CAN BAGS OF WATER REPEL FLIES? Finding: BUSTED Explanation: At one point, the most popular query on the MythBusters fan site was whether hanging bags of water around your property would shoo away flies. Theoretically, light refracted through bags of water would be amplified, confusing the flies' mosaic-like vision into seeing an enormous, bright obstacle instead of a water bag. To calm the buzzing masses, MythBusters Kari Byron, Tory Belleci and Grant Imahara got together 5,000 flies, some slabs of rotting meat and a clear bag of agua. To contain the rancid roast — and its insect-attracting protein, cadaverine — Tory built a box with three chambers: one for the flies and two for the meat, which were rigged so that once the flies entered, they couldn't exit. In one of those meat chambers, the MythBusters hung a water sack in front of the meat to see whether the wet stuff would cause the flies to shy away, and the plan was to weigh the dead carcasses at the end of the experimental trial to determine which chamber lured in more. After allowing the flies to flit around the box for a week, the MythBusters collected the dead flies imprisoned inside each meat chamber. The weigh-in decidedly busted the myth, with 1.2 ounces (35 grams) of flies left behind in the water-bag chamber, compared with .7 ounces (20 grams) of flies in the meat-only quarters. Perhaps fooling a fly isn't as easy as it might seem. As seen in "MythBusters: Bug Special"
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