ARE MORTEIN PLUG-INS OKAY TO USE EVERY DAY?

Our residential pest control expert, Dan Sheehy, answers.

The short answer is ‘yes’. You can use electrical plug-ins like the Mortein Odourless Mozzie Zapper daily whenever mosquitoes are an issue. When you plug in the zapper, it heats up and releases a fine vapour. Although the actual amount of active ingredient, allethrin, is tiny, it’s just enough to knock down mosquitoes.

Allethrin is a synthetic version of a plant-based extract found in chrysanthemum flowers and has been in use since 1949. Learn about the history behind our products here. What’s great about allethrin is that it is ‘photodegradable’, which means it breaks down when it’s exposed to sunlight. The reason the vapour needs to be continuous is that any movement causes it to spread around and dissipate. Those properties mean the product doesn’t generally build up or accumulate.

Mozzie zappers can be used around most pets with no problems — dogs, cats and birds included. The one exception is fish, which areespecially sensitive to insecticides. It’s best not to keep a fish tank in the same room when you use a mozzie zapper. You probably don’t have pet honeybees, but if you do, the allethrin can be toxic to them, too, so best to move them to another room. 

As with all insecticides and insect repellents, it’s important to read the instructions included in the packaging and follow the recommendations. For example, only use one zapper in each room —  they’ve been carefully formulated to release exactly the right amount of active.

Because the zappers have an internal heater that activates the vapour, they can get hot. That’s why it’s important to put them out of reach of kids and animals — and away from anything flammable, such as curtains or blankets.

 Apart from that, just plug in for odourless mosquito protection.