Bugs Beware!

Most summers we get ants in our kitchen. Some summers we have those little tiny ants and some summers they are the big black ants. Either way I hate them. This summer, however, we had no ants. I didn't mention it because I was sure I would jinx us and both types of ants would set up residence on my counters as soon as I said something.

Lately, though we've been plagued by flies. They are everywhere and I hate them too! They buzz around the table at dinner, and fly past my ear when I finally get a free minute to sit down and relax. Gross!!

Never fear, though! Ken to the rescue!!

I bought him an electric fly swatter for Christmas last year. It was sort of a gag gift, but he actually got really excited about it. The one I bought was from Lowe's and is similar to this one*:

It has two offset buttons on the handle. You hold down both of them and it electrifies the metal slats going across the fly swatter. When you hit a fly, it ZAPS! like a bug zapper. Sometimes the jolt is enough to kill the fly, sometimes it stuns it. Either way, you can easily pick it up with a tissue and dispose of it.

Not knowing that we already had one, my brother brought us this one at the beginning of October*:


This one has more of a mesh-type grid and a super cool lightning bolt design, but it doesn't seem to have as much power. It still stuns flies, but not for as long. It also only has one button, which seems like a bit of a safety issue because it would be easier to accidentally power it up. {Please keep both of them out of the reach of children!}

It's funny to me how much use we've gotten out of both of these seeing as how they were both mostly gag gifts. I even asked if we really needed two of them, but Ken insists that they are strategically placed around the house so that one is also close by in case of "emergency."

Have you ever bought a gag gift that turned out to be useful?

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