This weekend I was at my parents’ house saying my goodbyes when I noticed a bag of water randomly hanging in the air, attached to a piece of string, which itself was tied to the roof of their porch, just above the front door of the house. ¿Pa qué es eso? I immediately inquired. From what I could tell, the plastic bag was completely clear like the bags of plastic they used to serve our cokes in when we were kids in Mexico. You know, so you wouldn’t have to return the envases. And the water itself was completely clear. There was nothing at all mixed in there with it.
I was dumbfounded.
My shock became even stronger when my mother told me what this bag of water was for. Apparently, the bag of water hanging in the air like that is a natural fly- and mosquito-repellent. Yup, como escuchaste. Then I noticed there weren’t any mosquitoes around at all, where normally we would be swatting them away before getting in our truck to go home. Could this little bag of water actually work? How does it work?! And who came up with this genius idea?
My mind was going a mile a minute.
Me dormi anoche asking those very questions. And today I did a lot of online research about the hanging bags of water and what they are for. Turns out, at least according to the internet, these bags of water actually do work… by confusing mosquitoes away from them and the areas they are in. No way! That’s pretty awesome! In fact, these little bags of water are pretty common across Latin America.
Which, desde luego, makes me think THANK GOODNESS FOR LATINO INGENUITY!!
Give them a try. Let me know what you think.