# Cotton Balls



## Graybeard (Jul 13, 2014)

How many remember the old folks hanging a cotton ball on the screen door? My wife and I were talking about that and wondered what good it did.

Google searching brings up some pretty crazy stuff. Anyone else remember that?

Graybeard


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## ripjack13 (Jul 13, 2014)

never heard of it till now.....might have to try it out...


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## Wildthings (Jul 13, 2014)

Yeah I remember when I was about 15 I went with my girlfriend to her grandmother's place up in Madisonville, TX. Stayed in her old wood frame house with those gas burning heaters in each room. It was early winter and I slept out on the screen-in back porch on a down mattress with heavy quilts on it. I thought I would freeze to death but turned out it was some of the best sleeping I've every done. You just kinda sink down into a hole in that mattress and then it gets warmed up. There was these white fluffing things hanging on the screen door on the outside. Never did ask what they were for. Many years later I thought about them and found out - fresh picked cotton bolls to keep the flies away. Apparently they worked back in the mid 60s!!! Or maybe cuz it was so dang cold then!!

Reactions: Like 1


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## Nature Man (Jul 13, 2014)

Never heard about the magic of cotton balls. Raised in Washington State. Could this be a regional thing? Chuck


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## JR Custom Calls (Jul 13, 2014)

I would guess this is a farming country thing... so the south and midwest will probably have more folks that remember it. Can't say that I've ever seen it, but I have heard my papaw mention cotton balls and hedge apples as old school insect control.


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## DavidDobbs (Jul 14, 2014)

We had cotton on the screen but it was to fill holes so the bugs didn't get it.


Dave

Reactions: Like 1


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