Miscellany: A Mosquito Curtain

Our back porch faces a pretty sizable strip of undeveloped land, overrun with trees. It makes for a pretty view, but it also means that every summer, a swarm of mosquitoes and other bugs make their home out there. Since we have to cross the porch in order to get to our laundry room and back, the biting insects can make for some unpleasant laundry days.

Enter Mosquito Curtains, an alternative to expensive (and permanent) screening installations. You order the curtain (basically a big sheet of screening material), staple gun some velcro strips up, attach some marine snaps at the sides to secure it in the wind, and voila! - instant mosquito protection. My Dad and I handled the installation with a screwdriver, hammer, and staple gun, and it took about an hour - pretty simple.

Now, the curtain position isn't perfect - there are a couple small "holes" where there's space between the edge of the curtain and the wall. But mosquitoes are stupid fliers and it looks like the curtain's effective enough. The real test will be later on into the summer - last year the sheer volume of insects that swarmed was reminiscent of a horror movie.