#280 2023 · Dulux Indonesia (with INNOCEAN Indonesia) · Public health / paint & coatingsattack-invisible-cost
A paint company kept flies off school food by repainting the tables, not spraying the flies
the problem
Standard fly control (spraying, traps, netting) requires ongoing chemical use around food, adds cost and maintenance, and does nothing to change whether flies want to land there in the first place
background
In Indonesia's hot, humid climate, houseflies land freely on open school-canteen food, carrying pathogens responsible for diseases including typhoid, cholera and diarrhoea — a serious public-health problem in settings that can't afford enclosed, air-conditioned dining. The standard response is chemical: insecticide spraying, sticky traps, or netting, all of which require ongoing application, cost, and maintenance around food surfaces, and none of which address whether flies are drawn to the surface at all.
Dulux Indonesia and INNOCEAN ran a simple on-ground experiment — identical food placed on two otherwise identical tables, one painted bright yellow and one left unpainted — and found flies consistently avoided the yellow surface. The finding lines up with peer-reviewed entomology on housefly (Musca domestica) vision: laboratory studies published in the Journal of Medical Entomology found houseflies are actively repelled by yellow visual targets even though their eyes register the color, while being attracted to blue — the opposite of the 'yellow sticky trap' association most people have with insects generally.
the move
Rather than add a chemical or mechanical fly-control layer to unchanged canteen furniture, Dulux repainted canteen tables, benches and walls yellow — turning an existing, unavoidable surface (the furniture itself) into the fly deterrent, with zero ongoing spraying, trapping, or chemical exposure near food.
the payoff
The pilot experiment confirmed yellow's fly-repelling effect on canteen surfaces, prompting a wider rollout to additional schools; more than five thousand students had eaten in yellow-painted canteens within two months of launch, with no chemical fly control needed in those spaces.
what came after
Project Yellow Canteen is cited in public-health and design-marketing coverage as an example of solving a health-and-safety problem through material and color choice rather than an added chemical or mechanical intervention, and the color-based approach requires no consumable inputs or recurring cost once the paint is applied.
filed under
references
- [1]LSN Global — Project Yellow Canteen uses yellow paint to repel fliesLSN Global, 2023lsnglobal.com
- [2]Journal of Medical Entomology (Oxford Academic) — Behavioral and Physiological Response of Musca domestica to Colored Visual TargetsJournal of Medical Entomology, 2012academic.oup.com