To Paint the Porch Ceiling Blue

The couple of times we have been at the house we have had LOTS and LOTS of wasps trying to nest in the corners of the ceiling of the front porch and the back Lanai.

Last year when the contractor went up to fix the roof he was attacked by wasps.

I'm sure part of it is because there was no one there - to them it was a nice, quiet place to call home.

But it isn't anymore.

In many HGTV episodes people have mentioned that if you paint the ceiling of your porch blue, bugs think that it is the sky, where birds could easily catch them and they fly for cover...or something like that.

photo from this site

I was kind of torn between wanting to believe it and thinking that bugs would never fly out in the open if they were afraid of the sky.

So I did a little bit of research and this is what I found out.

Way back, some people believed that if you painted the porch ceiling a soft blue-green color it would keep Haints, restless spirits, away. The color was actually called Haint Blue.

Then there was an article that mentions that back in the day, when they first started painting porch ceilings blue, people used milk paints and in most cases lye was mixed into the paint.

That explains a lot. Lye is known as an insect repellent and THAT's why bugs would avoid spending time and building nests on the porch ceiling, lamps or ledges. You also have to know that milk paint fades over time...and it gets painted over with more milk paint = more lye. It was like a new treatment with every coat of paint.

So I guess, when we redo the back lanai (it has a poor slope), we'll be painting the ceiling with milk paint (I might have to research if lye may cause a health hazard for humans - I'll keep  you posted).

....and now you know the rest of the story!

Aloha a Hui Hou!