Old Fashioned Pest Prevention: Water-filled ziplock bags

If you’ve ever been out in the country and seen bags of water with pennies in them hanging from the eaves of a porch, then you’ll know what I’m talking about.  They look like the remenants of some strange hillbilly ritual, accidentally left behind by the cleanup crew from the night before.  If you’ve never seen them before, you haven’t been going to the right places.  Long used by people in the South, these water-filled bags actually serve a purpose.  When they are hung from the eaves of a porch, the sun hits the bags and distorts the light, which confuses the fly, causing it to avoid the area.  Sometimes you will see pennies in the bags, and sometimes the bags contain only water.  Both methods seem to work, though some people will argue that penny makes the bags more effective.  It may look strange, but this is an all natural way to keep the bugs away when you’re trying to sit out on the front porch!