Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Growing in Greenhouses & Polytunnels => Topic started by: Goosegirl on May 07, 2015, 10:02
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Anyone know what is the best one for keeping flies out of the greenhouse? I have Giggled it and most seem to be for houses rather than a GH; also how do you fix it on?
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Just curious, but won't a screen that keeps flies out also keep pollinators out?
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You need to let the bees in.
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I've got one on the doorway between the greenhouse and house (its a lean-to)just a piece of fine netting like a net curtain with velcro at one end. The hooky side of the velcro was glued and/or stapled to the door frame. Course that is wood I don't know how you would manage with a metal greenhouse. Maybe old fashioned curtain wire hooked on to bits of the frame?
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I bought some cheap net curtain and put it up on a bamboo cane. It was mainly to keep the birds from flying into the greenhouse. Bees seem to come in through the roof vents. Just in process of getting some for new greenhouse I can't leave the door open at the moment and it is getting rather hot in there when the sun shines.
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Just curious, but won't a screen that keeps flies out also keep pollinators out?
You need to let the bees in.
If you want to prevent cross pollination or insect infestations, then netting off doors and vents is an option - I've never relied on insect pollinators to go into the greenhouse or polytunnel anyway, and gone round and pollinated plants myself
Anyone know what is the best one for keeping flies out of the greenhouse? I have Giggled it and most seem to be for houses rather than a GH; also how do you fix it on?
For the greenhouse, make a wooden frame a shade bigger than the size of the fully opened doorway, and staple a fine netting (to keep out smaller insects such as aphids as well) on the frame. Screw in 2 big picture hooks at either end and simply hook it onto the greenhouse frame (probably find the easiest is the slide bar at the top of of the doorway) To get in and out of the greenhouse, just slide the netted door along that slide bar.
For the open vent, I'm still working on that but using clothes pegs to stretch netting across has had some success.
A couple of years ago I had the greenhouse and polytunnel doors facing each other so I built a "porch" (plastic roof to keep the rain off and stapled debris netting on all walls with a doorway) For the polytunnel, it was just netting on a pole suspended from the frame, a bit like a curtain but having 2 sets of net doors helped.
I also hung up sticky coloured cards (yellow and blue) - so if anything did get in, most seemed attracted to the cards and I noticed having different colours attracted different insects.
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Ah - the old clothes peg idea - never thought of that! I don't need pollinators in my GH as I tap my plants and as said, some flies will get in through the vents. I have one nervous cat who loves to go in there to sit on her chair on the bench so will get some netting and make a screen myself. Good one! ;)