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