Noticed a clever rain barrel setup at a garden tour in Boise

Some guy had his downspout feeding into a 55-gallon drum wrapped in chicken wire to keep mosquitoes out. Has anyone tried something similar for catching gutter water without getting a bunch of debris in it?

3 comments

3 Comments

william_harris16d agoMost Upvoted

Actually I think the real trick with that chicken wire isn't just mosquitoes, it's keeping leaves and twigs from rotting in the bottom of the barrel. If you stack up debris in there it turns into tea sludge that'll clog your hose in no time. The thing nobody mentions is you need to wrap something finer like window screen right over the barrel opening, with the chicken wire on top as structural support. Otherwise smaller particles still get through and settle at the bottom, and after a few months you're dumping out slime.

the_ruby16d ago

Makes you wonder why we overcomplicate so many things with expensive gadgets when the simple stuff like chicken wire works fine. Kinda like how people buy those fancy water filter pitchers when a basic Brita does the same thing.

murray.jana16d ago

Huh, that's funny you mention chicken wire and rain barrels because I've been reading about something totally different. What nobody brings up is how mosquitoes actually lay eggs in standing water, right? Chicken wire's fine for keeping out big stuff but those little buggers can still get through the holes. You really need something like no-see-um mesh or even an old nylon stocking stretched over the opening to block them completely. And on top of that, if you're not cleaning your barrel out every couple weeks in warm weather, you're basically breeding a mosquito nursery in your backyard no matter what you cover it with.