Artist builds salt-blasting shotgun to hunt flies

By Earnest Cavalli Published July 23, 2012

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Imagine you’re sitting on your deck, enjoying a cool evening and a well-earned, relaxing cigar. Everything is peaceful and serene until you detect a faint buzzing. It grows louder and louder, just as a huge horsefly buzzes right by your ear. You duck away, sneer and reach for the fly swatter. After five minutes of increasingly frustrated swinging, you finally connect, crushing the fly and ending your misery. The deed is done and you can now go back to enjoying the evening, but chasing that dumb fly totally ruined the mellow relaxation you were experiencing before the insect decided to start bugging you. If only there were an entertaining, effective way to ward off pests like this.

Thanks to artist Lorenzo Maggiore there is.

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In an effort to make bug hunting more appealing Maggiore has created the “BugASalt.” Effectively, the device is a shotgun that fires concentrated bursts of table salt. This isn’t enough mass to hurt a person (or rip through a plastic bag, as the below pitch video demonstrates), but to a fly that hail of Morton’s is as effective as a blast of hot lead. More importantly though, since the BugASalt doesn’t rely on gunpowder (like a real shotgun) or any chemicals you don’t already eat on a regular basis it doesn’t feature the dangerous toxic side effects of those bug-killing spray cans. Unless you jammed the thing point blank into your eye and pulled the trigger, you could spend all day being shot by it and walk away unharmed (though we’re not to be held responsible if someone figures out how to decapitate themselves with a BugASalt).

Though Maggiore’s pitch video is lacking a certain amount of production quality, it seems to have become a hit among ‘net denizens. The artist had hoped to raise a meager $15,000 via IndieGoGo to help fund the creation of the BugASalt for the general public, but with 49 days left in the fundraising drive the project has already raised $61,622. Maggiore has not established what he’ll do with the extra cash, but those of you itching to own your very own fly killing salt blaster can visit the official BugASalt page to pre-order one for $30. Unfortunately the site doesn’t specify when you’ll receive your gun, so it might also be wise to join the BugASalt mailing list to keep tabs on things.

Topics

Emerging Tech

Earnest Cavalli

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Earnest Cavalli has been writing about games, tech and digital culture since 2005 for outlets including Wired, Joystiq…

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