May 9, 2013 · 1:42 am
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Lesson 763 – Pennies in water

I wrote an article about catching flys for Community Chickens. One of the commenters left this response:

“Take a small cup or bowl and put a few pennies in it and fill with water. It is an old Amish trick. I have seen it used at an outdoor reunion on the tables, and no flies bothered a single thing. It just kept the flies away from the area. I keep one in my garage now”

And then another one added:

“This really works! I use a ziplock bag half filled with water and a couple pennies. You can hang it anywhere!”

Which is why this now sits on our picnic table.

2013-05-08_07-17-39_663Can’t hurt right?

When you have a few minutes, go to that post and read through the comments for some great advice on controlling flies in the coop.

***
Wendy Thomas writes about the lessons learned while raising children and chickens in New Hampshire. Contact her at Wendy@SimpleThrift.com

Also, join me on Facebook to find out more about the flock (children and chickens) and see some pretty funny chicken jokes, photos of tiny houses, and even a recipe or two.

 

 

5 Comments

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5 responses to “Lesson 763 – Pennies in water”

  1. Lisa
    May 9, 2013 at 12:37 pm

    Wendy,

    This email is going around. There’s no proof this works. Having lived in the South for 17+ years, I’ve never seen or  heard of this “trick”. I DID find this article on a garden site with a link to Scopes. Scopes didn’t call it True or False, it was Undetermined. 

    By the sounds of it, I would think flies would be attracted to the water. After all, a lot of flies and mosquitoes lay their eggs in water. The garden article spoke to a chicken farmer who tested this theory out and found out that, indeed, the room with the bags of water attracted MORE flies rather than repelling them, so I’d say this is busted. It’s a good post, worth a read.

    http://www.gardensalive.com/article.asp?ai=1004   (He links to the Snopes.com post too as follows.)

    http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/flies.asp

    Hope this helps!

    Lisa

    ________________________________

    Reply
  2. modestypress
    May 9, 2013 at 12:49 pm

    I am very skeptical. It would help convince me if there was some logical reason for the penny in water strategy working. Or results from well done testing, with and without. At least it’s cheap.

    Reply
  3. modestypress
    May 9, 2013 at 12:58 pm

    After a little web searching, apparently there are no definitive tests. http://www.gardensalive.com/article.asp?ai=1004 provides a reasonable summary of what research has been done. Perhaps it’s the old placebo effect rearing its ugly head once again.

    Reply
  4. Leanne O'Connell
    May 10, 2013 at 12:00 am

    At certain times of the year we get plenty of flies. I might give this a go. I’d love to know if it really works and if it does, especially WHY? How fascinating.

    Reply
  5. Chris MH
    October 24, 2023 at 9:30 pm

    The copper ions released by pennies has an anti-algae, anti-fungal effect on my chicken canteens for my flock of hens. Perfectly safe for the birds, and keeps the water clean and discourages “biofilm” in the drinking water. It really works: use 1982 and older pennies only since they are 95% copper. Newer pennies are 95% zinc and can poison the birds in excessive quantities.

    Perhaps there is something to this. Flies and mosquitoes are attracted to stagnant water that has biofilm. The copper ions in old pennies probably help keep bugs away by keeping the water clean.

    Reply

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