how to keep pollen beetles off your hammock

Pollen-Beetle

Two minutes into what was supposed to be my hammock chill time and I look down to find my top is covered in pollen beetles - those tiny black things that seem to love anything brightly coloured. I realised then that maybe the almost luminous yellow t-shirt I was wearing was maybe a bad idea.

After a quick change into something less dazzling I returned to my hammock only to find that said hammock also has bright green stripes running through it – man, those beetles love bright colours! Determined not to let these little critters spoil my hammock time I set my mind to action to come up with a plan on how to rid myself and hammock of these bugs – in other words, I Googled it.


What are pollen beetles? Pollen beetles are small bronzy or black shinny beetles that visit the flowers of a wide range of ornamental plants and vegetables, where they feed on pollen.


Apparently, pollen beetles are totally harmless to humans if not slightly annoying. I kind of felt sorry for them in the end as they’re only looking for lovely flowers to feed on and our hammocks are so beautiful they just couldn’t resist.

So how did I get them to leave me and my hammock in peace?

I got two high vis vests we use when cycling with our children and hung them at either end of the hammock stand. I got a dark brown throw from the house, shook the hammock till the all the beetles flew off and placed the throw on top hiding all the bright colours. Hey presto, pollen beetles loved their high vis vests, I was bug-free on my hammock. Nothing to spoil my hammock chill time now, nothing to pester me, I was in peace…….’mammy? mammy!!!’ ah well, I tried 😉


Anneka - Simply Hammocks