Mercury Vapour Equipment & Spares

[PuerNux at aol.com]

To all those cheap moth enthusiasts out there, I recently purchased a wall-mount type 175 watt MV lamp from Home Depot on sale for about 23$ all told (unfrosted bulb included!). With the aid of an amateur carpenter, I mounted it, upside down, inside a wooden box of scrap wood pieces, 15"w x 17"l x 12"d. I closed up the top with aluminum screening ($5.95 plus tax for a big sheet) to leave only the mount of the light above the top of the box. Finally I hooked up a three-prong plug to the internal wiring (we had a spare one, but they only cost a few bucks at any hardware store) and plugged it in with an extension cord in my backyard. It is portable, weighs less than 20lbs, and cost me less than 40$ for equipment. 

That beats spending $200 at Bioquip et al for the same amount of firepower (their bulbs alone cost nearly 20$). Like any other MV lamp, mine cannot be used in the rain because of its inverted nature (thus somewhat exposed internal wiring beneath the reflector and metal screening), but it does not overhead the wood it is mounted on, and can be put anywhere. And I don't even have to worry about wind blowing it down since it sits on the ground. It works great and attracts all sorts of moths (and other creatures of the night) I never knew I had in my own backyard.

-Eric Hossler

 
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