I have been told by one of my friends in USA that to prevent flies from being an area you just half fill a Ziplock bag with water and put some pennies in it seal it up and hang it were flies get into the house. Does this work? And also we don't actually have pennies here so would any other coin still work?
By Sharron from South Australia
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I have plastic bags hanging at both of my outside doors and no flies! Have not used any other coin but the penny, but the contrast color against the baggie and water is what gives it the "bug eye" look.
I have 3 of the bags hanging on my back porch. Although they haven't deterred 100% of the flies, it has made a HUGE difference. I am now thinking of putting them on my front porch as well.
Why not try a brown (or other dark color) button?
I don't know what purpose the coin serves. I fish a lot and I know of several bait shops in Texas and Arkansas that have open live bait vats and they swear by those hanging ziploc bags of water. I never noticed a coin in any of them, but lately I've heard of the coin addition, too.
Sharron, I'd be happy to mail you some pennies for you to try. Have ThriftyFun send me your mailing address. Several cousins have used this trick for years. I only found out about it about 6 years ago. And it does work. Good Luck,
I'd like to thank everyone for their input regarding my question. I will try the "plain water" version and also will try to put some different other coins in one or two to see what will happen - also, thank you to the kind lady who offered to send me some pennies.
The copper pennies keep the bags from getting algae. The pennies aren't necessary to keep the flies away. You just have to change the bag once the water starts getting green.
Just a bit of an update. I tried the water in the bag method but I think the flies were way to wiley to fall for that trick, we have been inundated with flies since the beginning of the warmer weather this year. They seem to be more aggressive too. Maybe my imagination so its back to the mortein or raid. Thanks again to all for your input.
Now this may be obvious to everyone but me, but how do you hang up a ziplock bag without puncturing it or ruining the "zipper"? -shoe
If you don't have pennies, just a little piece of or anything copper, perhaps a bracelet or chain?
Sarsi, I've been watching for a response to this question, but haven't seen one. I'm guessing either you hang it with a bulldog or binder clip (two types of spring-loaded paper clamps), or you run a needle & heavy thread through a couple of places just above the zipper, or, since you're only filling it half full, maybe you could run the needle and thread just below the zipper.
I just checked out the link, "Repel Houseflies with Bags of Water" (www.thriftyfun.com/
One of the replies suggested using one of those ?-shaped travel clothespins, so you can hang it on the door knob or wherever. Sounds good to me! I'd clip it below the zipper to keep it from sliding out of the clip.
I have been using this method for a few years. The theory is that the sun reflects off the shiny pennies and the water deflects the light rays into a pattern that the flies are afraid to go into. Anyway it works great for those awful greenhead flies that gather in the yard.
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