Bug-A-Salt
 | |
| Company type | Privately-owned |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2012 |
| Headquarters | Santa Monica, California, US |
Key people | Lorenzo Maggiore - CEO, Erika Schimik - President |
| Products | The Original Salt Gun |
| Website | https://bugasalt.com/ |
Bug-A-Salt is the brand name of a plastic gun used to kill soft-bodied insects by hitting them with salt particles.
Description
[edit]The Bug-A-Salt device uses granular table salt as non-toxic projectiles to kill insects.[1] The plastic gun is designed to spray up to 80 discharges of salt, which forms a conical spread pattern, similar to the blast pattern from a shotgun.[2]
Biologist Michael Dickinson of the California Institute of Technology says flies cannot dodge the tiny salt particles, but will be protected by their arthropod exoskeleton and will only be stunned.[3]
History
[edit]Bug-A-Salt was created by Lorenzo Maggiore and patented in 2012.[4] Maggiore invented the tool to kill houseflies at a distance, without creating a mess.[3]
The Skell Inc company launched its Bug-A-Salt product in 2012 on the Indiegogo platform.[5] At the close of Skell's crowd-funding campaign on September 11, 2012, the company had sold more than 21,400 units of the original model of the Bug-A-Salt salt gun.[6][3]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ LeBlanc, Cameron (2019-07-15). "You'll Be the Lord of the Flies With This Salt-Firing Gun". Fatherly. Retrieved 2019-09-12.
- ^ Blanchard, Keith. "Man vs. Bugs: Who's Winning?". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2019-09-12.
- ^ a b c Reagan, Brad (2012-10-14). "In Latest Bid to Lord Over Flies, One Man Tries Salting Them Away - WSJ.com". Online.wsj.com. Retrieved 2013-02-26.
- ^ US patent D676923S, Maggiore Lorenzo, "Bug-A-salt gun", issued February 26, 2013
- ^ Alvarez, Johanna (2018-01-05). "Want to kill that bug? This shotgun uses table salt to do so". Miami Herald. Retrieved 2019-09-12.
- ^ Lorenzo, Maggiore. "BugASalt- The Final Push". indiegogo. indiegogo.com. Retrieved 27 October 2016.