The Ultimate Guide to Choosing and Using UV LED Insect Light Traps

Insect Light Trap technology had evolved over the past ninety years when William M Frost patented a fly zapper in the United States. The first major change in ILTs was a shift from using an electrical grid to electrocute flies to the use of glue boards to trap them. With the advent of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) for consumer and commercial lighting in the past few decades, it was merely time before we would have UV LEDs in Insect Light Traps. 

At Pestroniks, we were the first UV LED Insect Light Trap manufacturers to launch such traps in 2020. We spent years researching how UV LEDs affect filth flies and have designed our FLYght traps for maximally attracting flies. In addition, our traps’ patented bio-Visual Enhancer (VE+) trap coating benefits the UV-A from LEDs to allure flies, like happens in wild carnivorous plants that draw insects for a meal.

Here is Pestroniks’ ultimate guide to help you choose the best UV LED Insect Light Trap in the market.

1. LED position determines a trap’s effectiveness: LEDs emit light very differently from fluorescent tubes, which were hitherto the choice of ILT makers. Pestroniks has carefully positioned the LEDs to ensure that FLYght traps unfailingly attract flies. 
2. LEDs should reduce power consumption: Our FLYght traps have only 8 LEDs that draw just 9 W of power-saving 72% over two fluorescent tubes of 30 W rating and 80% over three fluorescent tubes of 45 W rating. Can you imagine such huge savings in electricity expenses? You may find some ILT brands with so many UV LEDs that those traps are likely to generate no power savings when you compare them to fluorescent UV traps.
3. LED tubes versus LEDs: Some of the ILTs in the market have UV LED tubes making you wonder about the benefit of such an arrangement. In FLYght traps, we place UV LEDs individually, spacing them for the best trap UV-A output in conjunction with the bio-VE+ coating.
4. Attracting flies matters more than UV output: ILTs work by UV attracting flies, and in an era of UV fluorescent tubes, the higher a trap’s UV, the better it could lure flies. FLYght traps, we have focussed on just enough UV-A output to maximize the fly catch. We don’t claim to have LEDs that emit the most UV-A as we are focused on making our traps attract flies through trap design and our patented bio-VE technology.
5. Insect light traps can be attractive, too: FLYght traps are light yet sturdy, sleek, and compact but attract and trap flies like any effective ILT should and at times even better than conventional fluorescent tube traps. Our traps weigh under two kilograms but are sturdy in their aluminum shell. LEDs help us keep the FLYght design sleek and compact and even accommodate universal glue boards. The result of our design thinking has generated a trap that looks part of your interior décor, not a fly trap.
6. Trapping flies discreetly: Viewers may be surprised not seeing flies inside a FLYght trap as that is what we set out to design. We concealed FLYght’s glue boards to trap flies after entry, but the trapped flies remain out of sight of viewers near the trap.
7. Retaining tackiness of glueboards: The UV in ILTs affects the tackiness of glue in glue boards. Other ILT manufacturers suggest glue board change because glueboards in their traps are continually getting UV-A exposure and losing their fly trapping ability. You won’t face any such challenge in FLYght traps as we made sure that our traps’ glue boards don’t face the UV!
8. No annual light-source replacement: We give you FLYght traps with UV LEDs that last a long time or 50,000 hours! So, we don’t suggest you plan for any light source replacement for five years! No more hassle of planning fluorescent tube replacement or spending on it. Get a FLYght trap and switch it on to operate it efficiently over many years.
9. No more plastic sleeves on tubes or shatterproof tubes: We use inherently glass-free UV LEDs in our FLYght traps. When using FLYght traps, you don’t have to worry about getting plastic sleeved or shatterproof fluorescent tubes to contain glass in accidental breakage.
10. No more worrying about hazardous waste: Regular ILTs have fluorescent tubes, which you must dispose of annually and carefully because they contain heavy metals. FLYght UV LEDs are free of any toxic material, leaving you free from worrying about waste disposal from your ILTs.

We hope our suggestions helped you understand the UV LED technology of Insect Light Traps.

Please get in touch with us for help to choose and use UV LED ILTs.