DIY free-standing frame for box-shape mosquito net

[Robyn]

I love my new apartment.

Unfortunately, so do about a gazillion mosquitoes.

I have a great mozzie net, but it needs a frame to hang from. In the past I lashed poles to the legs of my bed frame and... voila!

But this time there's no bedframe.

I'd like to know if someone has a good, simple design that can be knocked up out of bits of bamboo and string? 

Thanks

R

[Linda Raftree]

When I lived in El Salvador, we had the same problem and we built a square one around our bed pretty much by hacking stuff together. We bought some light, thin wood and cut it to size, making a square frame. We kept the bed next to the wall on 2 sides so we only needed to cover the other 2, of course taking care that there were not tiny cracks where the buggers could get in. We nailed the wood pieces to the wall and to the corners of the bed on the exposed side. I suppose there was some kind of wood in the bedframe corners that it was nailed into? Then we bought a bunch of mosquito net and used shoe glue to stick it to the wood. It lasted us for several years. The only issue is that you're supposed to wash your mosquito net every so often to get the dust off it or it can cause respiratory issues, and it was a bit of a pain to tear it off the frame and re-glue it.

Maybe this is totally unhelpful?

What I would do now that I know these exist is probably buy a giant-sized one and beg someone to bring it to me: http://www.longroad.com/products/The-Travel-Tent.html

[Robyn]

Hey there... We've gone with a similar approach. The hardware shop on the corner has now given us frequent flyer points 'cos we've opted to knock up most of our own improvised furniture. It proved cheaper to buy tools (including a sewing machine!) and materials than to buy stuff or have it made! It's all strictly low-tech, but should look quite nice in the end, if I do say so myself! :-)
Thanks for the feedback. 

[Sarah Davitt]

I think maybe something based off of this would work out of bamboo:

http://geometrydome.com/

(ok maybe not the dome part -- tho this does work nicely for other purposes!)  But bamboo, cut to size, drill holes, and tie it together.  OR track down your inner boyscout and learn to lash things together with string -- http://www.animatedknots.com/indexscouting.php.) 

There is a picture below with two options that I can think of.

[Kate Walton]

In my house, our roof is a sort of plyboard, so we've just bashed some nails into the roof and hung it from there. They haven't fallen out yet, and it's been about three months so far.

Other people I know put nails into the walls instead, and rig up a string system from there.

[Michael Lerner]

We have a square wood frame that hangs from the ceiling; the mosquito net ties onto the frame (so it can be easily untied to take out and wash, without having to take the frame down from the ceiling).

Be sure to have the frame height / net length right, so that there is plenty of net that falls on the floor, and no gaps for the critters to get in.

[Sarah Birgé]

Hmmm. I'd say that you could drape the net over 4 bars (2 long, 2 short) lashed together in a rectangle. I've used safety pins to tie string to my net, but it obviously depends on the sort of net you are using (i.e., would it tear.)