How do I love thee?  In more ways than I can count!  We’re amazed at the different creative ways you’re using the SansBug pop-up screen tents.  Apart from bug protection for us humans, we’ve seen them used to provide a safe habitat for monarch butterfly caterpillars and also to house small plants to protect them from bunnies!  Contact us to share the different ways you’re using your bug tent… and feel free to send pics!

Eeeek…. dragons!

Seen and read…

No telling what you’ll find on top of your SansBug when you wake up!

dragon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then there are other dragons that take refuge INSIDE a SansBug to protect them from toxic bugs and humans!

dragons

 

 

 

 

 

 

bearded dragons

Ransburg Scout Reservation

Camp Ransburg

Ransburg Scout Reservation

A few photos from Scout Summer Camp Ransburg in Bloomington, Indiana.

Thanks for keeping the boys spider free when they slept.  The SansBugs worked great!  I loved watching the sunset through the tents.
Colleen Martin

Mosquito Net Tents in Africa

SenegalEven a malaria expert needs protection from mosquitoes in Africa.  Dr. Amy Bei, a Harvard-trained, Yale professor who speaks a gazillion langauges spends her time between Dakar, Senegal and New Haven, CT.  When she’s not fighting malaria, she grows and roasts her own coffee in Senegal, knits and weaves, and is working on her pilot license so she can fly bush planes and land on water.

Here’s an email from her regarding her experience with the SansBug mosquito net tent:

After months of testing out the SansBug nets in a variety of different conditions, I can officially give you my personal review – 5 stars! Here are my findings:
Test scenario one: Durability
For this, I put my kids to work! If these tents can stand up to my kids play, they can stand up to anything! We used the SansBug tent outdoors, but it soon became their favorite indoor play area as well. They set it up inside with books and activities and made it like a little fort. They also tested the strength of the material, base, and zippers – success! I was very impressed with the durability of the materials.
Test scenario two: Insects in CT
My kids also tried these outdoors avoiding mosquitoes in CT. They worked great. No complaints.
Test scenario three: Ravenous field mosquitoes in West Africa
I gave one of the tents to our entomology field team and brought the others with my research team on our current field research mission. We are here now, in Kedougou, West Africa. I set up the SansBug tent as a curiosity but very quickly transitioned into sleeping under it every night. Each night, I go to sleep to a literal symphony of buzzing mosquitoes around my head, but I don’t have a single bite thanks to the net! I was curious with the very fine mesh if it would be too hot for sleeping (here the temperatures can get up over 100degF with humidity, but so far with a fan in the room, it has been very comfortable. An additional bonus, the field station where we work has an infestation of bed bugs. I put the SansBug on top of the mattress and the bed bugs haven’t been able to get inside, either through the mesh or through the base. Amazing!
I just wanted to share these thoughts and reviews with you. I will definitely be ordering more for our field research team, as well as for my kids and family members for camping trips and play.
Thank you so much for introducing me to this great and useful product!
Sincerely,
Amy
Amy Kristine Bei, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor | Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases

Mosquito Net Tents for Summer Camp

It’s that time of the year when the earth springs into life again… but this year there is expected to be a little more activity.  A dozen states from NY to IL and south to GA will see billions of cicadas emerge this month or next after spending 17 years underground.  They will mate, lay eggs and die and the nymphs will hatch and burrow underground to repeat the cycle in 2038.  Unlike mosquitoes, cicadas are pretty much harmless but their buzzing mating calls are as loud as a lawnmower or a motorcycle!  Regardless of the increased traffic, the main culprit to watch out for is still the mosquito.  After a relatively mild winter, there are expected to be more mosquitoes this summer and an increase in West Nile virus cases this year.  Which is why it makes sense to protect you and your kids with a mosquito net tent – a totally enclosed bug tent with a floor.  The open-air platform tents at summer camp are just that – open to all kinds of bugs and mosquito nets draped over PVC frames do little to thwart the pesky skeeters which still manage to sneak in through the gaps between the floorboards.

Seen and read:

Camp Read

The canvas wall tents at Curtis Read Scout Reservation are wide enough so there is ample space between the cots.

Camp Read

But if the wall tents are narrow like at Camp Sequassen or Resica Falls Scout Reservation, simply turn the cots sideways so you’ll optimize the space by aligning the slope of the tent with that of the SansBug screen tent.

