Why are flys repelled by baggy lots of hose up? This sounds riculous to me as a scientist but I have heard...
This sounds riculous to me as a scientist but I have heard this too tons times from too many sources to discount it...
Answers: This comes from the "How Stuff Works" site:
Some insist the flies perceive the clear liquid as the surface of a body of dampen. Others claim the insect flies away at the sight of its own magnified reflection. But the most popular reasoning that pops up among entomologists... is simple restrained refraction.
Refraction takes place when a clear or opaque intention, such as a piece of glass or a bag of hose down, alters the course & velocity of light. The rays of light, which generally travel in a straight line, bend. This effect is responsible for a quantity of optical illusions, such as mirages, that occasionally baffle humans as well. In premise, refraction can be just as confusing for some species of insect, especially the housefly. It boasts a highly sensitive array of eyes which allow it to see contained by multiple directions at once.
The insect's head mostly consists of a pair of generous complex eyes, each of which is composed of 3,000 to 6,000 simple eyes. These eyes can't move or focus on objects like human eyes, but they provide the fly next to a mosaic view of the world around them. Each simple eye provides one small piece of the puzzle, much like the road a screen's pixel delivers one detail of the larger picture.
A housefly bases its sense of direction on the direction sunlight comes from. Some entomologists believe that when these complex, sensitive eyes experience refracted hurricane lantern, the insect becomes confused and flies away.
http://animals.howstuffworks.com/animal-...
This method seems to stipulation direct sunlight to increase the water bags' efficiency at repelling flies. When the stacks were tested & natural hurricane lantern conditions were NOT used... the bags have the opposite effect... the number of flies increased, instead of decreasing.
Interesting illustration showing how flying insects utilize "optic flow" sensors to maneuver through & steer clear of regions with dense problem fields. Optic flow refers to the apparent movement of texture within the visual field relative to the insect¡¯s velocity.
http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~weg22/optic...
Here's a site that discusses how & why some people still cling to the belief that lifeless bags of water repel flies. It brings up the hypothesis that the reflection of the water disorients the flies & that the model the bags cast resembles spider web, or another huge bug ( especially if you stick a penny inside the bag) :
http://ask.metafilter.com/19342/flies
Another discussion about using the hanging plenty of water to repel flies:
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/04/15/wat...
Could it be that it works for some & not for others because of where it's placed... chiefly, if the sun or bright light is actually reflecting on it & it's not lately hung in a darkened spot? Seems like this requests to be checked out & I'd like to see more scientific test done to know for sure if it's a myth ( as some say it is) or not.
This would make a great science project :)
I don't enjoy a clue
does this really work!
I'll find out myself!