Why Wearing Striped Clothing Keeps Bugs Away
Maybe we should consider wearing striped clothing this summer, and here are some scientific reasons for doing so.
You may know that a zebra has stripes to hide and camouflage itself from their predators that see color like humans. Now there’s a new theory that claims the stripes keep bugs away because it confuses insects.
According to a new study published in PLoS ONE, Japanese scientists checked to see if a zebra’s stripes can help other animals with their biting bug problem. So they did what anyone would do, they painted white stripes on black cows, and then used high-tech camera equipment to see if the insects left the cows alone.
The results were nothing short of amazing. The cows that were painted like zebras had less than half the number of bites than non-painted ones.
This appears to be quite a discovery because not only are the bugs annoying to cows, but according to RealClearScience, biting flies cause over $2 billion worth of damage every year to the cattle industry. Being swarmed by biting flies stresses out the cows, which not only affects their milk production, but also causes them to sleep and eat less, and also bunch together, which causes anxiety that can cause them to accidentally injure each other.
The scientists hope that their findings will show that non-toxic paint could someday replace pesticides now used on livestock.
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