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Mosquito War

I won

By Chandrea SimsPublished 3 years ago 3 min read
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What a great idea we had moving to the south from California. The prices on property were so reasonable that my husband and I decided to purchase a fixer upper and make it our home. One thing that made this house so appealing was the beautiful arched patio in the front of the house. We could sit outside and drink our morning coffee. Relax in the evening with a chilled glass of wine or just sit and take in God’s beautiful green creation. Well so we thought anyway, until we encountered the almighty Louisiana mosquitos. Maybe it was the new meat they were tasting that made them go crazy for that sweet California taste, but we could not sit outside no longer than one minute in the summer timer without being a morning snack. Something had to be done to get rid of those blood sucking mosquitoes because they were taking over, and we could not let them win.

When we first moved to the house, I came up with a few ideas on how to keep the mosquitos from coming into the house and one idea stood out from the rest. That idea was to put up a Mosquito Magnetic Screen Door and it did help to keep the mosquitoes from coming in. After seeing how well this idea worked, a light went on in my head. I came up with a way to enclose the patio using mosquito netting and incorporating four Mosquito Magnetic Screen Doors, because there were four openings in the patio, to keep the mosquitoes out.

I measured the area that I wanted to enclose and purchased mosquito netting, four Mosquito Magnetic Screen Doors, four 1-inch PVC pipes, and 8 yards of black Sunbrella fabric. I used this fabric because it is very humid in the south and this is a wonderful way to keep the fabric from molding. The first step I took in creating this project was attaching the doors to the netting. Which meant I had to pin it in place then hand stitch the magnet door to the netting fabric. This is an especially important part of the project. You cannot begin to sew on the machine until this step is complete because the netting will always slip out of place because it has a slight stretch. This process had to be done 4 times because of the four entrances to the patio. Then I had to cut the Sunbrella fabric into 6-inch strips and connect them together and fold over to sew along the top, bottom, and edge of project.

Next, I had to measure out three inches from the seam and sew a stitch all the way down for the PVC pipe. The black Sunbrella fabric I had already sewed on the edge, I folded it over and stitched all the way down to make a pocket for the PVC pipe. This helped to make them stay in place in case of a storm or high windy days. After I finished installing the PVC pipes, I had to staple the netting up along the boarder of the patio ceiling. Finally, I added 100 feet of small white Christmas lights around the upper boarder of the patio to give it a little extra touch. Also, because it is usually so dark outside at night. To make the lights stay in place I stapled them into place. Now we have a beautiful patio that we can go out and enjoy anytime of the day without getting eaten up by mosquitoes.

This was my biggest project ever it was very time consuming, but it was well worth the time and patience to get the job done right. Overall, I am excited to be able to sit outside with my husband, enjoying a cup of coffee or a chilled cup of wine and not being a lovely snack to the mosquitoes. I was determined to not let the mosquitoes win. And guess what! I won!

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