It appears that there has been a wane in consumer trust in the building and construction industry of late. This may be because of the scams shown on television or the bribery and corruption endemic in the corporate sector, but it is almost certainly the same motivation why so many are now doing home improvements by themselves.

And why shouldn’t they? A little knowledge of the technical aspects combined with an eye for creativity is often enough to complete the home improvement on your own.

Why are people turning to DIY home improvements?

There are many individuals attempting to pass themselves off as construction workers, although they do not have a lot of expertise in construction or home maintenance and they are literally are out there right now practising, learning their trades on homes like yours and mine across the country.

Not surprisingly, homeowners are finding that the jobs are not being completed to their liking. Sometimes they are even pre-paying for services that do not get done or were not part of the plan.

You do not have to rely on and pay someone to improve your home. Why not have a go yourself?

You can augment your home?s existing concrete surfaces using acid stains, acrylic paints, epoxy paints, and scoring techniques.

If you are tired of looking at drab gray concrete, there are some easy projects if you are sincere about having a go at home improvement DIY, you can easily give your patio, driveway or garage a revitalizing new look.

Attractive concrete work costs about double that of standard concrete, which is why a lot of people cannot afford it.

However, there are inexpensive methods to beautify concrete after it has cured, without having to pay skilled tradesmen.

Acid-based concrete stains are becoming more and more fashionable for coloring concrete surfaces. They chemically react with the fibres in the cement material to produce permanent color with a variegated or mottled appearance similar to that of marble. This results in a natural, stylish looking surface.

Water-based concrete stains are an alternative to acid stains but are much more user friendly because they are so much less dangerous. These stains do not chemically react with the concrete; they are absorbed into the porous surface and act like a colorant. The big benefit of water based stains is the wide array of colors on hand.

If you want to venture beyond the basic staining of your concrete, think about using some scoring techniques to create patterns on the surface.

You could make your concrete look like a tiled floor for example. It is just up to your imagination. A mini angle grinder with a 4 inch cutting wheel is the perfect tool for this.

The key thing to remember when scoring is to trace out the pattern on the concrete first and ensure you are happy with the way it looks because scoring is irreversible.

Epoxy paints make an excellent coating for garage floors and cellar floors. Many industrial floors have epoxy coatings because of their hardiness and resilience to chemical spills as well as their appearance.

In recent years, however, it has become very popular for domestic use with the availability of an increasing number of different colors. This is not a difficult job, but the key to successful application is surface preparation.

Epoxy paints have also become available in a water based form making it safe for the DIY’er and perfect for indoor applications. They cost a little more than stains. For a 400 square foot area, you’ll pay out about $200 for the materials needed for this job.

So, you see? You do not have to spend big money to improve your home. You have the ability to do it yourself. With a few instructions and a little bit of work, anyone can turn dull concrete into a work of art of their own.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on several subjects, but is currently involved with Flowtron Bug Zapper devices. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Indoor Bug Zapper

The electric bug killer is the best way of clearing your immediate vicinity of insects, especially the flying ones like mosquitoes. The hand held insect killer vaporizes any insect from a mosquito to a gnat instantly on contact with a nice, loud, electrical ‘zap’!

However, this does not mean to say that the indoor insect killer cannot be used outside, as long as it is not too wet. It should be treated like any other high voltage electrical equipment. Keep the electric bug zapper dry and please do not use it while you are standing in the pool!

Models vary greatly, but there are basically only two types of hand held insect killer: the battery operated bug zapper and the rechargeable electric bug zapper. Both are equally effective at killing insects and employ the same principle.

The indoor bug zapper resembles a ‘kids’ tennis racquet, but with three layers of ’strings’, which are in fact wires. The central network of wires becomes electrified at the touch of a button, while the other two networks, one on either side, are harmless earths.

When an insect is caught between the wires of the hand held insect killer, it creates a short, which vaporizes it instantaneously with a loud crack. The indoor insect zapper will zap other insects too, but they tend to burn rather than just disappear.

I have had the rechargeable sort for about five years and am extremely happy with the electric bug killer. In fact, the electric bug zapper has come a long way in the last few years. A fully charged hand held bug killer is strong enough to last for a few hundred swipes and will hold it’s charge, if unused, for weeks without any noticeable discharge.

The rechargeable battery pack will put up with serious use for the best part of a year, although its capability to hold a charge for several weeks slowly reduces after six or seven months.

The most recent indoor insect zapper I’ve used has a main on/off switch, a light that shines when it is activated (the brightness of this light also indicates the battery’s strength) and a light that comes on when the zapper is plugged in on recharge.

The instructions say that the bug zapper should be (re)charged for about sixteen hours. However, I usually put mine on charge over night once or twice every week or two, although the electric bug killer shows a large increase in performance after only a few hours recharging.

