With the UK basking in a proper scorcher, most of us are doing everything we can to stay cool – windows wide open, fans on full blast, and maybe even the odd ice lolly or two. But as we throw open our homes to let in the breeze, we also end up inviting some rather annoying guests: houseflies.
It’s not just the constant buzzing that gets on your nerves. Flies are far from harmless – they carry bacteria from all sorts of grim places and can transfer them to your food, your kitchen surfaces, and anything they land on, reported the Mirror.
But there’s a surprisingly simple trick that’s been doing the rounds – and the best part is, it costs next to nothing. All you need are a few coins, some zip-lock plastic bags, and water. According to The Express, this old-school fly hack is making a comeback, and people swear by it.
Here’s what you do: fill the zip-lock bags with water, pop in a couple of pennies, seal them up, and then hang the bags near open windows and doors. It sounds strange, but there’s some science behind it.
According to howstuffworks.com, the reflections from the water and coins mess with a fly’s vision. Their eyes are incredibly sensitive to changes in light – they’re made up of thousands of tiny lenses – and when the light hits the water just right, it refracts and creates visual chaos for the insects.
“Flies have many small lenses in their eyes that are sensitive to light changes, and the distorted light from the bag is thought to disrupt their vision,” the site explains.
It’s all down to something called light refraction. When rays of light pass through a clear object, like a bag of water, they bend and scatter – a bit like a mirage on a hot road. That might not faze us too much, but for a housefly with 3,000 to 6,000 lenses in each eye, it’s sensory overload.
Some people add tin foil flakes to the bag, while others just use pennies – but the end result seems to be the same. Most who try it say flies simply stay away.
So if your kitchen’s starting to feel like a fly airport, this clever little DIY trick might just be the summer solution you never knew you needed.
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