A much-expanded version of the tutorial
which used to be found here
is now available as an ebook on Smashwords:
Pay only USD $ 3.99,
with 20% off the retail price,
if you purchase with the coupon code
before February 13, 2012.
USD $1.00 goes to provide mosquito nets
for those most in need and who can least afford them.
Thanks for your support!
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Let me share my art and my lifestyle with you, along with tips, tutorials, news and insights reported by someone who sees things from a different perspective, from the shores of Lake Baringo in the Great Rift Valley . . .
The quilt photo used as background for this blog is a detail shot of "The Future is Now." Its high-tech embellishments on a silver silk skyline of Nairobi belie common notions of what is "Africa" and contrast effectively with the more natural environment we have come to think of as Kenya as shown in the blog's header photo. The face of the continent is changing in response to demand for consumer goods enjoyed by the rest of the world. Click on the photo below to learn more about this remarkable quilt.
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Thanks for the info about making a mosquito net. We have a Malaria Prevention Program (please visit website) and wanted to create a mosquito net small factory then treat them with neem oil before selling and distribution in Senegal and other part of Africa. I am an entomologist from Senegal, living in the USA.
Thank You!
Hi Dena,
I am impressed by your article.
I am an exporter of pest provention materials from China. I am interested in supplying ready-made mosquito nets in various specs made in China. The brand is one of the best and quality is guaranteed. Please review the website for maore details.
If you need any assistance or have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Best regards,
Sam Shan
thank you very much for those instructions on how to make a mosquito net. My class and i are doing a project on malaria and we are instructed to make a mosquito net. So once again thank you.
Thanks for this thorough article! I do not live in a malaria area, but do find that I get bitten a lot in summer and the mossies keep me awake too! For some reason they leave my husband alone but I have been know to have up to 50 bites on me at one time. This morning, after being bitten again and up the whole night trying to swat mosquitoes I decided it was time to make a mosquito net and am so glad to have found your instructions. Thank you and good luck with your work in Kenya
Hi,thanks for your article. Am a Kenyan coming from a severely affected and malaria endemic region. Have been punished by malaria since birth up to when I joined my tertiary level of study. I lost my friends and my siblings to this scourge. That’s why I declared war against it. To win this war LIES PRIMARILY WITH MASSIVE AWARENESS OF THE DISEASE. THAT’S WHERE THE WINNING TACTIC IS. Still I believe that chemicals aren’t the solution since mosquito and plasmodium developed resistance. I have a small tool that can go hand in hand with your net to make the whole thing complete. kindly advice
Hezbon, thanks for posting a comment on my blog. All of us who live in Africa are painfully aware of the dangers of malaria, and I expect there are few among us who have not experienced this dread disease either first hand or amongst our friends and loved ones.
Please tell us about the tool you mention, and we’ll see how that might help. Please note, however, that I am not in the business of manufacturing mosquito nets!
Dear Dena
Very please I found your website with the instructions to make a mosquitoes net. Thank you. I am trying to put together a project for a community in West Africa (I worked there as a voluteer for 2 year) and I would like to teach the women in my village to make mosquitoes nets for their family and perhaps to sell them on the market. My people are very, very poor and this could be away to prevent maleria and also making some money. Do you know where I could fine the material for the net?
Your help would be very much appreciated.
Kind regards
Nadia (London)
You’re welcome, Nadia. I hope the net design turns out to be suitable for your purposes.
You ask a good question: where to find mosquito netting. It has been my experience that most fabric shops in Africa stock it, but it is not always readily visible. Find any fabric shop that looks like it carries a broad range of materials, and the ask the sales clerk if they have netting. Finding mosquito netting is not difficult. Finding at a wholesale price may not be easy. I do not know who manufactures the cloth, but I suppose you would find the least expensive netting coming from India or China. Google it, why don’t you?
Good luck with your project!
Dear Nadia.
We supply mosquito net at our retail shop called Kemstore in town.
Thanks
Vitendi
thanks for the tutorial! My clients always ask me for good cheap mosquito nets! I’ll recommend your site!
You’re welcome, Richard! Been interesting, though, watching recent news. Apparently, we are on the cutting edge of a major breakthrough in the creation of a vaccine against malaria: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/879016-cure-for-malaria-moves-step-closer-as-new-vaccine-cuts-cases-in-half. It wasn’t until after I came to Kenya that I understood the reason why, in old movies, Cleopatra’s bedroom was always full of sheer curtains!
I can only imagine how important this is in Africa. People who complain about mosquitoes in the US have no idea how bad things could be.
Hi, Mike and Debbie! I’ve just published an ebook through Smashwords titled “How to Make a Mosquito Net From Fully Illustrated Instructions.” Even if mosquitoes in the US do not carry plasmodium falciparum (the nasty little bug responsible for human malaria), they can still be a nuisance. I once lived in Houston and the mozzies there could carry you away!! Buy my ebook and make your own mosquito net for comfort and peace of mind while you sleep.
dear Dena,
I belong to India were this was used widely once in the city,howeever in rural areas this has been still find, i came in kenya and people use this a lot. why cant govt supply this to kenyan prople??
Thanks for posting a comment, Navin. Mosquito nets, like any other commodity, cost money. The Kenya Government cannot do everything for its people. Sometimes it is for the people to do for themselves. Perhaps more than money, as nets available locally can be very inexpensive–well within the price range for most people–it is more important to educate Kenyans about the need for protection from mosquitoes and other pests. It is unfortunate that some people live in such marginal areas that they may not have either money or knowledge . . .
Hey Dena,
This is very useful and safe at the same time. Instead of using Mosquito coils/liquidators, I would prefer this any-day. Mainly because of the NO side-effects mosquito net and I would advice the same to others who inhale toxins released in the smoke by coil/liquidators.