Bag 'o water frightens away flies - at least in Miami
Last month I got a call from my buddy, Keith Briggs, who lives down in Miami. He said that his neighbor had a plastic bag of water hanging from the eave of his house.
Being the curious type, Keith went to investigate and was told that the bag helped scare away flies. Yeah right, thought Keith, but then his neighbor performed a simple experiment.
He removed the bag of water and brought out a bucket of stinky oyster shells. Within minutes the bucket was swarming with flies. The clear-plastic bag of water was brought back out and hung from the edge of the roof about 15 ft. from the bucket. According to Keith, it took less than a minute for the flies to disappear.
Keith repeated the experiment in his own backyard using a pan of smelly fish skin. He held the bag of water near the pan and within a few minutes the flies took off and didn't return.
No one knows for sure where this practice started or why it works. Perhaps the flies' compound eyes are somehow affected by the sunlight refracting through the water and they perceive it as a threat.
Keith's neighbor first saw this trick being used outside a Cuban cafe. Internet searches turned up little additional information, except that the practice of using bags of water to frighten away flies may have begun in Mexico or South America.
Regardless of why it works or where it began, this low-tech, nontoxic method does seem to be effective at keeping flies at bay.
Posted by Joseph Truini | Categories: Yard & Garden | Permalink
(7) Comments
my girlriend smells really bad and always attracts flies where ever she goes - do you think little tiny bags of water used as earrings would work?
Mack, it just might... But better yet, have her use the water in bath form, throw some soap at her, and just for good measure, follow her around with some fly strips, just in case.. Good Luck!
Some friends were using this method to scare away yellow jackets. Within a half hour of arriving at their house for a barbecue (and I wasn't wearing any meat or fish) one of the little buggers stung me, and my arm swelled up like a dead salmon. I carry epinephrine now, but no bags of water.
Hey Betty, sorry to hear about the yellowjacket sting; hornets are much more territorial than flies. From what I've heard from my friends in Miami, the bag 'o water only works on flies, not bees or mosquitoes--unfortunately.
There is a BBQ joint here in MS that hangs the bags of water as well and I always wondered what that was about. In addition, they add a penny to each bag. Any idea what that is about?
The urban legend is that the bag of water appears to be a spider web and the penny a spider.
I think the hanging bag of water appears as a hornets nest to flies. Hornets will go after flies.