If you listen carefully, you can hear it already. The clink of ice cubes in the glasses, your bestie 's gurgling laughter and your brother-in-law's heavy baritone. Next weekend is just around the corner: every seat at your garden table will be occupied by your favorite people. That will be a nice long drink. Now you just have to keep the flies and wasps at bay and make sure the food stays good in the heat. But hey, you have me for that. Here come my tips.

Pats! Eating outside without insects

Nothing more annoying than flies frolicking enthusiastically over your artfully prepared salad. Or wasps buzzing around your head while you sip your Aperol Spritz. Here are 7 tips and tricks to keep your meals on the terrace, balcony or in the park bug-free.

1 | Keep flies and wasps at bay with a fly hood

Food has an irresistible attraction to flies. They like everything: sweet, savory, cooked or raw food. Want to prevent a whole family of flies from feasting on your meal? Then shield your food with a few fly hoods. Of course, such a hood also works perfectly for keeping wasps at bay.

2 | Reusable lids for your drinks

Insects prefer not to be near your drink, either. Put a beer mat on your beer glass or screen your wine glass with a paper umbrella tube whose stick you have shortened slightly. Lemonade glasses can also be covered with paper cupcake tins or reusable lids. For the kids, there are lemonade glasses available with a lid on top that a straw can be pushed through. This way they can enjoy their lemonade carefree.

3 | Smells that insects don't appreciate

Choose the natural attack and put on the table several bouquets of plants, flowers or herbs that cause insects to turn right around. The choice is vast. How about: lavender, marigold, chamomile, lemongrass, mint, basil, rosemary, chrysanthemum and garlic. Running out of time to take care of this? Then brew a pitcher of coffee and then put the coffee grounds in a fireproof dish. Light the coffee grounds with a match and voila: your wasp repellent is ready.

4 | Use cloves, lemon and orange

Wasps don't like cloves, lemon or orange either. For maximum effect, stick some cloves in half a lemon or in an orange and place them in a bowl on the table. Slightly less fragrant, but effective: fill a container with vinegar and put some cloves in it.

5 | Next stop please

The reason all those insects flock to your festively set table is that all those smells are too delicious to resist. Idea: put a plate of stale fruit and strong-smelling lemonade some distance away from the table. With any luck, they will then leave you alone. Your guests can also help you by forgoing all too flowery deodorants and perfumes for an evening.

6 | Incense and water

There are two more things wasps especially dislike: incense and water. The smell of incense will chase away both wasps and mosquitoes, and you can enjoy being outside undisturbed all evening. By the way, wasps don't like rain either. Fool them and fill a plant sprayer with water. Then set the nozzle to mist spray mode and easily chase away the wasps with a fine rain shower.

7 | Blow me away

Another handy solution is the fan. This is not only nice and refreshing for yourself but also keeps wasps (and mosquitoes) at bay. After all, they don't like wind. If you do not have a fan, you can also use special fly chasers that you put on the table, just between the dishes. Thanks to the rotating propellers, no wasp or fly will sit on your plate or on the bowl of vegetable skewers.

Storing food outside

Eating outside should be a celebration, but it also brings challenges when it comes to food safety and keeping dishes nice and cool or just warm. Don't worry, because with these 6 handy tips you can arrange a relaxed and safe outdoor meal in no time.

1 | As long as possible in the refrigerator

You can only keep freshly cut vegetables, meat and eggs good for a limited time outside the refrigerator. This is because bacteria grow at room temperature at lightning speed: they double in number in just 20 minutes. So it's essential to keep perishables well chilled, especially when that "room temperature" rises to the 28°C mark. Are your guests arriving at 6 p.m., but not going to the table until 7 p.m.? Then don't take the food out of the refrigerator until 7 p.m.

2 | Use an (electric) cooler as an additional cooling station

If you don't want to walk back and forth to the refrigerator all the time, place an (electric) cooler next to the table or barbecue. Just make sure you've pre-cooled the cooler, otherwise it won't work optimally. And do you happen to have some soft cool packs in the freezer? Place them in the bottom of a bowl, cover with cheery napkins and you'll keep your zucchini wraps on the table nice and fresh throughout the meal.

3 | Take advantage of the shade

There is nothing like the shade of trees to temper the temperature. If they are in your yard, don't hesitate to lift the picnic table and move it there. No tree? No problem. For example, stretch a few rugs over the dining table or strategically place two umbrellas on the patio.

4 | Salt please!

Did you know that salt further lowers the temperature of cold (ice) water? Grab a tub, bucket or tight laundry basket, fill it with water and add both salt and ice cubes. Place the chilled drinks in here and you'll enjoy an evening of deliciously fresh ice tea or a white wine that is at perfect temperature.

5 | Wrap dishes in wet cloths

If you go out for a picnic in the woods or have a nice beach day ahead of you, wrap your dishes in substantially wet (hand) cloths or wet kitchen paper. Is the cloth or paper dried up? Just dip it in a stream and re-wrap the food with it. That way, those sandwiches will still taste hours later like you just prepared them.

6 | Cool drinks on the go

When you go out, you naturally want to keep your drinks cool. There are 3 tricks for that:

• Pour your chilled drinks into a thermos bottle.
• Wrap bottles of drinks straight from the refrigerator in aluminum foil. By the way, you know what you can also use well for this? The silver foil that you use in your car in summer to protect the steering wheel and dashboard from overheating. You simply cut it to size and the foil stays in place with a few rubber bands.
• Fill a bottle halfway with your favorite lemonade or iced tea and place it in the freezer. If you put the bottle away lying down, with there is still room at the cap. When the drink is frozen, you will need that space to refill the bottle with fresh cold drink. By the time you are thirsty, your drink will still be perfectly cool.

You get the picture: you have everything under control. So get out the barbecue, invite your friends and family and toast to a wonderful summer.