something to control them.
Originally we intended to get a 'zapper' style flying insect killer, but decided to go for a 'BugVac' unit instead - with really excellent results.
The unit has a low watt UV black light to attract, with a small fan inside which pushes the insects down into a water tray when they land on the see through surface the light is behind.
The first night we 'harvested' literally thousands of insects (mozzies, moths, flies), so far tonight's 'harvest' looks like it will be similar.
In the first night's experiment, I went with the manual's recommendation of adding a couple of drops of dishwashing liquid - to reduce surface tension - but have added none tonight (with fish feeding ultimately in mind) and still had good results...some mozzies escape the first time or two, but eventually end up getting too wet and drowning. It'd be nice to have something fish friendly to reduce surface tension, but from my experience so far it isn't essential.
For those who live in an area with plenty of outdoor bugs, this unit could be a very good thing to build or buy, with very good results for controlling insects and providing supplementary fish food. So far I've watched very carefully and it hasn't killed any 'good' bugs. Apparently, smearing a little fly attracting bait on the underside of the trap where the fan kicks in would also catch a lot of flies (tomorrow's planned experiment).
If you live in a cane toad area, building your own unit would allow you to set up a 'trap door' cane toad trap while you're at it.
I looked for an online source to show a picture/description of the unit and where you could buy it, but all I found was a page describing how some blokes got a grant to develop the product - so I guess it must be fairly new? FWIW, we got ours at the local Mitre 10.
