April 5, 2008
Insect Vacuum Slurps up Spiders, Cockroaches, and Other Bugs
I haven't had much trouble with insects in my second-floor condo, but when I visit my parents, it's another story. Their guest bedroom and bathroom are in the basement. It's nice and cool on hot summer days, but it's popular with bugs and insects too. I'm not very squeamish in general, but I do hate discovering a daddy long legs in the shower with me when I'm all wet and, er, nekkid. Obviously I need to keep a handy dandy insect vacuum nearby.
What, you've never heard of an insect vacuum? (I hadn't either until I stumbled across this one at SmartHome.)
Basically, you just turn it on, point it at your intruder bug or insect (spider, roach, whatever) and slurp it up. Here's the more detailed blurb from the site:
"Standard vacuums simply suck the live critters into the vacuum bag. But the Insect and Bug Vacuum goes one step further by exterminating them with a jolt of electricity inside the sealed chamber. It's like having your own mini electric chair for bugs! An internal trap door prevents the bugs from crawling or flying out. To empty the chamber, simply unlock the wand and empty the contents into the trash. The Rechargeable Insect and Bug Vacuum features a flexible rubber tip to trap bugs even in corners and an extendable nozzle to help reach high spots."
Unfortunately, I don't think my mother would be amused. She captures spiders in jars and puts them outside.
For the less humanitarian types (arachnitarian?), you can get the bug vacuum for $60:
If you like to get a little wild when you vacuum (hey, who doesn't?), then your baseboards and furniture may be at risk from dings and dents. You may just need a "Bumpster."
When you're cleaning up cat litter or other spilled items that are just in a corner of the room, you probably don't need to get out the vacuum or the big broom. A little hand sweeper broom will do, right? Except sweeping by hand is so tedious. 
When I go shopping for brooms (which is pretty darned rare), my only criteria are: cheap and fits in nook beside water heater. "Fun" isn't something I'm expecting from my cleaning utensils (and it isn't something I've found yet). Short of getting a Jetson's style house where all you do is push a button for cleaning (or to have Rosie the robo-maid come out and take care of things), I'm not sure sweeping will ever be fun for me, but the Boom Boom Broom is trying to make things a little more interesting at least.
If you have to have a trash bin sitting out around the house (alas, not all of us have room for the dedicated slide-out trash/recycling kitchen cabinets), then you might as well have one that looks good.
