Thanks for the advices guys - greatly appreciated - this definitely gave me more food for thought.
Thanks
brucepick for the suggestion to use non-residue duct tape, I didn't know it even existed. I've checked HomeDepot and they don't seem to carry it in Canada, and to get it from Amazon would come to about $20 CAD after shipping and all. Pretty pricey for some duct tape - but I'll keep the option in mind.
I already had 3 colours of regular duct tape (grey, red, blue) so I wanted to use something I already have, instead of spending $$.
But at the same time, I obviously want to avoid duct tape residue.
Maybe I will try to apply the duct tape I already have only to the plastic mesh parts for now, since it's very cold up here (around -10C feeling like -20C, so about 10F feeling like 0F with the wind-chill factor). And then as soon as spring comes, I will remove the tape and probably try one of the blocking approaches that
Fat Charlie and
PaleMelanesian did.