Bug-A-Salt 2.0

The Bug-A-Salt is a pump-operated, salt-shooting gun made of heavy-duty plastic and designed to dispatch flies and other insectoid pests that invade our homes and infest our backyard barbecues. A bit pricey for a novelty item ($39.95 to $44.95 for version 2.0), but perhaps an ideal gift for the toy-loving person who has everything—including an instinctual urge to kill tiny creepy crawling and buzzing interlopers. Style-wise, the gun is a looker. It comes in bright yellow or military camo, both with bright-orange accented trigger, safety latch and muzzle, and it's dotted with fly silhouettes across decorative side panels. The clear-plastic salt reservoir holds a heaping tablespoon (which is about 50 shots' worth) of ammunition, so the amount of salt dispensed for each shot is fairly small and easily wiped up along with the carcass of your vanquished pest. The salt is ejected in a shotgun pattern, and I have taken down a full-grown housefly, a creepy brown spider and a stink bug, all from 2 to 3 feet away. An added bonus to the thrill of the hunt is that the small size of the salt grains cleanly kills the prey without the messy splatter associated with common fly-swatters.