Insect attracting and eliminating device
AssigneeHelen of Troy Limited
InventorMichael Singleton
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An insect elimination device has an outer grid with an inner grid disposed within the outer grid. A voltage source powers the inner grid, the outer grid or both. A warming tube is disposed within the inner grid and provides a thermal lure. A UV light source is disposed within the warming tube to provide a first optical lure. A control circuit controls the duty cycle, which is greater than 0% and less than 100%, of the UV light source while the voltage source is powering the elimination zone of the inner grid and the outer grid to keep the thermal lure within a predetermined temperature range.
Claims20
An insect attracting device comprising:
- an outer grid;
- an inner grid disposed at least partially within the outer grid, wherein a spacing between the outer grid and the inner grid corresponds to the elimination zone;
- a voltage source powering at least one of the inner grid and the outer grid;
- a thermal lure disposed in a predetermined position in relation to the elimination zone, the thermal lure disposed at least partially within the inner grid or the outer grid;
- a first optical lure disposed in relation to the elimination zone and thermally coupled to the thermal lure;
- a second optical lure that is different from the first optical lure;
- and
- a control circuit to control the first optical lure to thereby control a temperature of the thermal lure, and the control circuit maintains the second optical lure in an on state during a period of time that the first optical lure is cycled to an off state.
A method for attracting an insect comprising:
- utilizing a first optical lure to lure the insect towards an electrically charged surface charged by a voltage source;
- utilizing a secondary optical lure that is different from the first optical lure to further lure the insect towards the electrically charged surface;
- warming a thermal lure to further lure the insect towards the electrically charged surface;
- controlling a duty cycle of the first optical lure to maintain the thermal lure within a predefined temperature range;
- and
- maintaining the second optical lure in an on state during a period of time that the first optical lure is cycled to an off state.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.