6 Best Easy Install Insect Netting For Beginners Without Chemicals

You’ve spent weeks nurturing your broccoli seedlings, only to walk out one morning and find them skeletonized by cabbage worms. It’s a familiar, frustrating story for every gardener. The good news is that you don’t have to resort to chemical sprays to protect your harvest. Physical barriers, specifically insect netting, are one of the most effective and straightforward tools you can use.

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Choosing Netting: Mesh Size and Installation

The single most important factor in choosing a net is the size of its holes. A net that stops a cabbage moth won’t do a thing against tiny flea beetles or aphids. You need to match the mesh size to your specific pest problem. For larger pests like cabbage moths, squash bugs, and cucumber beetles, a wider mesh is fine. For smaller pests like flea beetles, thrips, or aphids, you need a much finer mesh, often sold as "insect barrier" or "micromesh."

Once you have the right mesh, you have two basic installation choices: lay it directly on the plants or support it with hoops. Laying it directly on top, known as a "floating row cover," is the fastest method. Supporting the netting on hoops creates a tunnel or cloche, keeping the material off the foliage entirely.

There’s a clear tradeoff here. A floating cover is simple, but wind can cause it to chafe delicate leaves, and determined pests can sometimes lay eggs right through the mesh where it touches the plant. A supported tunnel takes more initial effort to set up with hoops and clips, but it provides superior protection, better airflow, and prevents any damage to your plants. For tender greens like lettuce or fragile seedlings, a supported tunnel is almost always the better choice.

Agfabric Floating Row Cover for Versatility

Agfabric is a name you’ll see everywhere, and for good reason. It’s the classic, lightweight, spun-bond fabric that works as a jack-of-all-trades. This is your go-to for a simple, drapable cover that you can roll out quickly over a row of crops.

Think of this as the perfect solution for sturdy, low-growing plants. It’s excellent for protecting potato plants from potato beetles or young squash from vine borers before they start to flower. Because it’s so light, it lets in plenty of sun and water without crushing the plants. You just unroll it, lay it over the row with plenty of slack for growth, and weigh down the edges.

The downside is its lack of structure. It’s not ideal for delicate plants like lettuce, which can be damaged by the fabric rubbing in the wind, or for tall plants like kale or tomatoes. Its effectiveness hinges entirely on how well you secure the edges; any gap is an open invitation for pests to crawl underneath.

VIVOSUN Netting for Durable Raised Bed Use

When you need something tougher and more permanent for a raised bed, VIVOSUN’s style of woven netting is a solid step up. This isn’t a flimsy fabric; it’s a durable, UV-stabilized mesh designed to last for several seasons. It’s built to be stretched taut over a structure.

This is the material you want for building a proper net house over a raised bed. You’ll need to provide your own support, typically PVC pipes or metal hoops bent into arches. The netting is then stretched over the top and secured with clips or clamps. This setup keeps the material completely off your plants, which is critical. A cabbage moth can’t lay her eggs on a broccoli leaf if she can’t touch it.

The installation is more involved than a simple floating cover, no question. You have to build the frame and take the time to fasten the netting securely. But the payoff is a robust, walk-in or reach-in enclosure that offers the best possible protection and won’t blow away in the first strong gust of wind.

Haxnicks Easy Tunnel Cloche for Quick Setup

If you want protection with virtually zero assembly, the Haxnicks Easy Tunnel is your answer. This is an all-in-one product where the fine insect mesh is already attached to a series of wire hoops. It’s essentially a pre-made tunnel in a bag.

The appeal is pure convenience. You pull it out of the package, it expands like an accordion, and you just push the ends of the hoops into the ground. Drawstring ends allow you to close it up tightly. For a beginner with one or two standard-sized garden beds, this is the fastest way to go from unprotected to fully secure in under five minutes.

The tradeoff for this convenience is a lack of flexibility and a higher cost per foot. You are limited to the tunnel’s fixed length and width, so it might not be a perfect fit for your garden layout. While it’s a fantastic starting point, you’ll likely move toward more customizable solutions as your garden grows and your needs change.

Gardman Garden Netting for Custom Sizing

For the hobby farmer with multiple beds of varying shapes and sizes, buying netting in a large roll is the most economical and flexible approach. Gardman and similar brands offer bulk netting that you can cut to fit any project you can dream up. This is the DIYer’s choice.

You get a large sheet of netting and the freedom to protect anything from a single container to a long, winding row of carrots. This method produces the least waste because you only cut what you need. It empowers you to create custom-sized covers for cold frames, oddly shaped beds, or berry patches.

Of course, this flexibility requires the most work. You are responsible for everything: measuring, cutting, and creating your own support and anchoring system. It’s less of a "product" and more of a "material," but for anyone who enjoys a bit of garden tinkering, it’s the most powerful option.

FLARMOR Pre-Cut Netting for Small Gardens

FLARMOR and other brands offer a great middle ground with their pre-cut netting kits. These packages typically include a manageable, pre-sized sheet of netting—say, 8×10 feet—sometimes with a few basic stakes or hoops included. It takes the guesswork out of buying the right amount.

This is perfect for someone with a standard 4×8 foot raised bed or a few large containers. You don’t have to wrestle with a massive, unwieldy roll of fabric, and you know the piece you’re getting is a useful size. It’s a small convenience, but it can make the project feel much less intimidating for a beginner.

Think of it as a starter pack. It gives you a high-quality piece of netting and encourages you to think about how you’ll support it, without overwhelming you with too much material. It’s a more guided approach than the bulk roll but more adaptable than the fixed tunnel cloche.

Easy Gardener Blanket for Pests and Frost

Don’t overlook products marketed as "frost blankets" or "garden blankets." Many of these, like the ones from Easy Gardener, are made from a fine-spun material that does double duty, protecting plants from both a late spring frost and early-season pests.

The biggest advantage is efficiency. You can put the cover on your new transplants to shield them from a cold snap and just leave it in place to block the first wave of flea beetles or cabbage moths. This saves you time, money, and storage space by making one product do the work of two.

The key thing to check is the weight and light transmission. A heavier frost blanket will block more sunlight than dedicated insect netting. This is perfectly fine for cool-weather brassicas or greens but might slightly slow the growth of sun-loving plants like peppers or squash if left on during peak summer. It’s a great multi-tool, as long as you’re aware of its characteristics.

Securing Your Netting Against Wind and Pests

A net with a gap is not a net; it’s a decoration. Pests are experts at finding the smallest opening, so how you anchor the edges of your netting is just as important as the netting itself. A loose edge completely defeats the purpose of the cover.

Your goal is to create a complete seal with the ground. The most effective method is to bury the edges of the fabric with a few inches of soil. This creates a barrier that crawling pests can’t get under and holds firm against wind. Alternatively, you can use rocks, bricks, or boards laid along the entire perimeter. Garden staples or sod pins are also excellent for pinning the fabric down tightly, especially in corners.

Wind is your other enemy. A loose floating cover can act like a sail and be torn away in a storm, while a poorly secured tunnel can be lifted right off the bed. For tunnels, ensure your hoops are pushed deep into the soil and the netting is pulled taut and clipped securely. For floating covers, leave some slack in the middle for plant growth, but make the edges non-negotiable and completely locked down.

Ultimately, choosing the right insect netting comes down to your specific pests, the shape of your garden, and how much time you want to spend on setup. Whether you choose a quick-deploy tunnel or a custom-cut system, a well-secured physical barrier is your most reliable, chemical-free defense. It lets you work with nature, not against it, to bring in a healthy, pest-free harvest.