Fly Screens For Mexican Homes
Fresh air through the window, without the insects that come with it.
Mexico is not one climate. The coasts are warm and humid for much of the year, the central highlands are mild and dry, and the north swings between hot days and cold nights. What most of the country has in common is stretches of weather good enough that you want the windows open.
Open the window and you get the airflow. You also get whatever is flying around outside. That is the whole problem an insect screen solves, and it is why screens are ordinary equipment in Mexican homes rather than a luxury.
Why a screen rather than just closing the window
Closing up works, but it costs you the thing you opened the window for. A screen lets you keep the opening usable: air moves through, insects do not.
It also means you can leave a window open when you are not in the room, which matters most on the warm evenings when insects are busiest.
Keeping insects out
Mosquitoes, flies, midges and moths are the usual visitors, and mosquitoes in particular can carry disease. A screen deals with all of them the same way, by not letting them in to begin with. That is simpler than spraying, and it keeps working while you are asleep.
Natural cooling
Two open windows on opposite sides of a room move air through it and push the warm, stale air out. With screens on both you can do that without the trade-off, and on a mild day it may be enough that you leave the air conditioning off.
Enjoying outside from inside
A screened door on a patio or terrace lets you leave it open through a meal or an evening with guests. The room stays connected to the outside without the insects joining in.
If someone in the house has allergies
Insects are not the only thing a mesh stops. Pollen and dust are large enough that a fine mesh catches a good share of what would otherwise blow straight in through an open window.
What we actually make
Everything we sell is cut to your own opening and fixed without drilling, so it suits a rented apartment as well as a house you own.
- Magnetic window screens, which close themselves along a magnetic strip
- Velcro window screens, for openings where a magnetic strip does not suit the frame
- Magnetic screen doors, which you walk through and which shut behind you
- Chain and string curtains, for a doorway you want left open
- Replacement mesh, plus the frame lengths, magnetic strip and corner pieces to build or repair your own
Mesh comes in three grades: standard grey for flies and mosquitoes, a finer black mesh for midges, and a tougher pet mesh that resists claws.
Getting the size right
Measure the flat face of the frame around the opening, not the glass, and order the size above your measurement. You cut the screen down at home to fit. If your opening is an odd shape or you are not sure, send us the width and height and we will tell you which size to buy, or whether a made-to-measure screen is the better answer.