The mosquito lamp nobody has to remember to turn on.

A$19.95 buys a solar garden light with a UV mosquito lamp built into the same head. A three-position switch picks the job: ON1 is a plain white garden light, ON2 runs the purple UV lamp, OFF sits between them.

The UV lamp is tuned to a wavelength mosquitoes respond to, and it is deliberately dim, so it glows low in the garden bed instead of lighting up the yard. It sits over an electric grid, with an outer cage over the grid. For actual brightness, flick it to ON1.

The part nobody does any more

Quarter to eight on a January evening. Next door, someone is at the back step with a lighter and a coil, then walking the yard switching things on before the light goes. Over the fence, a row of Duskwatch lamps along the garden bed has already come on by itself, because the sun went down. Nobody touched them, and nobody will tomorrow.

A 2V/80mA solar panel on top charges it through the day. A light sensor switches it on at dusk and off in the morning. After a 4 to 6 hour charge it runs for at least 10 hours. No cord across the lawn, no power point, no timer to set.

Setting it up

Screw the head onto the tube and push the tube into the soil. That is the whole job, and it takes no tools. The housing is IP65-rated ABS, so it lives outside, rain and all.

Pick the 5 Pack

Five covers a normal backyard: the back steps, either side of the outdoor table, the side path and the bin corner. At A$94.95 it works out to A$18.99 a lamp, under the A$19.95 single. One lamp does a courtyard or a doorway. The 10 Pack (A$170.95) and the 20 Pack (A$197.95, which is A$9.90 a lamp) are for big blocks, acreage or a long run of garden beds.

Push them in once, before the first warm evening, and the yard looks after its own lights from then on.