New pest control gadgets are dropping left and right this year. But today, let’s talk about a product that’s still crushing it over a decade after launch. Just last month, it moved 10,000+ units on Amazon alone. Hard to believe, but the founder of Bug-A-Salt, Lorenzo, was an eighth-grade dropout. And he turned an out-there idea into a best-selling toy gun designed to kill flies with salt.
Here’s the quick lowdown:
- Product: Salt-spraying fly gun
- Founder: Lorenzo Maggiore
- Average Price: $50
- Units Sold: 7 million+
- Competitors: Still none to this day
- Where to Buy: BugASalt, Amazon, eBay
Now, let’s step into the story from Lorenzo’s first-person perspective:
An Idea I Couldn’t Shake
When I was a kid, I used to pour salt or sand down the barrel of a BB gun and shoot at a big picture window. I dropped out of school at 16, moved to Oxnard, got into surfing, and picked up a wallpapering job. Working for myself is great, and weirdly, I found peace in lining up wallpaper edges just right.
Then one day, my sister signed me up for an art class. Suddenly, that wild idea popped back: Why not make a gun that shoots salt at flies? So, I went to a local machine shop and built the first prototype. I painted it and drew some eyes on it. It looked rough, but it worked. I also tried pitching it. Nothing landed. But the idea was too good. I couldn’t let it go. Six years later, I finally got the chance to make it happen — in China.
Maxed Out Credit Card for a Prototype
To build a legit prototype, I went all in. I dumped the $70,000 I’d earned from wallpaper hanging business into the project, maxed out my credit cards, and started pitching anyone who would listen. Through a friend, I landed a $30,000 check from an angel investor.
So I took my crude prototype to Shenzhen, China, and managed to find a toy manufacturer willing to help develop it into something real. We worked side-by-side for two months—and finally, we had it. A commercial-grade, mass-producible prototype.
But I still needed money to actually make the thing. And truth be told… I had zero plans on how to sell it. A friend suggested crowdfunding—Kickstarter, specifically. “You’ll raise money and get early customers at the same time,” he said. So I shot a ridiculous, slow-motion-packed video showing off the carnage this little salt gun could cause. It was hilarious.
Kickstarter rejected it. They probably thought I was joking, or it was a prank. But I didn’t stop. I turned to Indiegogo instead. A few weeks in… boom. The video started blowing up. Views doubled every hour. Before long, we had over 3.5 million views. Orders started pouring in. I was aiming to raise $15,000 and produce 7,000 units. I ended up raising $577,000.
Where Do We Manufacture?
Our entire production chain, from prototyping to الإنتاج الضخم, has always been in China. If we tried to build this in the U.S., the costs would’ve been five times higher. I was excited when we kicked off our first production run. As a founder, nothing beats that feeling of holding your very first product, knowing it’s finally going out to real customers. I spent those months on the ground in China, inspecting the first full batch, working with the factory, and managing logistics including air shipments and customs clearance.
While the factory was wrapping up final packaging, they flew over 12 finished samples so we could prep marketing ahead of launch. Those early units were gold. We used them for content, testing, everything.
I always felt the pressure to get quality right. And when you’re scaling, consistency is everything. That’s why I flew to China more than once to personally make sure everything was on point.
During the Bug-A-Salt 3.0 rollout, our manufacturer switched to a new factory, and that change came with unexpected problems. Over 10% of the units had defects. That’s huge. It was like we suddenly had bugs in our bug killer. Just two or three weeks after launch, I had to stop production and pour time and money into fixing the issue.
We Almost Got Banned Everywhere
In the beginning, we made a mistake: we forgot to limit our crowdfunding campaign to the U.S. We had no idea a platform like Indiegogo could gain that much traction internationally. Turns out, Bug-A-Salt is technically a projectile device. And no matter how harmless it seems—yes, it only shoots salt. But anything that shoots something gets flagged in many countries.
We ended up with over 3,000 international orders we couldn’t legally ship. That tied up nearly 10–12% of our early funds. We had no choice but to give our backers some options:
- Request a full refund
- Hang tight while we figured out a solution
- Or have the product shipped to a U.S. address and forward it themselves
And that was just the start. Even within the U.S., we hit roadblocks—Amazon restricted sales in certain states, classifying Bug-A-Salt as a “projectile weapon.” If we wanted to scale this thing globally, we had to get serious about compliance and logistics. So, we started running proper tests—checking muzzle velocity, safety standards, and everything regulators care about.
We shipped 400 test units to a Canadian partner for evaluation and explored alternative shipping options like FedEx FIMS air mail. To dig into the import regulations of markets like the UK, Mexico, and Germany. We also reached out to trusted local resellers who could help us navigate customs, certifications, and compliance on the ground.
Fast forward to today: Bug-A-Salt is shipping to nearly most countries on the map. We’ve built a network of authorized resellers and logistics channels worldwide.
Why Fewer Products Sold More
From version 1.0 to 3.0, Bug-A-Salt wasn’t just putting on new designs. We constantly looked for ways to make it better, adding a cross-bolt safety, refining the internal springs, and introducing a Partridge-style front sight so people could actually aim at flies, not just blast wildly.
In humid places like Florida, salt tends to clump and clog the firing pin. We worked closely with our Chinese suppliers to fine-tune every part, including the injection molds. We even included easy-cleaning instructions in the manual to make sure users could fix jams fast and get back to blasting.
Our product line is tight, expanding only when it really makes sense. Like Widow Maker 3.5, inspired by sniper rifles, aimed at bigger bugs like black widows.
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