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Do flies hate/dislike Yellow Watermelon? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 months ago by Cock_Inspecting_Asexual@lemmy.world to c/askscience@lemmy.world

6 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I've noticed something interesting that I cant get an answer to online. Whenever I leave out watermelon in my house (After eating it of course. I cut slices from the melon so what gets left behind is the rind), it attracts lots of gnats and flies without failure. After cutting and eating a Yellow Watermelon for the first time and then leaving it out, There wasn't a single fly that cared for it, it was never swarmed or landed on or fed upon. it just sat there for a day or so before I finally threw it out.

Why is this?? Repeating this same scenario always gives me the same output. The flies aren't attracted to the Yellow Melon, Why?

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[–] otter@lemmy.ca 20 points 2 months ago (2 children)

https://news.ufl.edu/archive/2012/02/color-is-key-in-controlling-flies-uf-researchers-find.html

A key to making the device effective was the discovery that flies are three times more attracted to the color blue than to yellow and that yellow actually seemed to repel flies.

Well TIL, maybe it's the color?

My original guess was that red watermelons are more common and so flies have evolved to crave it. You could also try with other fruits and report back 😄

[–] Octospider@lemmy.one 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I have wonder if this is applicable to mosquitos as well. If so, time to buy some yellow clothing.

[–] Fermion@feddit.nl 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Does anyone sell yellow floodlights?

[–] AscendantSquid@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

High pressure sodium bulbs put out orange yellow light that has a low CRI, so anything they illuminate looks orangey yellow

[–] evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

I've read that red variants of veggies like cabbage get less attacked by caterpillars, and anecdotally, it seems to be true. It makes sense that insects would be evolved to target the more "natural" color.