With the royal strawberry patch being in full swing for 11 hours a day for 6 days of each of the last 4 weeks, the doors to the palace have been opened a lot more than usual. With the palace located on a farm with a lot of "organic matter" upon which insects thrive, said insects tend to venture into the palace. It did not help that I left the door open while we installed the new royal clothes dryer!  So, the common housefly has been a very unwelcome guest in the palace.


With my fly swatter in hand, I declared war on the little buggers. I thought I was fighting a losing battle. I knew that with the in-and-out traffic pattern, I would never win. Then I remembered a simple little trick:



A Bag of Water!!!! Just plain 'ole straight-from-the-tap water. Nothing fancy. I taped a bag to each of our storm doors ... high enough that the prince and princess can't play with it.

I remembered that the ladies at church did this when they were having a "doin's" that involved outside cooking. I thought it was peculiar, so I asked. They said it kept the flies out.

I've heard two schools of thought on how it works: 1) the refracted sunlight confuses the fly's sense of direction, and 2) it weights the door so it closes more quickly. I don't know which, if either, is accurate, but it works for me. For more things that work for folks check out the listings at Works for Me Wednesday.

The grass is green. It is good to be The Cow Queen.

date Wednesday, May 19, 2010

7 comments to “Works for Me Wednesday -- Fly Repellant”

  1. Brandi
    May 19, 2010 at 8:41 AM

    Great tip. I will have to try--I hate flies and they seem to hang out just waiting for my kids to open the door!!!!

  1. Emily T. Thomas
    May 19, 2010 at 11:26 AM

    I need to do this - Living on a farm with 4 boys has put me in the midst of FLY Central!!
    Thanks1

  1. DeeAnna
    May 19, 2010 at 12:25 PM

    What?! I hope this works!! I can't wait to try it. Every August our front rooms looks like "Amityville Horror"!

  1. Queen Beverly
    May 19, 2010 at 3:19 PM

    The first day that I had to bag up, I did not see an increase in the in-house fly population. When I closed the windows that night, there must have been 50 flies on the outside of one window screen. I was amazed!

  1. Debbie
    May 22, 2010 at 3:38 PM

    I've heard this. I don't think it has anything to do with the speed of the door closing, as I know people don't specifically hang it over their door. My husband says guys in his army unit would hang it over their beds - supposedly it magnifies the fly's reflection, so it thinks it's looking at some humongous fly, and it runs away. Go figure. In any case, you don't have to limit yourself to the door.

  1. Elizabeth
    May 26, 2010 at 7:17 PM

    REALLY!? That is too trippy!

  1. Beth in NC
    June 27, 2010 at 6:15 AM

    I heard the same thing as Debbie. We have people in our community that hang them from ropes around their shelters, etc ...

    I am going to try it on my door to see how it works. I've never tried it. You must have used some seriously strong duct tape or something.

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