Connecticut Yankee Council

Since the SansBug mosquito net tent is freestanding, it beats trying to figure out how to suspend a mosquito net inside a wall tent.  There usually aren’t any grommets or tie-offs inside canvas wall tents.  Therefore most folks lash PVC pipes to the cot and drape mosquito netting over it.  However, it is almost impossible to make sure there are no gaps between the netting and the floor every time you get in and out of bed… especially if it is dark.  Also, since most platform tents have gaps between the planks on the floor to prevent water pooling when it rains, there will always be space for mosquitoes to come in.  One mosquito can keep you up and make your night miserable.  The SansBug screen tent has a sewn-in floor so it is totally enclosed… you’ll sleep like a baby and you’ll be alert and focused to learn new skills the next day!

And, hey, if the weather is nice… just pop up a village of SansBug bug tents like this troop did at Kerr Scout Ranch.

Last Frontier Council

Monarch Butterfly Habitat

Seen and Read:

monarch butterfly habitat cage

We’re thrilled that the SansBug mesh tent is being used as a giant insect terrarium to house monarch butterfly caterpillars.  Much larger than butterfly cages specifically made for the purpose, the smallest SansBug bug tent can house more than a dozen milkweed plants.

Monarch butterflies with their familiar orange and black pattern are known for their annual migration where some of them travel more than 3000 miles!  Considering the butterfly weighs only about half a gram, that’s mind blowing!

Monarchs in Eastern North America overwinter in central Mexico while those in Western North America overwinter in the southern California coast.  Eastern monarchs fly south along different routes, but merge together in Central Texas and fly along the same route to Mexico.  It’s amazing that they overwinter in the same 11 or 12 mountain sites, often the exact same trees, even though they’ve never been there before!

The epic migration south is done by the same super generation which lives up to 8 times longer than their parents and grandparents.  The return journey north to US and Canada is done in 3 or 4 generations.

Western monarchs have seen numbers dwindle by more than 99% in the last 30 years.  Eastern monarch numbers have gone down by about 80%.  The number one reason for their decline is the reduction of milkweed, a wildflower, which is the only food the caterpillars will eat.  Milkweed has been decimated because of indiscriminate spraying of herbicides across genetically modified corn and soybean fields and mowing along road sides.

Lately, there has been a growing call to reverse this population decline by encouraging people to plant native milkweed in their yards and cities.  And since survival rates are only 5% in the wild because of ants, spiders and other predators, the SansBug bug tent provides a safe rearing tent to increase that to more than 80%!  While rearing tents will not reverse the population decline, they are a great tool to learn and observe the amazing metamorphosis from egg to adult.

BIG or small… SansBug has you covered!

Toys for little kids…

Ball Pit

… and toys for BIG kids!

pickup truck tent

 

But seriously speaking, there are hordes of sandflies, horseflies, black flies and mosquitoes in the swamps, dense bush and forest up north, so the SansBug screen tent is not a toy… it’s a lifesaver.  Oh, and if you’re taller than 6 feet, get the 2-person which offers 7 feet of usable length.

Have a safe and bite-free holiday!

Best Tent for Scouts

 

We’re thrilled that the SansBug screen tent has been featured in Ask the Gear Guy section of Boys’ Life magazine under… Stuff we Like!  The SansBug has helped thousands of Scouts and their parents brave through summer camp.  Feedback such as “first time he came home without bites” and “first year he stayed at camp all week” is common with the SansBug.  We strongly believe that the SansBug bug tent is an important tool to boost retention rates.

“My personal experience tells me that kids that go to summer camp are much more likely to stay with the Scouting program until they age out.  And Scouts that go to three or more summer camps are much more likely to reach the rank of Eagle Scout.  This is one reason that bug-free sleep is so important.”

“I will stipulate, again, that the SansBug including fly is still the safest tent in the Scout campgrounds because it does not need the guy lines which pose the most dangerous tripping hazard.”

– Springfield Scout Leader Scott Newman of TroopResource.org

Recruitment is almost always easier than retention.  Nothing beats the old fashioned word of mouth for recruiting youth into Scouting.  It can happen organically by Scouts telling other youth of the rock climbing they did last weekend, or the model rockets they’re going to launch at the next troop meeting, or the wicked camp they went to last summer where they had whitewater rafting, horseback riding, mountain biking, zip-lining, kayaking and so much more.  Parents can also tell other parents of how Scouting has had a positive impact on their child.  Those experiences can then be used in ad campaigns to amplify the word of mouth marketing.