The latest version I’ve had also comes with a powerful light called a ‘headlamp’. I have found this very handy when walking in the garden, but I’m unsure whether it’s meant to lure the mosquitoes in the dark so that you can kill them if you’re feeling bored or just vindictive, rather like an Anglerfish.

I’ve used the headlamp on my hand held insect zapper for that too, but the beam uses a lot of battery power. All in all, the electric insect killer is a big asset to any outdoor event. The indoor bug killer is useful to ‘clean out’ your bedroom before retiring; it’s unbeatable for evening mosquitoes and it will clear a lunch table of wasps too.

Have you ever used an indoor bug zapper? If you haven’t, or if you are interested in getting an electronic insect killer, just click one of the links to our website or blog. You are welcome to reprint this article – but get your own unique content version here.

I don’t know whether you have ever used a handheld, indoor bug zapper, but I think that they are amazing. I’m talking about the handheld sort that looks like a child?s plastic, toy tennis racquet. They come in two basic sorts. I prefer the rechargeable bug zapper, for the reason that batteries end up up costing more than the indoor bug zapper itself, although you could always buy rechargeable batteries, but then they are dear too.

My wife and I like to spend time in the garden. We meet friends there, dine there and in general loaf about outdoors, as do most folks around here, when they are not working. Besides, it’s far cooler outside than indoors. A comfy chair, some snacks, a cool drink and a book or a friend and life does not get much better. In fact, it?s idyllic.

That is until about six or seven o’clock when the first squadron of mosquitoes have judged that the sun’s rays have lost enough strength that they will not evaporate and they come out looking for blood. Some evenings are worse than others, of course. Normally, the mosquitoes are pretty bearable, especially seeing as I have discovered the indoor bug zapper. (I don’t know why it is called an ‘indoor bug zapper’, it is equally as effective outdoors as in).

It’s not that I like to kill things, but I find it difficult to have compassion for mosquitoes. Anyway, I do get a definite amount of pleasure from seeing and hearing mosquitoes and other bugs literally explode with a flash and a spark as they come into contact with the charged and earth wires of the indoor bug zapper. These electric bug zappers are capable of packing quite a charge, especially if the batteries are new or the pack is wholly charged.

The other day, I discovered a new use for my handheld, indoor bug zapper. I’ll tell you how it came about. I was in the garden, as usual, and my bug zapper was close at hand as the first squadron of mosquitoes was due. I had my book in one hand and the bug zapper on my lap, when my wife asked me to go to the shop for her. No problem, so, I set off on the five minute walk.

I was half-way there when I realized that I had the indoor bug zapper in my hand, but it was not worth taking it home and beginning the journey again. Anyway, on my return trip, I had my small bag of groceries in one hand and the indoor bug zapper in the other, when a local tyrant of a dog came running out of a garden right for me. This has occurred often and, although he has never bitten me yet, it is quite intimidating. He stood there glaring at me with teeth bared and his ‘pack’ of sundry neighborhood pals came out to surround me and join in.

I don’t actually know what the best course of action is in this situation. I have tried holding my ground, but the intimidation just continues and I have tried to continue walking, but he gets worryingly close sometimes. This time, I suddenly lashed out with the indoor bug zapper and just hit him on the snout. Well, I’m not sure whether it hurt him, it did not appear to too much, but it gave him a very nasty shock in more ways than one, I can tell you! He leapt about four feet into the air as if he were on a pogo stick and then fled for all he was worth with all his friends behind him. It was very gratifying after six months of persecution from this dog.

Anyway, I don’t take my indoor bug zapper everywhere with me, but I will in future, if any more local dogs bother me. I know it works a treat. I have seen that one since, but he keeps far away from me and doesn’t utter a sound. I think I would take my indoor bug zapper with me, if I were wandering in an unknown part of town or the park nevertheless.

Have you ever used an indoor bug zapper? If you haven’t, or if you want to get an indoor bug zapper, just click one of the links to our web site or blog.

If you are not yet acquainted with the electric insect killer, you are really going to love it and if you have used one before, I bet you’ll welcome it back like an old, long-lost pal! The hand held bug zapper does just what it says it does: it zaps bugs. But it does it really, really well.

Any bug that is touched by the wiring of the electric insect zapper is fried. Smaller bugs like midges and mosquitoes are disintegrated with a very pleasing flash and a crack. Larger insect, like house flies and wasps are killed, but don’t explode like the smaller ones.

Just how many times have these flying bugs taken the edge off an otherwise lovely evening in the garden? Or how many times have you not been able to get a good night’s sleep, because you know there’s at least one mosquito in the bedroom. It has happened to me dozens and dozens of times, I know! It is very satisfying to get one’s own back with the electric bug zapper.

