Thursday, June 19, 2014

Boat Hatch Mosquito Screen

It always amazes me that mosquitoes can find me even when we anchor our boat in salt water quite a distance from shore. The little beasties make their way to dine on my exposed parts. I must be one of the one in ten who are highly attractive. Even worse than their bite is the incessant buzzing.

WebMD.com says only the females bite. Blood is needed to develop fertile eggs. And to make sure they can find what they need, female mosquitoes can smell their target from 50 metres away. That's a whopping 164 feet. No wonder they can find me. But once they zero in, Wayne is the unlucky co-recipient of their attention.

Our Bayliner 2452 has screens on the windows, but on a hot summer night it's nice to open the forward hatch to get some air flow going. I went to the hardware store and got some fiberglass screen and the craft store for some sticky back Velcro. With those two items and some Gorilla Glue, I fashioned a custom hatch screen.

I chose sticky back Velcro because it's easier to use than sew-on.  To make sure it adhered to the porous screen, I added Gorilla Glue between the two sides. Rather than clamping it, we used body weight to set the glue.

Because the ceiling of the boat is covered with carpet, only the hook side was actually needed. I went ahead used the loop side to enclose both sides of the screen.


Now with a screen covering the open hatch, maybe we can outsmart most of the mosquitoes looking for a midnight snack. -- Margy

6 comments:

  1. Smart use of the back side of Velcro!

    I think I'll copy your idea to make a sun screen for Laurie's side window in the car; his suction-cup thingy keeps falling off, and doesn't allow me to open the window.

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  2. And I've added this to my Pinterest.

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  3. How creative you are! Well done!
    (ツ) from Cottage Country Ontario , ON, Canada!

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  4. Very clever of you to come up with that idea. Thanks for that interesting tip.

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  5. Clever clever idea. I like the body weight clamps.

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  6. Susannah - Glad I could spark an idea. I think of you and Laurie often as we pass through Vancouver. - Margy

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We welcome your comments and questions. - Wayne and Margy