Your Fly is Down!

Ha. See what I did there with the funny pun for a title?

Seriously, though--I'm here to update you on how that experiment with the bay leaves turned out.



We already had a box of fresh bay leaves from Whole Foods in our fridge. Since we were out of dried ones, and since the fresh ones were prettier anyway, I used those. They were on stalks, with several leaves to a stalk, so I just looped some thread around them and hung them in the kitchen windows.

I also scattered the upper window ledges with cinnamon and sage, just for good measure. 

Verdict? Well, at first I wasn't impressed. The flies diminished, sure, but that could have just been because I scared them away when I went to put things in the window.

But, the bay leaves in the window were pretty, so I was willing to leave them there experimentally and see what happened?

By the end of day 1, the number of flies was cut in half. I held my peace, just in case it was a fluke.

By the end of day 2, there were one or two flies hanging around. Mr. Scrimp killed them.

By the end of day 3? No flies at all. And since then, we've been fly-free in our house (they were mainly in the kitchen, as I mentioned). No fly paper, no poison, no extra expenditure and next to no effort. Color me  impressed. Bay leaves are going to be hanging in my kitchen every summer from now on.