Neatorama reader Darren Barefoot noticed there are a lot of water bottles positioned on the sidewalk, flush to the wall in front of homes in Malta.
Apparently, they serve a peculiar purpose: to discourage wayward dogs from peeing on the spot!
Does anyone know whether this actually works? Link – Thanks Darren!
Andrea
Water bottles are a greek-albanese tradition and they serve to discourage cats from peeing in the street. Ciao!
A
the Asocial Ape
it’d encourage my dog bunny. she pees on everything when we’re on a walk in a new place, and having a ‘thing’ there – stick, plant, old tire, _water bottle_ would just give her a target.
da kine
You see the same thing in Hawaii, I was always told that it kept the cats out of the yard, something about the way the light reflected off of the water in the bottles scared them.
nok rap
It doesn’t work.
BTW, in Brazil, there’s a myth that putting water bottles on your electric meter will make them more efficient and save you money.
If you go through the slums and poorer areas especially, there will be two or three water bottles balanced on top of the meter.
romain
Japanese people are also placing a lot of water bottles in the tiny space between houses. However my japanese friends could no tell me if this actually worked.
J Keizer
I’ve heard of people hanging clear bags of water over their doors to keep flies out, but this is a first for me.
Miss Curly
Great, so instead of just dog pee, now it’s dog pee and plastic water bottles everywhere. Just beautiful!
when's lunch?
i’ve seen people hang ziploc bags of water over doors to prevent flies from entering. loosely related… but not sure if same concept works or not.
Pola
We use them in Italy, too. apparently for the same reason the other people wrote but I have strong doubts they work.
hc
If I leave an open bottle of water on the floor for too long, one of my cats will inevitably put his paw in the top and pull the whole thing over, then frolic in the puddle.
Philipe
My cousing in Brazil tested it with flyes. And awsome, it works pretty well! We are in a place with many flyes and when he put a tranparent bag with water pending of ceiling, in less than two minutes the flyes gone away.
I can´t explain why, but just work. With dogs i think it will not work.
Thinking about, i suppose the reazon to a bag of water work with flyes. The flyes have an excellent olfative system. May be the water smell can occlude and confund the food (trash, or anything else) smell in air. Without the smell or pheromon enough in air, the flyes tend to ampliate the area of seek food, and they gone away of the water bag perimeter.
I dont know if is right, but appear to be a good theoric explanation.
Dave
If you leave a water bottle on top of your car in Argentina, it will cause the car to go away because it means it’s for sale.
FFFish
Hung paper bags keeps wasps away: they don’t like to have hives beside one another. I suspect it would also keep a number of wasp prey species away, too. Evolution wouldn’t be favouring those flies that come too close to a wasp nest!
FFFish
c/Hung paper bags keeps/A hung paper bag, shaped to look like a nest, keeps/
kthxbye.
lonny
Sure, those bottles might stop dogs from peeing on the street, but they don’t discourage me from peeing on those same streets
El Chile Grande
the plastic bags need to be filled with water and vinegar to keep the flies away, I use them when I BBQ and it works
solo
I think we got the purpose wrong.
It actually keeps the polar bears away. And for those who think “duh! there’s no polar bear in Malta!”, I would say: “Well exactly, it works!”
Claire
This water bottle thing is an Aprils Fools joke originating in New Zealand. Well over 25 years ago (on Aprils Fools Day remember) two professional gardeners were on the radio giving gardening tips. Whether it was a planned joke or not, they started saying a plastic bottle of water on front lawns will stop dogs pooing there. And LO! – the next day there were a few bottles on lawns. Then, over the next while, many bottles and so on. Then a year or so later the hoax jumped the Tasman Sea to Australia. After that the two gardeners decided to say it was all a joke. I haven’t seen a water bottle on a NZ lawn for many years but am incredulous they are around the world.
Holly
Apparently this was originally a radio hoax for April Fools Day.
People have believed it ever since, and (obviously) still do it.
It went right around the world. I’m in New Zealand, and you still see some people here with water bottles on their front lawn.
Áine
Well guys I have to say it works. Two tom cats had been pooing on my lawn since last summer (around 9 months) until a friend arrived from Japan who said: ‘bottles of water’. I scattered a few about, certain it wouldn’t work, but it’s been ages now, fantastic! Apparently it’s common knowledge in Devon also (‘cats won’t walk near water’).
I couldn’t speak for dogs..
Syl
I have been told that it only works with clear bottles of water. When the dog sees his reflection he thinks it is another dog and will not pee there because he thinks it is another dogs territory. Since dogs don’t go around looking at themselves in mirrors, like people they have no idea they’re looking at themselves.
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