It’s a well-known (and somewhat accepted) fact that the trade-off for glorious summer is pests: Mosquitoes and moths come in through the screen door, fruit flies swarm over berries in the kitchen, and your rustic cottage rental may come with a few mice. Luckily, there are a few well-designed tools to help keep unwanted creatures at bay. Stock these five things in your arsenal for a (mostly) pest-free summer and beyond.
Above: The Handblown Glass Flycatcher is an artful solution for catching summertime flies; it’s 550 SEK from Artilleriet. For more, see Unlikely Object of Desire: A Glass Flycatcher from Sweden. Above: A staple for the summerhouse: a trusty fly swatter. The Leather Fly Swatter is both good-looking and durable; it’s $18 from Schoolhouse. Hay offers a similar design. Above: An alternative to the unsightly (and cruel) snap mousetrap: The Humane Mousetrap, available for £12.90 from Farmer Brothers in the UK, is made of beechwood and a copper basket. After being captured, varmints can be released outside via a sprung gate. (“Release mice at least one kilometer away, so they don’t return,” they advise.) Above: The Anti-Fly Sphere by De La O ($85) is as artful as it is effective: Made in Mexico City of borosilicate glass, it’s an upgrade on the water-filled bags that hang from Mexican food stands to reflect light (thereby scaring away flies). Above: The Hanging Citronella Coil from Fredericks & Mae is a well-designed deterrent for pesky mosquitoes. It’s available in small/tan, $18, and large/black, $40. Bonus: We also like these Flyaway Sticks by NYC-based Madison James, available via Terrain. Dipped in essential oils that “repel unwanted guests,” they’re stored in a bag sewn by the Kentucky Amish.
When you register as a free Member of the Remodelista family of websites (Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home), you gain access to all current posts plus 10 archived posts per month, our internal bookmarking tool, and the community bulletin board.
Access 10 archived posts (older than one year) per month on each site
Use of our internal bookmark tool, so you can save products, posts, and other pages for quick reference
Access to our community bulletin board so you can ask and answer design-related questions
Unlimited access to the Product Catalogs, Design Travel sources, and Architect & Designer Directory listings
Choose from our ten newsletters to keep up with the latest on the sites
Or Subscribe for Maximum Value!
For $5/month ($59.99 paid annually) you'll enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home and all the benefits of Membership.
Annual subscribers pay 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
×
Subscribe to the Remodelista family of websites
For $5/month ($59.99 paid annually) you'll enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home and all the benefits of Membership.
Annual subscribers pay 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
×
Sorry! As a registered member you get 10 free posts from our archive (posts more than a year old) every 30 days. You have reached your limit for this 30-day period. If you would like to access unlimited posts from the archive (ad free, too), become a subscriber today, and keep reading as many articles as you want.
Full Access Individual Subscription
Benefits include:
Unlimited access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home sites
Ad-free browsing environment
Unrestricted access to 30,000+ archived posts
Receive the full-text daily newsletters
All features that Members have access to
Annual subscribers pay just 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
Sorry! You have reached your limit of three (3) free posts from our archive every 30 days. You can increase this to 10 posts by joining as a free Member, or read unlimited posts with no ads by becoming a paid Subscriber.
Subscribe to the Remodelista family of websites
For $5/month ($59.99 paid annually) you'll enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home and all the benefits of Membership.
Annual subscribers pay 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
Become a Member at no charge
When you register as a free Member of the Remodelista family of websites (Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home), you gain access to all current posts plus 10 archived posts per month, our internal bookmarking tool, and the community bulletin board.
Congratulations on becoming a Subscriber to Remodelista, Gardenista and The Organized Home! You now have access to many great features across the sites:
Unlimited access to all three sites
Ad-free browsing environment
Unrestricted access to 30,000+ archived posts
Receive any of the newsletters, including the the full-text daily Remodelista and Gardenista newsletters
Use of our internal bookmark tool, so you can save products, posts, and other pages for quick reference
Access to our community bulletin board so you can ask and answer design-related questions
Congratulations on joining as a free Member of Remodelista, Gardenista and The Organized Home! You now have access to many great features across the sites:
Access to all posts published in the past year
Access 10 archived posts (older than one year) per month on each site
Use of our internal bookmark tool, so you can save products, posts, and other pages for quick reference
Access to our community bulletin board so you can ask and answer design-related questions
Unlimited access to the Product Catalogs, Design Travel sources, and Architect & Designer Directory listings
Choose from our ten newsletters to keep up with the latest on the sites
If at any time you want to become a Subscriber and enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to all our content, just go to the My Account link and choose Subscribe.
Have a Question or Comment About This Post?
Join the conversation