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Shoo Fly, Shoo!
Weather in July and August in North Carolina can be capricious … dancing from gray rainy days to blistering heat to the perfect cloudy, breezy day. But there is one thing you can depend on … FLIES!
I suppose that flies have their place in the circle of life and all that. But, I’ve never even seen the most staunch members of PETA raising money or awareness to save their lives. We buy citronella candles and a myriad of spray. When we have a cover-dish barbecue, we really mean COVER YOUR DISH!!! But even then, the second you lift the cover to take a delicious spoonful, there is immediately a winged pest trying to get that first bite of potato salad. And then, of course, there is Alanis Morrissette’s perfect visual when there’s a “black fly in your chardonnay.”
Last week, my husband and I were traveling in Florida when we began to see the strangest
phenomenon at the homes of various friends we visited. Hanging on their doorways and decks, were Ziploc bags, half-filled with water. When we inquired as to their purpose, we were told that hanging a closed Ziploc bag, half-filled with water around the various entrances to you deck and house would rid the area of flies.
We were absolutely giddy on the drive back, anticipating the implementation of this low-tech solution. And guess what? It works!!!
We’ve done it at our house. Then we brazenly left the sliding glass doors open while we watched the British Open. No flies! Not wanting to keep all the excitement to ourselves, we gave our friends their own Ziploc bag to hang on their deck, one of our favorite places to hang out, spray bug spray and burn citronella candles. I was there for a couple hours last night and no flies!
So, enjoy your potato salad…and of course, your Chardonnay! You can thank me later.
Di appears Wednesdays on TriangleMom2Mom. Read more about Di on her blog Live and Let Di.
Live and Let Di
Diane is a TriangleMom2Mom featured blogger, appearing every Wednesday.
I try to be the voice of Moms with teens. My daughter Haley is 16. She's at that age where she is convinced that I know nothing. I'm thinking I'll seem a lot smarter when she's 22. We bond over Broadway shows. My son Rory is 13. He started reading the sports page when he was 5 and his passion for anything sports-related has grown ever since. This year he beat out 9 guys in their 40s to win his Fantasy Football League. Watch for him on ESPN in a few years.
My husband Hurley works from home, but travels quite a bit. When he's gone, I usually take a break from making dinner and cleaning the house. Oh, I don't do those things regularly when he's here either! Our parenting philosophy is "choose your battles." The only problem is that we often choose different battles. It keeps it interesting!!!
Diane appears Wednesdays on TriangleMom2Mom. Read more about Diane on her blog Live and Let Di.
Comments
That is absolutely bizarre.
I am totally intrigued and am going to to try this. Do you have any idea why this works?
I will be trying this. The flies are terrible at my house.
We've been using this method of keeping flies outside of our home for years. My husband's 90 year old aunt told us to also put a penny inside the bag. I guess for good luck? It works because we haven't had to hear the screen door slam for over 6 years. (2 boys, 9 & 11). But I would like to know why this works.
This comes from WikiAnswers:
The common house fly has a morbid fear of drowning and is somewhat clostraphobic [sic] so goes out of its way to avoid enclosed bodies of water.
And this comes from YahooAnswers:
because when flies near the bag they see a fly ten times bigger than they are and will not come near.
I like the latter explanation better than the former...and not just because they misspelled claustrophobic.
I like the explaination that it works because the flies are scared of the giant fly in the bag. Pretty funny!
Actually, I'm sure I saw a PETA campaign about flies being killed very slowly on that adhesive tape stuff. I hate flies and don't feel at all guilty about killing them.
Nyphi