I don’t like killing things unnecessarily – I’m married to a Buddhist- but mosquitoes? I’m sorry, they have to go. And the hand held insect zapper dispatches them without any more ado. No waiting and hoping they’ll fly into the ultraviolet light and then into the mesh. No, one sweep of the hand held insect killer and the mosie’s gone and you can hear whether you killed her or not. (I say her, because the sucking mosquitoes always are females – honest, I wasn’t being sexist).

There are two basic sorts of electric bug zapper. There’s the battery operated bug zapper and the rechargeable electric bug zapper. Both work on the same principle, but I prefer the rechargeable kind, although I suppose you could use rechargeable batteries too. (I bet they would be more expensive that the bug zapper in the first place). Anyway, I have been using a handheld bug killer of the rechargeable sort for five years and I am ecstatic about them.

These days, I spend a lot of time in northern Thailand with my wife, so you can bet your life that my hand held insect zapper gets a good work-out practically every evening. We usually eat in the garden in the evening and all socializing is done outside by tradition, especially in the country, where we live, so it comes in very handy. I also use my handheld insect killer to ’sweep’ the bedroom for bugs before we go to sleep at night, just like a secret agent.

The handheld insect zapper seems to get better every time I buy one, which makes it difficult to give you definite specifications. The hand held bug zappers I bought four or five years ago, often failed within six to nine months of purchase, although their ability to hold a charge was less after four or five months.

However, the new electric insect killer will last 9-12 months and still be formidable after nine months. My latest one even has a powerful light called a headlamp incorporated into it. I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be for, but if you feel that vengeance is sweet, you can attract mosquitoes with it and then kill them with your electronic bug killer.

Have you ever heard of a handheld bug zapper? If not, or if you are interested in getting a handheld bug zapper, please click one of the hyperlinks to our website or blog. You are welcome to reprint this article – but get your own unique content version here.

Some of the commonest bugs we encounter indoors all over the world are flies, spiders, fleas and beetles. Nobody likes to see insects indoors, so most people will go to just about any extremes to get rid of these common indoor bugs. The less common indoor bugs may be woodlice, earwigs, scorpions and millipedes or centipedes, although they are no less unwelcome.

It does not matter where you live in the world, it is very difficult to keep these common indoor bugs outside, unless you go to the extremes of keeping all your windows and doors closed at all times, which is obviously impossible. I now live in Thailand and I know for certain that this is not possible.

So, just what can you do about it? Well, let’s sort out all the flying bugs first, as of all the common indoor bugs, I find them the most unpleasant indoor bug. They are very irritating, buzzing around your head and mosquitoes and other flies can create irritating sores and besides that, all flies spread disease. I hate to see them strutting about on food, knowing that they have probably just come off some dung heap somewhere and now they are spitting on my food to taste it with their stinking feet!

My first line of defence is fine-mesh door and widow screens. They are not expensive and can be added retrospectively to any window. My window meshes slide, so they can protect only one half of the window at a any one time, but I do not find that a problem. You can still create cross-winds, by opening two or more windows at opposite ends of a room. I love to see the flies on the mesh struggling to get in by day and the mosquitoes doing the same by night. At night, it is wise to turn on as little light indoors as possible so as not to attract these common indoor bugs.

My second line of defence is natural predators – lizards, like Geckos (Jin Jok, in Thai). Some people don’t like them in the house much either and I can’t say that I’m all that keen on them indoors myself, but they are difficult to keep outside and they do eat hundreds, if not thousands, of indoor bugs every day. I especially like to see them lying in wait on the outside of the mesh, ready to jump on any bug trying to wriggle its way through the wires.

My third line of defence is a handheld bug zapper. You know, the electric, handheld bug zapper that looks like a child’s tennis racquet. They are brilliant at trapping and annihilating any flying indoor bug. The bug literally explodes and vaporizes on contact with the fully-charged wires of the indoor bug zapper. If you haven’t tried using one, you really ought to. They are most satisfying. These three defences keep our house quite much free of flying insects.

The creeping common indoor bugs are less of a problem really. Door screens on springs will keep 99% of them out and the Geckos will help too. Spiders can get in pretty very easily, but then, I don’t mind them too much as long as they keep out of my way, as they consume other insects too. They are on our side really. However, for those who can not bear to catch them and throw them outside, the handheld indoor bug zapper works well on spiders too.

Sometimes, Fleas can be a problem, if you have cats or dogs, but then if you wash or dust the animal once a month, you should be able to keep these common indoor bugs under control fairly easily. However, there are two final methods that we use. Every week, before we go out for the day, we spray every room with fly killer and every six-months we spray any rugs or carpets with a bug killer containing permethrin, which will survive washing and vacuuming for that long without losing its ability to kill common indoor bugs on contact. If you stick with these measures, you will be able to keep your home or office quite free of the most common indoor bugs and any less common indoor bug as well.

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