To scare birds away?

I believe it is a way to collect Earwigs

it also stops you poking your eye out, when you bend down to smell them

Thanks for the replies - we've just bought a house with a garden that has several mugs suspended on sticks over what I think might be poppy plants and I wondered what their purpose was.

If they're to collect earwigs, there'd be straw or something similar in them, then you shake them out somewhere (far away!) in the morning.

.....or possibly a peice of installation art?!

Nothing very artistic about suspended mugs over plants Sid, but then again....who was it that made a fortune with the sheep in formaldyhyde.....;o)

to keep the birds off your plants, you can also use plastic bottles on canes and also old empty plant pots

I used CDs for a while until my neighbour complained they were reflecting flashes of light into his house!!