Stripy solution to f ly bites

PRIMITIVE tribes trying to avoid painful horsefly bites may have turned to zebras for inspiration.

Although the creature’s black and white stripes are thought to act as camouflage, research has shown that they also deter blood-sucking horseflies.

Scientists claim stripy body paint used by aboriginal Africans scatters light, making it harder for insects to see them.

To test this, they painted mannequins with stripes similar to the body art of tribal people – and found horseflies kept away, as with earlier tests on zebras.

The experiments were carried out in Hungary, where there are ‘numerous horsefly species’ in the summer months. The authors, from Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest, wrote in the Royal Society Journal: ‘The most striking striped mammals are zebras. Their striped pattern reduces attractiveness to horseflies as compared with both homogeneous dark and white/bright host animals.

‘Our brown human model was ten times more attractive to horseflies than the whitestriped model.

‘White-striped body aintings, such as those used by African and Australian people, may serve to deter horseflies.

‘This is an advantageous by-product of these body paintings that could lead to reduced irritation and disease transmission by these blood-sucking insects.’