Why Are There Bottles of Water in Front of Houses & Doors in Italy and Spain?

During your vacation to either Spain or Italy, you probably saw the strange habit some of the locals have: they put plastic bottles with water in front of their doors, in front of the walls of their property, on the window sills and even in front of the plant pots.

So why are these water bottles placed like this? The answer will probably surprise you – it sure surprised me when I found out!

The reason why you can see bottles of water in front of the houses in Spain and Italy is to prevent pets or stray cats and dogs from peeing in the area. This also happens in other countries, like Japan.

This works because the light reflected by the water in the bottles apparently scares them or at least makes them uncomfortable, so they won’t mark that territory.

I’ve spent a month in Valencia and the practice wasn’t as widespread, but I alway wondered why those bottles are there (never thought THIS was the answer).

We all know that our furry friends simply love to mark their territory by peeing and they don’t really care if it’s someone’s door or wall or even a pot with basil or other spices that people tend to grow in these warm Mediterranean countires.

Not only that the smell is extremely unpleasant – especially if it’s a popular area for pets – but the urine of pets can cause health issues.

So people will place these bottles of water in front of the areas they want to protect. That is because it appears that both cats and dogs will be disturbed by the light reflecting in these bottles and as a result they will avoid the area and not mark the territory.

I personally heard that these bottles of water also help keeping mosquitoes and flies away for the same reason, and you will usually see some coins thrown into the bottles to increase the reflection rate of the light. Pretty clever, if you ask me!

It’s definitely an interesting habit, but it seems to help since so many people are doing it. I’ve even seen some placing water bottles near the wheels of their vehicles – and always wondered why.

Well, now I know and you know too: it’s a sort of a homemade shield against peeing dogs and cats. Who would’ve thought?

But now I wonder what happens during the night, when there’s no sun to reflect in the water… Well, probably it’s still better than nothing.

Now, to keep in trend with the uncommon, why not continue reading about Scorpions in Croatia – I didn’t know they were a thing until we found one in our home!