Junior Member
Registered: 04-17-07 | You've all heard the expression, "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar." That may work fine with human relationships, but I think it's pure bunk. My mother has a large collection of overgrown houseplants and overripe fruit, and consequently has a large infestation of fruitfiles at her home. On a recent visit, I figured I'd catch some of them by putting out a plate of honey and covering it with a loose tent of plastic wrap. After several hours, one solitary fly had dropped into the honey, and none of the others seemed remotely interested. The same day, I decided to clean some calcium deposits off of my mom's fridge, and got out a bottle of white wine vinegar. The flies flocked to the bottle as soon as I cracked it open. Noting the different response, and remembering the old expression, I set out one plate of honey and another of vinegar. The vinegar plate caught fruit flies at least 50:1 over the honey. Maybe houseflies would have a different response, or maybe I was using the wrong kind of honey, but I think the myth is busted! |
Senior Member
Registered: 12-16-07 |  "Idiocracy" is a documentary sent to us from the future. |
Senior Member
Registered: 05-22-06 | quote: Originally posted by aaronhill1:
You've all heard the expression, "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar." That may work fine with human relationships, but I think it's pure bunk. My mother has a large collection of overgrown houseplants and overripe fruit, and consequently has a large infestation of fruitfiles at her home. On a recent visit, I figured I'd catch some of them by putting out a plate of honey and covering it with a loose tent of plastic wrap. After several hours, one solitary fly had dropped into the honey, and none of the others seemed remotely interested. The same day, I decided to clean some calcium deposits off of my mom's fridge, and got out a bottle of white wine vinegar. The flies flocked to the bottle as soon as I cracked it open. Noting the different response, and remembering the old expression, I set out one plate of honey and another of vinegar. The vinegar plate caught fruit flies at least 50:1 over the honey. Maybe houseflies would have a different response, or maybe I was using the wrong kind of honey, but I think the myth is busted!
You haven't busted anything 'coz it was never a myth to begin with. It's a figure of speech, much different than a myth. Everyone (present company obviously excepted) knows the difference between a figure of speech and a myth. |
Junior Member
Registered: 10-24-08 | I don't believe Mythbusters use quite so stringent a deffinition of the term "myth", judging from what they have tested so far. |
Senior Member
Registered: 01-02-08 | Vinegar is used to repel flies!
So you really can catch flies better with something that attracts flies instead of something that respells them! |
Junior Member
Registered: 02-20-08 | Just wanted to add another post saying they should test this one. Should be easy, although as xkcd points out they might want to try with different types of flies too. http://xkcd.com/357/ |
Senior Member
Registered: 12-16-07 | quote: Originally posted by lauraemcb:
Just wanted to add another post saying they should test this one...
Well here's a vote against it. It's a metaphor. It means you'll get better results being nice to people vs. being rude. |
Junior Member
Registered: 02-02-09 | I'd like to see it on Mythbusters... if you're after fruit flies, AKA Vinegar Flies, you will get more of those with Vinegar. Honey will attract bees, not flies. |
Junior Member
Registered: 04-25-09 | I'm for testing this myth. And even if it is a metaphor instead of a myth, Mythbusters has done figures of speech before. "A rolling stone catches no moss." |
Junior Member
Registered: 09-06-06 | I too would like to see this done.  |
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