RealClearScience runs a story of Japanese researchers who painted white zebra stripes on black cattle and discovered the cattle were significantly less bothered by biting flies. Their inspiration for this attempt was a study showing zebras apparently experience the same partial relief from biting flies naturally.
The researchers theorize the stripes confuse the insects’ targeting instincts in some fashion. I’d be concerned some chemical in the paint might have undiscovered fly-repelling properties. A way to check this would be to paint entire cows white and see if they also experienced less fly infestation.
I’m reminded of the “dazzle” camouflage painted on navy ships in World War I and somewhat in WW II. It had the supposed effect of breaking up the recognizable silhouette of the ship, and, I guess, would have worked better if people were insects. It’s no longer used, every navy paints warships a uniform light-to-medium “battleship gray.”
