Tired of houseflies and other pest? Finding your old fashioned fly swatter to be ineffective? No longer get a “charge” out of your hand held bug zapper? Have I got a tool for you! This is the Bug-a-salt, an assault rifle for hunting insects. About the size and feel of a larger NERF gun, it fires table salt like a small shotgun. It’s an absolute blast to use and very effective. You load it up with table salt, cock it, and release the safety. A sight pops up, aim at the offending six legged critter and pull the trigger. Out flies a bit of salt at high speed that, in the best case, kills the insect or at least shreds its wings, making it an easy target for a second shot. A third shot is seldom necessary. It does take some practice to get your aim down, but, like a regular shotgun, absolute precision isn’t necessary. The best part is, the effective range is about 5 feet, so the little annoyances never know what hit them (if you can’t get within five feet of a housefly without spooking it, you seriously need to work on your stalking skills). It’s effective for most insects and arachnids, although larger insects (like palmetto bugs in Florida) may laugh it off and pull their own weapons.
The ammunition is standard table salt, anything coarser or finer doesn’t work as well. It’s essentially an air gun, so there isn’t any residue other than the salt, in fact, I’ve heard of people using it to salt meat on a grill. Some of the Amazon reviews mention problems with durability, but I’ve had mine for over a year without any issues. It’s gone up in price since I’ve bought mine, it’s now about $50 on Amazon. As for safety, you wouldn’t want to get shot in the eyes with it, but anywhere else just stings a bit, I wouldn’t worry about the kids getting a hold of it, just supervise them when using it. It does leave some salt residue, it’s not a lot, but it is there. All in all, highly recommended and a really fun way to get rid of pesky houseflies.