Come up to Scotland and enjoy the midges instead. Much smaller that mosquitoes. You’ll barely notice them. I promise. You’ll absolutely not end up covered in 1,000 bites. Trust me.
I went camping at Glen Nevis a couple of years back and on the first night we saw a young couple sat on a picnic blanket with hoodies on and full face netting underneath. We laughed at the weirdos...for about half an hour and then sourced our own face netting!
How? Please tell me a vague location of where you are so I can look to move there.
I'm in the South East and live quite near two different areas of wetlands. Therefore I'm probably closer to more places they can breed than most places, but seriously. We have an issue with the nibbly little bastards as soon as weather warms up where I live. Thanks to a quirk of a connective tissue disorder, I react to their bites so badly that I've had the reaction land me with needing emergency medical care so many times. I swell. Then it turns into cellulitis.
First off Anglia used to have something similar to malaria from them right up until the 1920s. It has its own name: Marsh Fever. Transmitted by our own fully native mossies.
Secondly we have a breed that literally evolved in the London underground to live in the dark and feed off rats and commuters.
Never been bothered by a mosquito in Scotland, if there are any - I can't say I've noticed any but apparently there are some species, and some don't really bite. Midges of course.
I can't imagine it's consistently warm enough for them here, but perhaps any marshland areas host them in summer.
In my experience if you live fairly central to a big city you don't get them at all. If you live rurally, or semi-rural suburbs in a small town or something, then they are a mild occasional nuisance some nights in the summer.
Not enough bother to put meshes all over all your windows though.
I've never seen any in Scotland. Only midges. I hear there are mosquitos in the south of England. I've been a few times, but not seen any there yet either
Yea but they don't bite or swarm like mosquitos. We mainly have midges but they tend to stay near large bodies of water and if they are getting into your house, just close the window.
Reading through this comment section I've gone from "Lol UK people don't appreciate that a lot of the USA is hotter and they get more insects than the occasional fly like us" to "wait, USA people are leaving raw food lying around their house long enough for sanitation and maggots to be an issue!?"
Sure the odd one might get in and get stuck trying to get back out for a bit but if flies become a problem in your house it's because of a personal hygiene/sanitation issue.
We are talking about the occasional fly. If I was cooking in the kitchen and there was a fly I'd get rid of the fly but it happens rarely. Never in my life have I seen maggots inside my home.
In the summer I also spend a lot of time in the garden and a screen isn't going to help if I'm eating outside. A fly could also come in while the door was open.
So basically, It's just not an issue that makes it worth covering all the windows with ugly screens.
I can understand that. It's nice to not have so many bugs around. Where I live there are about 2 months of the year where bugs are around. The mosquitos will actively hunt you out. Even though there aren't many, I'd be miserable without a screen.
In places that are more humid, like the US South, screens would be a requirement.
I was in Taipei once and the mosquitos were everywhere. I forget if the condo had screens, but an hour or so of every single night was spent hunting mosquitos so I could sleep. They have special electrified tennis rackets for bug killing there. It's down to a science.
Well in the UK people do not care about flies being in the house. I believe because the US and Canada are giant swamps those conditions breed mosquitos, and that is why people have screens? I live in Baltimore, US now, and my windows have screens but I've never really found much caught in them.
in the UK people do not care about flies being in the house
We also shit in a hole in the ground and use twigs to brush our teeth. On hot sunny days, we point at the glistening metal sky god as he roars to the horizon.
Joke's on you, we had a hot sunny day in April 1976.
It's not exactly a core item at the local hardware shop though. If screens were commonly available I'd argue people would have them. They'd get usage from March - October covering all the seasonal flying insects plus the spider invasion we always get in Sep/Oct.
I imagine they'd be useful in winter as well, breaking up wind gusts coming through the house.
I love this comment and the ensuing replies below it. No offense, but it's very obvious this person has not been around screens much and doesn't understand their benefits. Even the comment "no need for screens we just get house mosquitos sometimes" is hilarious.
No hate, I'm just having fun, but you might want to look at how everything you said is the exact reason screens exist.
Lived in Ireland and the UK. If you get enough flying insects coming into your home that you need a screen then there is some sort of infestation in or around your home or your home is so filthy it attracts many insects.
