A Salt Weapon

 

I crept slowly forward, keen eyes focused on my prey.  At first it didn’t even look up from what it was doing.  When it raised its gaze, I froze.  I knew if I moved the critter would be gone in a flash and I’d have to begin looking again, to start my hunt over from the very beginning.

It looked away.  Another step and I was almost in range.  I rechecked the gun.  It was cocked and ready.  Another step and I began to raise my weapon.  I aimed carefully and flicked off the safety, making a “Snick!”

With that tiny sound my quarry leaped into action, jumping into the air and flying away with a buzz of wings.

“It’s OK,” Patrick said.  “There’s a million more.  The barn is full of ‘em.”

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My son was right; the barn was full of flies buzzing around the droppings left by nesting barn swallows.  If we tired of shooting those we could kick over some scrap wood to see if we could scare up some roaches or, for more of a challenge, go after some dangerous game – wasps.  When we felt comfortable with our weapon we could move up to big game, trying for the big carpenter bees that were quietly gnawing holes in the barn’s beams and rafters.

After all, those bees were the main reason I’d invested nearly $45 in a new gun.

We-e-e-ell, that and fun.

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We were trying out my new Bug-A-Salt, which I’d purchased online from https://bugasalt.com.  As an experienced online buyer, I’d checked my favorite shopping places but, although I found the Bug-A-Salt available in several of them, none could beat the prices offered by the company that actually produces the bug killing machine.

The Bug-A-Salt shoots regular table salt but will digest other types of salt as long as you avoid anything too big.  Definitely avoid rock salt.  Keep that for making ice cream.  It just won’t shoot in the weapon.  I was using sea salt as the grains are a little bigger than regular table salt, making the ammo more likely to work on the carpenter bees that are slowly chewing their way through much of the lumber in our barn.

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When I was a kid, and later when all our sons were still at home, the natural drive for boys to destroy things helped to control the bee population.  Old tennis and badminton racquets or even a properly sized scrap of wood, flailed by a boys’ endless energy made short work of the bumblebees’ gentle cousin.

Gentle, yes, but destructive of anything made of wood.

Now that our youngest is 19 he stays busy with cars and college so it takes something novel to entice him to kill bees for me.

The Bug-A-Salt fits the bill nicely.

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Truthfully, it wasn’t designed, and isn’t even recommended for going after anything as big as the carpenter bee, and wasps are too dangerous for you to send your kids after, but the little people can have plenty of fun hunting other pests, like flies, small grasshoppers, and slugs.

Let me insert here that the box proclaims the weapon to be for adults only.

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The Bug-A-Salt works on the same principle as a BB gun, but it is made mostly of plastic, so salt won’t corrode it like it would your favorite Daisy bird-banger.  Plus, salt as ammunition is much less dangerous than the metal balls fired by BB guns…and it’s cheap.

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I lied at the beginning of this post when I said the noise of the safety scares bugs.  It doesn’t, and the sound of the gun actually firing is more of a thunk than a bang.  It didn’t even bother our most gunshy dogs.  I don’t think the chickens even noticed the sound when I shot a couple flies in their pen…at least at first.  They noticed quickly that the thunk was followed by falling foo-oo-ood!

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When deer season arrived Patrick and I put the Bug-a-Salt away so we could go after something bigger…and more appetizing.  We haven’t shot the Bug-A-Salt in a few months.  Deer season is over now and spring is here once more.  With warmer weather the bugs come out, so I’m sure there will be plenty of opportunities for us to exercise our bloodlust and kill some bugs.

We’ll be hunting with our own, legal, A-Salt weapon.

 

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