Anyone have a design for a fly screen?

[David W.E. Roberts]

Hi,

sleeping with doors and windows open at the moment.

However now getting bitten by mozzies at an unacceptable rate.

I was looking at the UPVC doors and windows on our upper floor (we have a balcony) and pondering on how to make/fit fly screens.

A simple method could be just to get a fine mesh (like net curtains) and frame it in bendy dowel and it should just pop into the internal part of the frame with the window/door open (i.e. into the bit the window/door closes into).

However this could be a pain to get in and out, especially from the inside.

I could stick velcro all round the inside of the frame, but this might be a bit unsightly.

I would prefer on easy open/close arrangement (like the screen doors you see in US) but this normally requires a double door frame.

The final oin in the flytment is that we don't have a cat flap and the cats nip in and out of the bedroom window then hurl themselves off the balcony onto the fence. So some kind of open/close mechanism to let grumbling cats in and out would be good.

The upside of having UPVC doors is that the frame is on all 4 sides, so there is the prospect of fitting an open/close door on the inside.

The problem here is how to fix this as a temporary thing without leaving unsightly marks/fixings on the inner door frame when the temporary screen door is removed.

Also looking at just hanging a mosquito net over the bed - anyone tried this? I know naff design programmes sometimes have draperies hanging for show, but this needs to be a genuine 100% effective mozzie net with no gaps to let the little blighters in.

Ouch, grumble, scratch, scratch. "Scratching it only makes it worse!" "I know, but it itches!!" Ouch, grumble, scratch, scratch.

Dave R

[Huge]

You can buy custom materials to make fly screens quite easily in the USA (yes, I know, wait...) I am looking through one right now - we have them for at least one window in every room. They consist of aluminium extrusion with plastic corner pieces, with a channel set in the face. You make a frame, then stretch plastic mesh over the frame, then force "rubber string" into the channel using a special tool, which traps the mesh. Cut off the excess with a sharp knife, and Robert is your father's brother.

We have secondary double glazing, so I just remove a glazing panel and put a fly screen in the channel, but you can buy appropriate fastening clips to hold the screens in place. We also bought a screen door kit from them for the back door, which we have open on days like this. All of it was made in the USA.

I bought mine a long time ago, but I got them from "Guardian Screen Systems" in Cardiff. I have no idea if they're still in business, but let me know if you're interested and I'll look them up.

[Time passes. My neighbour arrives with his chain saw, which I'm borrowing to cut some railway sleepers in half.]

Astonishingly, a Google for "Guardian Screen Systems" gets a hit;

Guardian Screen Systems Unit 54 The Maltings East Tyndall St Cardiff CF24 5EA Telephone: [phone]

[Huge]

[16 lines snipped]

You can get white velcro....

[S Viemeister]

That's what I used. But my windows open to the inside, so I attached the screens on the outside. I used very fine no-see-um screening, bought from a camping supply place in the US. It comes in white, black, and a greyish sort of colour. I don't need it for mosquitos - I need it for Highland midges, which are very very tiny, and very very evil.

Sheila

[Ben]

Are these the same midges you get in the Lake District? I'm originally from that part of the world, and every summer I used to get hundreds of swollen red bites from tiny little midges that would itch for days, particularly along the line of sock and underpants elastic. I've lived in several different parts of england since and never had a single midge bite, but I once got into an argument with someone from the south who reckons that you only get midges in scotland and there are no midges in the Lakes. He was one of those types who thinks that the highlands are just north of Stevenage or Peterborough, and refuses to acknowledge the existence of northern england / southern scotland at all.

[Michael Dritschel]

Sounds to me more like what they call "berry bugs" around here (Northumberland), aka harvest bugs, chiggers (in US), aouat (in French), etc. We unfortunetely have them in our gardens and they find me particularly tasty. They are tiny orange mite. They latch onto to you for a couple of days before dropping off and continuing their development. The itching generally doesn't begin until they are gone.

We have a few midges here, but not too bad and they don't tend to come into the house. A bit further north near Kielder Water they are rampant. Don't know about the Lake District, but I would suspect it is a bit too far south.

[David W.E. Roberts]

Can you tell us what you have used to fix the velcro to the UPVC, please :-)

TIA Dave R

[S Viemeister]

The velcro I used, came coated with heavy-duty peel-and-stick adhesive. I installed it in 1998. I bought mine in the curtain and upholstery department of a US fabric shop

- but I've seen it in the UK, too, since then.

Sheila

[MJ]

It's a double-sided rubbery plastic tape used in aircraft cabins and not available in any shop/warehouse. You can't get it anywhere. It sticks like nothing I've seen before.

Before this I'd tried silicon adhesive, normal carpet tape, which is usually pretty good for anything, then epoxy. The epoxy was fairly good.

MJ

[Steve Firth]

K3wL that's useful to me. We have these screens in Italy over doors and windows and this summer decided we need them here as well.

[Flynn]

Let's not get confused here ...

The Scottish midge ("midgie") has the capacity - and rapacity - to make you seriously lose the will to live

They are almost invisible and their effect is almost like being attacked by some kind of nerve gas

I once - seriously - burnt most of my eyebrows off setting fire to a newspaper and holding it to my face to try to get mere seconds of respite from them when I was walking in a steep-sided glen on a warm, calm night (what was I thinking about!)

Ironically, their in-yer-face influence is in no small measure responsible for there being large tracts of Scotland, near water, still largely underdeveloped and beautiful - even the toughest of navvies couldn't stand their maddening onslaught ...

Flynn