Review & Giveaway: ThermaCELL Patio Lantern

Where we live this Summer, we have totally been invaded by mosquitoes and large flies. We have to be careful every time we open the door and go out on the deck, or they sneak in! It's been such a royal pain. I purchased fly tapes - those were a disaster. I caught a few mosquitoes and like two flies. LOL All I managed to do was get those tapes tangled into other things. The fly traps worked pretty well, but that helped with the flies, and not the mosquitoes. Sigh! I'm tired of being meat for the mosquitoes - they seem to love me! I just want them gone!

So I was excited to try out the ThermaCELL Patio Lantern. It's a cute little black lantern that doesn't look out of place sitting on my deck, and it gives me a double bang as it repels both mosquitoes AND black flies! It has a nice little handle so I can either hang it, or I can set it down on the railing or a small table. It actually provides up to 225 square feet of repellency, so anywhere on my deck is safe. (Even better, it covers a big chunk of the campsite when we go camping!) Here's what it looks like:


It uses four AA batteries, which provides up to 200 hours of light on a low setting, and up to 150 hours on high - this means even if you're not battling the bugs on a cooler evening, you still can use it for ambiance lighting. The great part about it being just AA batteries is you can use rechargeable batteries, and not some obscure tiny little battery.

The ThermaCELL patio lantern also uses small "mats" to help ward off the mosquitoes, along with a butane cartridge. The mat, which lasts about four hours, goes into the top of the lantern, while the butane cartridge slides into the lantern itself. I was concerned this would take awhile to set up, but DH had it ready to go in several minutes. The butane cartridge lasts about 12 hours. What I liked about the mats is that they turn from a pale blue to a white when it's time to change them - although for most people, you'll probably go through one of those mats an evening unless you're having a lengthy get-together. You do have to wait for the lantern to cool off before switching out the mats, though, but it doesn't take that long.

While we had this on during the evening, I managed to walk away bite free, which made me totally happy. I didn't notice any bugs hanging around where we were sitting. Of course, the butane is flammable, so you have to be careful where you put it (keep it away from the grill or any open flame), but it was nice to not have to resort again to using bug spray on my skin! Thanks to the handle, it's also easy to move around with you if you are moving from one spot to another in your yard or deck, too.

According to the box, the lantern (minus any used mats or the butane cartridge) is recyclable if your community takes that kind of plastic. Since you can use it as just a lantern though, and not just a bug killer, you'd probably want to hang on to it thought as an emergency light, or just a nice lamp on the patio. Refills of both the butane and the mats are available, and you can purchase them at places like Target, Walmart, and Fred Meyer. I'll definitely be picking up some extras, and this will be coming along on our next camping trip!

Check out Thermacell's website for other styles - especially if you hunt or fish - and don't forget the Thermacell Facebook page at www.facebook.com/thermacellbackyard for sales and new product notices. Now through July 31st, you can receive free shipping on orders of $40 or more using promo code BUGFREE at checkout!

Win it! Thanks to ThermaCELL, one lucky reader is going to win a Patio Lantern just like the one I received! To enter, head on over to ThermaCELL's Facebook page and "like" them (per sponsor's request), then come back here and tell us if the mosquitoes think you're the perfect bug food buffet or not (lol)

As always, you can receive extra entries for:

-Subscribing to my feed OR following my blog
-Blogging about this giveaway with a link back
-Tweeting about this giveaway 1X (leave the link in your comment below or @psychotichouse)
Win a ThermaCELL patio lantern http://bit.ly/raw0Xa ends 8/6 @psychotichouse

That's four (4) possible entries! Giveaway ends August 6th at 11:59 PM PST, and please leave your email address in your entry or have it available in your profile. US only, sorry :( Good luck everyone!! :)

I received the product mentioned above in order to try it out and share my thoughts on it. All opinions are my own. One winner will receive the prize stated above, as fulfilled by the giveaway sponsor.