That's the standard chemical repellent, not electronic - it just uses electricity for heat. The active ingredient of those is some type of pyrethroid, a substance first found in the chrysanthemum. It is a neurotoxin which only works on the nervous system of a certain type of insects, including mosquitoes and midges. It doesn't appear to work on other type of insects or arthropods like flies, fruit flies, moths, butterflies, and fortunately also bees and spiders seem not to be affected. Depending on the concentration of the pyrethroid in the air, it will affect the coordination of the mosquito and make it very difficult or impossible for them to bite you. When I have a mosquito plug active, I can often hear them flying - clumsily and erratically - around me, but they apparently can't attack me. It's for all the world as if they were drunk. In high enough concentration, it kills them outright. So it is really non-toxic to you and other mammalia whom you're likely to keep as pets. Whether it is totally harmless to you and your animals is a different matter - we simply don't know. So far, there are no indications of any harm. But it's still a good policy to use them at as low an intensity as you can, and only use them when you must. The reason why that lamp has a blink mode is not because "people want it", it's much more trivial and ridiculous: the vast majority of Chinese lamps use the same chip. Those chips absolutely flood the market, and are so cheaply made (and cheap) that they all have the same programming, whether the product requires it or not. You get full power mode, low intensity PWM-run mode, and a blinking mode which you have to cycle through. If you press and hold the switch, you usually also get an SOS-Mode and/or a strobe mode. There are variants, but apparently the Chinese manufacturers either don't care or don't know what they are, and they just buy the cheapest they can get at the time. The chips are so absolutely dirt-cheap that they're also used in applications where they make absolutely no sense, just as an On/Off switch, and sometimes they will try to sell the weird behaviour of the devices as a feature - or not mention it at all.
No problem, sorry for not memorising the specs for you! Appreciate the "some bloke" title. The fact I have the item in my hand and show it's function leans towards review status un my eyes, but hey can't please everyone.
