Life

5 Genius Mosquito Hacks

Before I get into all the ways that you can prevent mosquito bites, I'm going to distract you with decidedly less unpleasant aspects of the season: Summer! Joy! Beach reads! Love! Strawberries! Ice cream! Sangria! Summer is a beautiful thing. When you've waited all year for the snow to melt, strawberries to be in season and to break out your new bikini, you don't stop to remember any of the more negative aspects of summer. Like when your air conditioner breaks, or when your neighbors think summer makes it magically okay to blast a stereo at 2AM. Or the fact that we have somehow blocked mosquitos out of our beach dreams, and now that it's June they're out again in full force.

What we really need is mosquito hacks for the average 20-something so that we can go about our summers without getting eaten alive by tiny bugs. Picture that scene in The Parent Trap (the new one) when Lindsay Lohan and her twin, Lindsay Lohan, put sugar water all over the step-mother-to-be so mosquitos won't leave her alone. The stepmother? Yeah. That's me, every summer. Sans sugar water.

If mosquitos are already getting you down, you need these hacks now, because the mosquitos are just going to get worse. By August we're all going to be living in the midst of mosquito birthing grounds. Here are 5 genius ways to solve your mosquito problems this summer:

1. Make a 2 liter bottle into a mosquito trap

Solutions that take exactly 1 minute and 5 seconds of your time.

2. Make a $1 mosquito trap

This is brilliant. It's mosquito netting, plus a fan. And that's it. Time to make a trip to Walmart.

3. Try a homemade remedy with limes

Hack: Buy extra limes, make margaritas.

4. Organic solutions

Try not to giggle when she says "larva." If you don't have ammonium carbonate and yeast, then just appreciate the humor of this video instead.

5. Make the perfect fly trap

A different variation on the 2 liter bottle.

Related: Have citronella candles gone out of style?