This Super Easy Gardening Hack Keeps Pests Away for Good

There’s nothing worse than spending all season carefully tending your vegetable garden only for pests to eat your plants right before harvest. And while pesticides may keep rats and deer and bugs away, they can also leach hazardous chemicals into your food. So how can you protect those beloved tomatoes?

Well, thanks to an ingenious trick from TikToker Rhonda Moffit (@rhondamoffit), you can now keep all your crops safe without any dangerous pesticides. Better yet, the hack only requires a length of tulle, which is extremely affordable. Here’s everything you need to know about the viral garden pest control hack, including how you can try it in your own yard.

What Is the Viral Pest-Free Garden Hack?

The video from Moffit shows her watering her garden beds, which are safely secured under a tunnel of tulle. In the voiceover, Moffit explains that she loves using tulle in the garden because it is the “perfect breathable material.” She excitedly says that water “goes right through, so that there’s no taking it off, putting it back on, you know, none of that!”

@rhondamoffit The perfect fabric for protection for things like cabbage worms is “tulle” #mybackyardgrocerystore #hairdresserswithgardens #gardenpests #tulle ♬ original sound – Rhonda Moffit19

While grow tunnels aren’t new inventions, they are typically made from other fabric netting or plastic. While both of these materials can keep rodents, deer, and other peckish animals out, they can be quite expensive and often require frequent maneuvering to water the plants. In contrast, the tulle does not need to be moved at all and costs just about $2 per yard.

Additionally, tulle has a finer weave than many other garden nettings on the market. This means it can more successfully keep out insects and smaller pests like slugs and snails than its wider-weave counterparts.

Are There Any Downsides to Using Tulle in the Garden?

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There are two main downsides to consider with using a tulle net in the garden. The first is that its fine weave also keeps out healthy pollinators. With this in mind, only plants that do not require pollination should be kept under a tulle tunnel, such as the brassicas shown in Moffit’s video.

Second, one commenter on Moffit’s video warned that tulle is often made of nylon and “nylon tulle degrades faster in the sun than polyethylene netting designed for garden use.” This is true, though polyethylene can be more expensive, so it depends on what is in your personal budget.

How Can I Use Tulle to Keep My Garden Pest-Free?

If you’d like to try the tulle garden hack for yourself, all you need are some garden tunnel hoops and a long length of tulle. You can buy proper garden hoops online, but for a cheaper option, one commenter on Moffit’s video suggests using hula hoops from the Dollar Store. According to them, you can buy the biggest size, then “cut and dump the beads out, and use [the hula hoop halves] as the frame.”

Once you have your garden hoops, simply buy tulle at a fabric store that is wide enough to cover the hoops, touching the soil on either side. Then, simply place your garden hoops, drape the tulle on top, and secure the edges to the ground using bricks or rocks. If you’d like, you can secure the tulle with garden clips. And that’s it—enjoy your pest-free garden!