But once you get youth to join, how do you make sure they stick around?  The outdoors is a major part of scouting; it’s not just about dull meetings in a basement or selling popcorn.  However, fewer and fewer kids are spending time outdoors… kids today spend an average of 7 minutes a day playing outdoors vs. 7 hours in front of a screen.  How much of that outdoors has green space is another issue but the disconnect with nature makes many kids anxious about bugs, insects, spiders, or even the dark.  Getting Scouts who have these fears to stay at camp for the whole week is difficult, much less expecting them to return the following year.  Are they just going to tolerate camp one year or will they look forward to next year?

Paul Kautz of BoyScoutTrail.com is a Red Cross authorized provider of CPR/AED and Wilderness First Aid training and Master Educator of Leave No Trace.  He was a Scoutmaster for 7 years and he knows of a few young scouts just starting out who missed some great campouts because they were scared of the bugs.

Providing a safe cocoon at night when most critters are active has helped thousands of Scouts enjoy summer camp.  Netting draped over poles has always been there but critters are still able to come in through the floorboards.  And it’s not just about not being able to sleep because daddy long legs is looking down at you from the corner of the canvas tent, mosquitoes can come in through the floorboards and spread disease or at the very least keep you up by buzzing in your ear all night.  The SansBug mosquito net tent has a sewn-in floor so it’s totally enclosed.

“Life changing! My son has a bug issue this year so we got him one of these and it’s working out great for him!”

“First year he stayed at camp all week!”

It’s not just the kids, even the grown ups take comfort from the instant refuge.

“There were flying cockroach looking bugs that came out at night, but my daughter and I slept securely knowing no bugs were going to crawl on us.”

If you can help conquer or at least manage Scouts’ (and their parents’) fears, they can then focus on learning new skills and enjoying the outdoors and camping.

Cat Tent

cat tent

Being cooped up inside for 2 months, we now have a taste of what our cats feel like.  Walking around the block or spending more time in the yard was a welcome relief from the lockdown-generated back pain.  But don’t you feel guilty when the kitties are sitting on the window sill looking outside at you?

If cats are not provided a stimulating and exciting environment, behavioral and psychological issues can arise.  Unlike in European countries, where cats spend the majority of their time outdoors, most Americans keep their cats strictly indoors.  It has thus been noted that American cats suffer more from anxiety and stress related issues.  Since one of the top reasons given for surrendering cats to shelters is behavior problems, it is important to provide sufficient stimulation for indoor cats.

Catios (outdoor cat enclosures) provide a nice balance of indoor and outdoor living without the risk.  But if you don’t have yard space or are renting, a permanent structure in the backyard or even your balcony may not be possible.  If you have calm cats who are not shredders, the SansBug mesh tent provides a cost-effective way to provide some secure outside time, supervised of course.  You can keep their toys, food, water, bed and litter box in it for hours of fun “outdoors.” Unlike other pop-up tents made specifically for cats, the SansBug has a solid floor so it also blocks out bugs.

The SansBug screen tent would also work great to contain cats indoors when you’re renovating your home or to prevent them spraying or scratching the hotel room when traveling.  Hotels can charge a lot of money for that.  It would especially come in handy for breeders when they travel to cat shows.  When you’re at a cat show, your cats must have had their nails trimmed as the judges won’t let a cat scratch them so the SansBug would hold up since the cat won’t have sharp claws to tear the netting.

Kate Benjamin, cat style expert, prefers the SansBug as an alternative to the clunky, finger-pinching cage to prevent her cats from running all over her studio which has lots of hiding places when she has to bring them in to work.  You can see a couple of her kitties hard at work testing out their new fort!

Don’t be surprised when one of your kitties immediately takes over the SansBug as soon as you pop it open!  The SansBug is tall enough for a small cat tree and gives the kitties lots of light and visibility so you can place it by a window.  The waterproof tarp floor is also very easy to clean.  If need be, you can just take the net outside and hose it down.

It also works very well to contain litters of kittens.  Mary has been using the SansBug for a while now for kitten containment and it’s working out great for her:

kitten tent
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