Somewhere in Nueva Ecija, townsfolks dangle clear plastic bags filled with water in their windows to ward off flies. It obviously doesn’t work; even the local people I asked about the practice admitted as much. It somehow reminds me of a rural belief allegedly propagated by a UPLB professor that homosexuality is a product of pesticides. In short, Martial Law babies like me turned out to be gay because of Masagana rice. I really can’t explain why the notion persists.
Going back to plastic bags with water, I think I can offer several explanations:
The first one is from the Wile E. Cayote syndrome. Wile E. Cayote is, of course, the other half in the Roadrunner and Wile E. Cayote tandem. He is a fanatic and would resort to everything just to get the utterly monosyllabic Roadrunner (Beep beep). He would employ various ACME devices, deploy ACME gadgets and explosives, lay down elaborate traps, and still he keeps on failing to catch the rather quick bird.
Anyway, the Wile E. Cayote syndrome (or WECS) states that we all have a little Wile E. Cayote in our hearts. Some pesticides – natural and artificial – can kill some houseflies, but not all of them. So some folks just have to be ingenuous: they hang plastic bags with water and pray that with sheer luck and with a little help from gravity the bags would fall and squash the hapless housefly innocently taking a quick rest just below our simple folks’ weapon of choice.
My second theory involves an idea that I harbored since childhood, which in retrospect is admittedly a little sick. I am scared of dogs. I was bitten by what seemed to be a friendly canine when I was still in pre-school. I wanted to pet it, but it bit me instead.
I believe, or rather used to believe, that the best way to ward off dogs is to get a puppy, boil it, and apply the broth to your body – just like a lotion – to repel dogs. Of course I never implemented this idea, but I honestly believed that dogs would find the scent of the cooked puppy repugnant. I think I began to dismiss the idea when I saw a dog eating adobong aso. But it still might work with houseflies – so all it takes is to catch some flies, boil them, put the cooled broth in plastic bags. Hang the bags in windows to prevent flies from entering your house. (Let me warn you, though, that when applied to humans this formula is completely illegal and that animals, too, have rights).
The last theory is based on one of the Baguio jokes that was taken seriously. The joke supposedly explains that the reason why flies and mosquitos are rare in Baguio City is that in cooler places they find it hard to fly because have to wear heavy sweaters or jackets. Thus, they’d rather stay in hot nd humid Manila.
Anyway, the plastic bags were actually cooling devices, at least in their previous state. They were actually – or formerly – the yelo (from the Spanish word hielo) that you could easily buy for one peso in your suking tindahan. People would hang them in windows to 1. cool one’s house and 2. warn houseflies that the house that they are about to enter is cold. Since we were at the heart of a rural community and buying yelo is difficult, they hang plastic bags with clear water instead, hoping that it would be enough to fool the common housefly.
Send me an email if you have other theories.
Wow, very nice theories. I-add mo yung mga in-email sa yo ng iba. I’d love to hear them. ;^)
I think they intermixed flies and gamugamo (or even possibly mosquitoes).
You know how, during the months when there are a lot of gamugamo, you would put a pan of water under the light so that the light reflected off the water would attract them and they would go swimming instead of buzzing around you? Well, linear thinking here, what works for one flying pest might work for the other as well.
Now, if they mistook flies for mosquitoes …well that would be more interesting. A mosquito flies by looking for a stagnant water to lay her eggs. She sees the bag of water and heads there. She either dies trying to get to the water through this invisble barrier or if she does pierce the bag through, she dies from the deluge that follows. I can just imagine hearing a *pop* sound and thinking to myself there goes another mosquito! Haha.
If they didn’t have their flying pests mixed up, well…. the only other explanation I can think of that, that plastic bag can kill of a fly is during the day time. Think of it, the sun hits the bag of water, which then refracts the sun’s rays and concentrates it to beam of light. Its pratically like a “Death Star” (from the movie star wars) flying overhead of the flies. Admittedly, the chances of it actually hitting and burning a fly to death is slim, but theoretically that beam could start a fire, burn the house and kill off the flies. I know, its a bit of an overkill, but as they say, shock and awe.
Very interesting concept and just think of all the brain power poeple use just to kill a fly. Do you think they can make a process to implement honesty to Filipino politicians?
sick dog! eating adobong aso!
hey tony,
i like your theories. if it is perfectly acceptable to burn the house to kill the rat, why the heck can’t we do the same to exterminate flies?
i’ll add you in my blogroll, is that ok? how’s singapore?
hello christian,
how i wish i could hang plastic bags filled with water around the House of Representatives to shoo away trapos. If it works, the only problem would be the quorum.
i’ll donate a couple of HUMONGUOS plastic bags, if that is what it takes to shoo them off…if it works can we also hang some in the senate???
Sure, add away, not that I post anything interesting anyway.
Well you know how Singapore is….the government always has their way and nothing ever really changes here much. I think they even control the weather….. If I could, I would have flown home just to experience Milenyo.