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A comment on Body-painting protects against bloodsucking insects.

Re:Body-painting protects against bloodsucking insects by Nomentatus on Sunday January 20, 2019 @04:48PM (#18955812)
Wasps (and to a lesser extent flies) also remember how they came into a room, and can get back out quickly: imitate a bat with a hand (flickering fingers back and forth) and they usually zoom right back outside the way they came in. In evolutionary terms, they've entered a cave, and caves have bats: so they have an exit strategy ready to hand.
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Re:Body-painting protects against bloodsucking insects by Aardwolf on Sunday January 20, 2019 @05:18PM (#18955982)
Except if the room has a tilted open window. It comes in through the window, but never discovers how to escape anymore from it since it keeps trying to fly towards the outside light through the glass rather than going up a bit and flying through the actual open gap.

At least that's my experience, and of course that's quite annoying behavior when you'd rather have it go outside the house!

But maybe I should try this "bat signal" next time :)

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Re:Body-painting protects against bloodsucking insects by Nomentatus on Wednesday January 23, 2019 @02:16PM (#18981611)
Another instance of Wittgenstein's bottle, or a typical aboriginal fish trap.
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Re:Body-painting protects against bloodsucking insects by keithnz on Sunday January 20, 2019 @06:01PM (#18956181)
careful, the bat signal should only be used when Gotham is in danger!
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Re:Body-painting protects against bloodsucking insects by rossdavidh on Sunday January 20, 2019 @08:44PM (#18956908)
You know, if Batman were keeping tsetse flies and mosquitoes at bay, he would save a lot more lives, really.
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Re:Body-painting protects against bloodsucking insects by emiliobumachar on Monday January 21, 2019 @04:17AM (#18958934)
> imitate a bat with a hand (flickering fingers back and forth)

Could anyone describe this in more detail, or link a video? My web- searching has failed ne.

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Re:Body-painting protects against bloodsucking insects by tsukikage on Monday January 21, 2019 @06:15AM (#18959541)
I, too, wish to know how to make wasps leave the premises with some hand motions
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Re:Body-painting protects against bloodsucking insects by mcv on Monday January 21, 2019 @11:21AM (#18961337)
You make it sound like a magic Repel Insects spell.
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Re:Body-painting protects against bloodsucking insects by emiliobumachar on Monday January 21, 2019 @12:27PM (#18961853)
Sufficiently advanced technology.
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Re:Body-painting protects against bloodsucking insects by Nomentatus on Monday January 21, 2019 @06:04PM (#18964459)
This comment applies so profoundly to the original article, doesn't it - the body painting was too advanced for European understanding, so it was taken to be magic in the useless, mere superstition sense of that term. Not quite what Mr. A. C. Clarke meant to point to, but it fills out the meaning behind his point and buttresses it, in my mind.
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Re:Body-painting protects against bloodsucking insects by Nomentatus on Monday January 21, 2019 @10:57AM (#18961163)
Wiggle your fingers up and down, as independently (of each other's motion) as possible.
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