Mosquito nets not closing - walls / windows not true

[TD]

This is more of a uk.holiday.home.-d-i-y question. ;)

Our place in the sun has been made to "traditional" standards. The mosquito nets are built into the windows, they simply slide across like an extra window-pane, covering the opening. However, they don't all close 100% snugly. Not much point in a net if the mosquitos can get in around the side.

It's because the window frame is screwed to the wall, which isn't 100% straight, it kind of fattens out halfway up then goes back, creating a (very shallow) C-shape. NB The window itself closes properly, due to it being at the front edge of the frame which is less affected by the bend.

What's a reasonable way to solve this? Unscrew the window frame from the wall, fill the gap with cement or some other filler, then screw the frame back?

It doesn't seem like it's going to be a very simple solution...

[Mr Pounder]

[geoff]

You need industrial strength Baygon, spray it behind every wardrobe and cupboard and under the bed half an hour before you go to bed

[Andy Champ]

Actually you want DDT. It's probably the best thing for this job, trouble is it wipes out too many other things apart from the bugs.

Andy

[Nick Odell]

Apparently Baygon does not contain Diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET) but DDT and DEET sound a bit similar when you say them out loud and I wonder whether these two products are bieng confused with each other?

Nick

[Dave Liquorice]

I doubt very much you can get DDT these days it must be one of the first insecticides to be banned. DEET is the principle component if insect repellants, AFAIK it doesn't kill.

If mozzies are problem at night a proper mozzie net over the bed is required, preferably one treated with a contact insecticide like permethrin to get the little beggers that have found their way inside or through holes.

[Thomas Prufer]

Here in Germany, there's a tape generically called "Kompriband" that's used in window installs, and for flexible waterproof gap sealing.

It's a open-cell foam with the pores charged with some sort of water-repellent stuff, adhesive under a waxed paper strip on one side. It's compressed and then rolled up; unroll it and it expands slowly, in minutes (30°C) to a day (5°C). It's specced by the size of the gap it fills (say 2-6mm) and still remain waterproof. Its final expansion is about five times the compressed thickness, and it will be bug-proof but not waterproof at that expansion.

Cheap, designed for the purpose of sealing gaps around windows, and will solve your problem if you can get the stuff: ebay.de "Kompriband".

Thomas Prufer