DIY Life

Nothing ruins a cool summer evening like mosquitoes. Unless you're a bat, you take cover at the appearance of the annoying, buzzing villains.

Here at DIY Life, we've written a lot about how to banish mosquitoes. Tips like reducing standing water, not wasting your money on the Mosquito Magnet, eliminating mosquito hiding places, and wearing light-colored clothing have all been mentioned before.

This season, the mosquitoes arrived with a vengeance at my house, and even applying all of the tips didn't help the mosquitoes stay away. But something finally did....

Last night, as I sat working at my computer, I heard a noise that sounded like a cross between a cricket and a squirrel. It didn't register immediately, but then suddenly, alarm bells went off. I knew exactly what makes that noise -- a bat.

I peeked out my home office door. There on the floor, slightly trapped under the basement door, was a bat. It looked right at me, opened its mouth, and squealed. I squealed back and slammed the office door. Luckily, my husband's pretty handy with a coffee can, or I might have been stuck in the office all night.

The safest way to get a bat out of your home is to close off the room it's in and open the windows. Barring that, you can cover it with a coffee can or similar container and gently slide a magazine underneath, then take the animal outdoors.

After the break, I'll discuss how to keep them from getting in in the first place.

Have you ever wished for wings?

Costume shops are full of fairy wings at this time of year, but they tend to carry the same models over and over. If you want something more unique, there are at least half-a-dozen websites where you can order custom wings to your specifications, ranging from cartoon-cute to something as lifelike and colorful as a butterfly.

However, most styles of fairy wings are not very difficult to make, if you have the time and determination. Find out more after the break: we have links to plenty of tutorials, videos, and visual inspirations!

Over the last few years, I've seen a couple of Halloween wreaths in stores. They're usually pretty cool, but slightly expensive for what they are... like, I'd spend that much on a real fir or holly Christmas wreath, but not for a wreath of black silk roses or sleek black feathers. Never mind that they'd probably cost about the same amount of money to make. And my family made crazy-detailed themed Christmas wreaths when I was a teenager, so I've always thought that planning them and getting them right wasn't worth the hassle.

But now, Amy at Glitter, Vinyl, and Thread has made some really cool kitschy wreaths for Halloween that aren't too difficult at all, and that seem to be totally worth what it takes to make them! My favorite is the eyeball wreath, but there's also a fang wreath, and an orange garland wreath with cute spooky critters all over it.

The orange wreath is easy: it's just a wreath form wrapped with several different types of garland, after which a few loose things were added to it. The fang wreath has a slightly higher difficulty level, due to the need to drill holes in the fangs; Amy has a drill press. The eyeball wreath seems the most labor-intensive, with lots of drilling and stitching, but is undeniably tons of fun.

[via Crafty Crafty]

This cool costume is ever cooler considering that the genius use of an old umbrella is pretty much all you need.

Check out this umbrella bat costume. The site has step by step instructions and pictures to help you along the way. The umbrella transforms into wide spanning, collapsible bat wings and tall pointy bat ears. All you need to do is pair it with black bottoms and a black hooded top and you're ready for Halloween.

This clever project sticks to the recycling theme we love so much at DIY Life, and produces a brilliant costume. What other costumes have you made that reuse household items in creative ways?