If you’ve spent time in a backyard pergola at a friend’s house, maybe you fell in love with the experience. It’s easy to see why. There’s nothing quite as much fun as sitting in a pergola and watching the sunset or chatting with some friends.
The Luxury Pergola is where you can shop if you’re interested in buying one. You can find several pergola models at different price points.
If you’re going to install a pergola in your yard in the near future, though, you may want to think about how to keep the bugs out. You won’t like it very much if you enter your pergola and see that you have some unwanted guests.
Luckily, there are several ways you can keep bugs out of a backyard pergola setup. Let’s talk about a few of those right now.
Use Essential Oils
There are many bugs that don’t like the smell of essential oils. You can buy them relatively easily on Etsy or Amazon.
You can then set up receptacles inside the pergola where you can leave sitting pools of essential oil mingled with water. For instance, the solution of one part witch hazel and one part water does the job nicely.
Keep Your Plants Trimmed
If you have plants in or around the pergola, then keeping them neatly trimmed can also repel bugs and discourage them from nesting or breeding there. You can also make a point of planting types of vegetation that bugs don’t like.
Some neatly trimmed basil or tea tree will emit a scent that most humans enjoy, but it will keep many species of bugs away.
Install Fans
The installation of some fans is another great way to keep bugs away. You can either set them up inside the pergola if you have electrical outlets or close to it on your deck if your pergola is adjacent to it.
Fans disturb the air, which makes the environment less hospitable for bugs. Also, you might like having that air current on hot days in the height of the summer months.
Install Some Screens
If you have open spaces in your pergola, installing screens to keep the bugs out makes sense. In most pergolas that you construct from a kit, there should be spaces where screens are optional. Some of these kits even come with screens already, though not all of them do.
Add Lavender
Planting some lavender is another proven way to get rid of bugs in a semi-outdoor environment like a pergola. This is a hearty plant that is easy to grow, but, like some of the others we mentioned, many bug species can’t stand the smell of it.
Get Rid of Standing Water
Getting rid of any standing water is a must when you’re trying to banish bugs from your pergola. Pools of water in or around a backyard structure make for an enticing setup for many bug species that would like to breed there.
Trying several of these methods should hopefully prove effective.