Enjoy A Pest-Free Meal While Camping With This Clever Shower Cap Trick

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Cooking and eating meals outside, far from home, makes for interesting — and hopefully enjoyable — experiences. Particularly when you're sharing meals with friends and getting a little creative with the entire process. One factor that makes food and the outdoors a little less compatible — whether camping or during picnics — are the pesky pests that want to join your party. Flies land on your food, wasps think that open can of soda was left there just for them, and ants are just everywhere. Placing a plastic shower cap over open bowls of potato salad, baked beans, and such is an easy trick that helps keep those bugs at bay. We're not talking the thick, long-term caps you might get at a bed-and-bath store. These are the same types of disposable, clear-plastic shower caps you might find in a hotel. You don't have to check into a hotel to get them, though, because they're sold in bulk, such as the LEOBRO individually wrapped shower caps, sold in packs of 80.

These shower caps also fit easily over beverage cans, a pitcher of lemonade, or even a plate of brownies sitting out on the picnic table. For narrow items such as a soda can, you could pair that shower cap with a rubber band to ensure the cap stays put. And if anyone freaks out, remind them that it's no different reaching into a canister filled with shower caps than into a box filled with resealable bags or plastic wrap.

Place a clean, disposable shower cap over each food item as it's prepared or set upon the table, which makes it a breeze to keep insects away even before anyone sits down to eat. Cover that coleslaw — there's probably room to leave the serving spoon in the bowl with the cap over it. A shower cap could also be used to cover the leftover sweet treats you make on a camping trip, such as cinnamon rolls or grilled peaches. What makes them work so perfectly to protect food is the band of elastic that fits a cap tightly to your head works to wrap it around your dish and "seal" it off from bugs. Arguably it works better than traditional plastic wrap does at keeping closed around the food. And it never gets stuck to itself!

Use shower caps to cover plates of uncooked steaks, chops, or chicken legs to keep insects out of your marinade and off of the foods awaiting their grilling time. Anything partially used that doesn't have a sealable container, such as a half-used bowl of baked beans, could also be covered with a shower cap, secured with a rubber band, then set upright in a must-have campsite cooler until you're ready to heat them up the next day. Adding a thermometer inside your cooler is a good idea as well, to make sure it's keeping food in the safe zone. And when all the food is gone, don't toss those used shower caps! They can be used to neatly carry muddy shoes or clothing and random wet trash back home.