"Uncle Vic" <address@withheld.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9963C8D5EB57Fvicman@216.196.97.142...

One fine day in alt.atheism, Elroy Willis <elroywillis@swbell.net>
bloodied us up with this:

Happy 4th!

While visiting family this week, I was introduced to two current
remedies and possible urban legends which were passed on to me, both
of which revolve around picnics and summer gatherings, which I
attended.

The first is the use of vitamin B1 to ward off mosquitoes. The people
who claimed it works say that if you take a vitamin B1 tablet every
day, after a week or so, mosquito's won't bother or bite you.

The second is the hanging of a plastic bag half-filled with water to
ward off flies around the area of the picnic or patio. Hanging a few
of these bags from the underside of the eves or on tree branches is
supposed to scare flies away.

In both cases, the people I met swear by them, and said that even
if it's proven there's no scientific reason for those things to work,
they'll keep doing them, because it works for them...

I Googled around and read several articles about both topics, and
found all kinds of anecdotal support for them, but didn't find any
actual concrete scientific reasons why they might work, and wondered
if anybody around here has found good scientific proof/reasons why
they work.

The closest I came is that Thiamine in vitamin B1 is somehow offensive
to mosquitoes. If you take enough B1 for a week or more, the smell of
the thiamine supposedly excretes through your skin pores, and
the female mosquitoes which bite can sense it somehow, and stay away
when they smell it.

I can attest to the fact that an excess of vitamins can do a reverse
osmosis through the skin. A friend in college used to megadose vitamins,
and he gave me a bag of his usual morning dose, which I swallowed with
some water. By the middle of my second class a red glow exited my
sleeves and marched down my arms. From comments by other students, the
same was happening above my collar. Niacin was an active part of the
cocktail...

As for the flies and the water-filled bags, it seems that the flies
see their reflection in the bag and think a bigger fly is around, and
they fly off, afraid. It sounds hokey to me, but what other
explanation could there be for it to work?

I would add a bunch of sugar to the water, and spray it with some Raid or
something, and poke some big holes in the top, above the water line. Let
them enjoy a feast while they fade away, then just throw the bag away.
But if I was a fly, given the choice I'd prefer the potato salad.

I was going to comment that I recently used a fly killing product while
camping since our campsite had a good many flies. It was basically a
plastic bag with a pop out top that had a few holes. It had dry stuff at
the bottom and you just added water up to a marked line. It worked
somewhat in that it caught and killed some flies, but nothing like I would
have hoped for. I don't know what exactly was in it, but I might try to
rig up a couple homemade traps like you describe above. We'll be back at
the same campsite in a month or so.



--
Aloha, G-Ride

The force that's forcing you to feel like busting up a Starbucks.

Uncle Vic <address@withheld.com> wrote in message

One fine day in alt.atheism, Elroy Willis <elroywillis@swbell.net>

As for the flies and the water-filled bags, it seems that the flies
see their reflection in the bag and think a bigger fly is around, and
they fly off, afraid. It sounds hokey to me, but what other
explanation could there be for it to work?

I would add a bunch of sugar to the water, and spray it with some Raid or
something, and poke some big holes in the top, above the water line. Let
them enjoy a feast while they fade away, then just throw the bag away.
But if I was a fly, given the choice I'd prefer the potato salad.

I was going to comment that I recently used a fly killing product while
camping since our campsite had a good many flies. It was basically a
plastic bag with a pop out top that had a few holes. It had dry stuff at
the bottom and you just added water up to a marked line. It worked somewhat
in that it caught and killed some flies, but nothing like I would have hoped
for. I don't know what exactly was in it, but I might try to rig up a
couple homemade traps like you describe above. We'll be back at the same
campsite in a month or so.

Uncle Vic <address@withheld.com> wrote in alt.atheism

One fine day in alt.atheism, Elroy Willis <elroywillis@swbell.net>

As for the flies and the water-filled bags, it seems that the flies
see their reflection in the bag and think a bigger fly is around,
and they fly off, afraid. It sounds hokey to me, but what other
explanation could there be for it to work?

I would add a bunch of sugar to the water, and spray it with some
Raid or something, and poke some big holes in the top, above the
water line. Let them enjoy a feast while they fade away, then just
throw the bag away. But if I was a fly, given the choice I'd prefer
the potato salad.

One version of the remedy suggests adding a few pennies into the
plastic bag to make it more effective...

I notice that both of these have been submitted to the MythBusters
TV show for review, and I hope to see them try to verify/debunk
them, but wondered if anybody around here has any personal
experience with either of them. Anybody?

I'd like to see the results of that.

I'm gonna try some home tests here.

What's the best food to attract a huge amount of flies?