Shock-Lock

The last few weeks, I've been having a huge problem with insect infiltration. These weird bugs that look something like either a very small black wasp or a very large winged ant keep swarming over my tile kitchen floor. Which is odd, because there's no food on my kitchen floor. I sweep it daily. Yet every morning, I walk in in the kitchen and find about 40 of the damned things cavorting all over the tiled portion of the floor. Which was why I'd previously posted that MFD'd (and self-deleted) idea for using long-neck lighters to burn the bastards. Yet despite the fact that I kill every one I can catch, a few always manage to get their bearings at the last moment and fly away.

Except they don't just fly. I've seen them crawl in through the door whenever I open it to pass through, sometimes even crawling through a small gap in the doorjamb even when it's closed. I've got hanging bug-zappers, and boy do they work fine for flying bugs! But there's really no defense available for crawling pests. My neighbor's been complaining about a similar problem with beatles.

So I got to thinking about how high-tech laboratories with sterile environments use airlocks to keep pests out. Well that's not really an option for me, because I don't want to have to wait to cycle the airlock everytime I come and go. Which is a shame, really, because a narrow airlock between the outer storm door and the inner solid door would be really neat! But Baked. *sigh* What's a Baker to do?

Well, 21-st Century Quest Engineering has the answer! Introducing the electrified doorframe! People and pets step over and through in safety, while bugs crawl to their shocking deaths! It consists of a vinyl doorframe with 6 electrified wires running parallel to each other, a few milimeters apart, like ant-sized railroad tracks, only narrower. And each wire forms a complete, unbroken loop around the entire doorframe. When a buggy bastard attempts to crawl over it, and bridges the gap between 2 wires... ZAP!!! The door itself, it's perfectly safe to grab onto, being insulated from the frame. A raised wood or rubber lip around the outer and inner edges of the electrified part should keep you from accidentally brushing against it while passing through.

Self-cleaning version periodically superheats and vibrates to remove debris from the wires, and a pressurized air manifold blows it all outside.