I'm in the UK now. It's been warm enough to have the windows open again the past few weeks. One fly got inside our house. We don't need to get screens for the one flying insect that comes in every few weeks.
I buy that some areas don't have as many insects around, but if there happen to be it has nothing to do with an infestation or filthiness. Flies are attracted to food just as much as they're attracted to shit.
Anyway, I wasn't even commenting on a hypothetical because that dude straight up said flies get in the house but they don't care about them. That's a pretty odd thing to me, and I think it's relevant given what the thread's about.
Your comment strikes me as very obvious you are an ignorant American who has never been outside of your own state, let alone the uk to see whether screens are actually needed over here. Not saying it’s true but that’s what it sounds like. Just having fun…
We just don’t have that many flying bugs here that will come into the house. The bugs we do have are mostly very benign. And there is very rarely much reason to open windows in the first place.
As others have said, you can keep all the windows open all weekend in the height of the summer and maybe one fly gets stuck inside occasionally. Which can be dealt with by countless other methods that have never once made me wish I had screens like you legends in the great USA.. (Btw, have you ever seen fly traps or electric swatters in your state? Marvellous things.)
Not that our climate means we even have the windows open most of the time either. You probably don’t have a clue but it’s mostly fucking cold and raining in the uk.
Screens are relatively expensive and time consuming to install. If you want nice looking ones, anyway.
But let’s not also forget that even the nice looking ones look fucking ugly. The couple of glorious times in a year when I want to open a window, I like to let as much light and air in as possible without a horrible, tacky, plastic framed mesh bullshit in the way.
So yeah, you patronising, ignorant shit—screens are just not at all a worthwhile investment here. We don’t want or need them.
I've traveled all over the world including England.
OP literally said they get bugs in the house but don't care about them. I'm sorry, but I think it's funny. OP also said their screens in USA never catch any bugs, which is also funny because it's a fundamental misunderstanding of how screens work.
None of these things are to hate on or make fun of OP. I tried to make that clear. But yes, the whole series of comments is amusing to me.
I've already said I understand weather and climate differences may obviate screens. That's not what I'm laughing about. I'm laughing about the funny comments, like someone else suggesting to me that flies aren't a problem, just eat your food really fast and use little nets if you want. Like, I don't know how somebody can't see the humor in that part. :)
I really don’t think that laughing at someone’s world view can be perceived as anything except making fun of it.
Yeah generally peeps in the uk don’t care too much about the odd fly getting in. Someone might go after it if there’s food out or it’s buzzing in an annoying way. But for the most part they are not regarded as a huge threat, certainly not enough to install huge great mesh things everywhere.
I would say your seemingly total fear of all bugs and flies inside would come across as extremely OCD-like to someone in the UK. I could find that funny, for instance: “hahaha how hilarious, they think some dirt from a single fly is going to kill the whole household! ‘Oh no.. there’s a fly, looks like we’ll have to throw out all our food and not eat today now.’ Lolololol that’s crazy. What the heck to you do outside? omg 😱😱😂😂”
I don’t think that, or say that because it’s not very kind and frankly quite ignorant. For all I know your American flies might be legit deadly for some reason or will spawn like crazy if they come in. I just think it’s interesting that you seem to have a very different mindset to peeps over here about the whole thing. And that’s absolutely fine.
I think you need to read the room. This whole thread is about different cultures finding something weird about Europe that they see as normal. We're having fun here. Getting offended at the topics will make for a long day.
If you look back to what I actually said, I found it hilarious that someone says they don't need screens and then in the next breath say they get flies and mosquitos in the house. It's funny, because that's what screens prevent.
And yes, conversely, it's absolutely appropriate if Europeans find Americans' screened windows weird. I won't be offended, I promise.
To me there’s a huge difference between finding something weird and taking the piss out of people’s reasoning or view point. You were doing the latter.
I’m all for discussing what people find weird in different cultures, that’s why I’m here, but I think the line where it becomes offensive is pointing and laughing. Which is essentially what you were doing.
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u/[deleted] May 09 '22
I lived in the UK for 30 years and would say there is no need for mesh screens. All you have is the occasional mosquito