It seems like everyone's sick, but if you're not, can you protect yourself from the germs out there?

Plenty of gadgets offer to kill germs in your home. We wanted to know if they worked. So we asked mom Tricia Caputo, who is very concerned about her children's health.

"It's something that is extremely important to me," she told us.

The first gadget Caputo tried is a wand. You simply scan a surface and germs are gone, according to advertising. The wand uses UV light to kill bacteria.

We took it to the lab and asked microbiologist Dr. Philip Tierno to check it out. When he used the wand over E. coli bacteria, he was disappointed with the results.

"The bottom line is killing germs with a wand or any UV source depends on the doses of the UV light, the distance of the uv light from the area you want to de-germ…the amount of time you want to apply, because you need a certain amount of time for it to be effective," Dr. Tierno told us.

Caputo next tried out the Vicks germ free warm mist humidifier. It's supposed to kill bacteria, mold and spores in the water.

"It held a lot of water, so you could actually keep it on for a couple days which was very helpful," Tricia Caputo said.

And... our expert says it works too!

"I think it's a good idea to have some capacity in your humidifier to prevent germs from accumulating in a biofilm," Tierno told us.

Next up, a mini-vacuum that claims to clean up dirt and sanitize the air using nanotechnology-- tiny silver particles in the holding cup.

Tricia liked it. And when Dr. Tierno tested the holding cup for bacteria after a week of use, he did find fewer live bacteria than would be found in a traditional sanitizer.

Bottom line: are these gadgets worth it? Dr. Tierno said it really depends on how expensive the items are.

The manufacturer of the mini UV wand sent their test results that show the product is 99% effective against salmonella bacteria. We had tested it on E. coli.

There is no word whether these gadgets kill cold or flu viruses.