Visit a taco kiosk on the streets of Mexico and you’re sure to see a plastic bag full of water hanging from the ceiling.
It’s a traditional way to scare flies away and is used in most of the food markets in urban Mexico. Light is refracted by the water, the colours and movements of the bag are amplified and the fly is confused and flies away.
It’s a sustainable, environmentally-friendly pest repellant suitable for use around food, that doesn’t harm the flies – just keeps them away from your tacos.
Jose de la O has simply taken this ingenuous idea and made it beautiful. (Below is the first iteration of the design, created in 2008.)
José de la O is a Mexican-born, Netherlands-based designer who is focused on creating a collection of products inspired by sustainability and cultural ingenuity.
He has recently been recognized by Architectural Digest Mexico as one of the country’s top ten young designers.
Our trip to Milan was supported in part by Airbnb.com.
Janet on 05.09.2012 at 18:45 PM
It would be interesting to see how this would work in a dairy barn.
lON on 05.10.2012 at 11:18 AM
I have no idea how long ago or how I found out about this particular method. However, the method I found, and have used successfully for more than 30 years is a plastic bag, several marbles, preferably light colored, and water. I vaguely remember a fly has something like 8,000 fractured lenses and the dispersal of light rays tend to make them stay away. Of course, you always have that nincompoop that defies the norm, but, one a day is not always that bad.
BTW, I live in a jungle. It works.