If only they had fitted.....

We have had our Broadway FB for just over a year and have clocked up just under 120000 miles, mostly in France.
Whilst we love the van, and have sorted out a few niggles along the way, there are a few things that we would have liked fitted, and really can't understand why they weren't!
First up. A fly screen in the doorway. All the windows and roof lights have them, but the opening that is going to introduce more flies/ mosquitoes than anything else, is the door. It can't be left open when it's really hot without bugs coming in.
Almost every Euro van and many UK vans we see has them. Why not Autosleeper? (I know, we can fit those chenille rope curtains and things.....)
Next. Cab window blinds. Again, most new Euro vans have these and lots of older uk vans. We have to put up with 1970's curtains ( well actually, we have external Silverscreens and internal insulated screen covers) but to keep the van insulated against heat and cold, the curtains are a ( very old fashioned) joke
I know the new Winter packs include blinds but why aren't they fitted as standard?
They look smart and are easy to put up

If only these items were fitted, it would be the perfect van. ( well, apart from heated insulated water tanks, but we have those now anyway)

Allan

Hi there,

One hundred and twenty thousand miles in just over a year!  AMAZING!     

I'm surprised that you managed to find a fly that wasn't plastered to the front of the van!   

Having toured from Finland to Gibralter in most weathers we haven't had a problem with flies in the Duetto as both the sliding door and the side screens have built-in nets and any that manage to get in soon get despatched with a trusty old fly-swat.

I must admit that a single fly zooming around at night is a real pain, mainly because it just might be something else a bit more nasty!  

Best regards,
 

ajrm wrote:We have had our Broadway FB for just over a year and have clocked up just under 120000 miles

That is amazing, but... how do you find the time? Some crude maths suggests you must be spending at least 6 hours a day driving, every day!

Guessing it's a typo???

The shape of the door makes it almost impossible to fit a rigid net flyscreen. For £8 I bought a very light dangly strings type in Wilkinson. It is not ideal but it does work.
What I find more difficult is the fact that the door cannot be fully opened because it would partially block the fridge vents. In any breeze it slams shut.

Could a JML Fly Screen (think it's called a Snap Screen) not be modified to fit?

Typo it's 12000 miles. We tried a KML snap screen, it didn't work. It's not only flies (they drive the dog mad) but I get a bad allergic reaction from mosquito bites, so keeping them out is a priority
Allan

Hi there,

Two different types of animal that need different responses!

We don't have a problem with house-flies and just swat them whenever they get in the van.

For mosquitos we:

o  Use anti-mosquito wipes and spray from Lidl when sat out during the evenings.  Cheap and effective.

o  Have a Baygon "Anti-mosquito" block permanently sat on a shelf in the van.

o  Kill any mosquitos that may already be in the van with Baygon before we go inside and set up for the night.

o  Burn citronella night-lights (again compliments of Lidl) throughout the night to discourage them from coming into the van.

The system has worked for us from as far north as Finland down to Gibraltar.  We can count on one hand the number of bites we have had over the last three years and that includes deterring the dreaded Scottish midge.

Hope this helps.  

Best regards,
 

PS

I remember once laid on a hatch sunbathing on a ship as we traversed the Intra-Coastal Canal in the USA and watching a fly land on my arm.

Not in the least bit bothered I expected it to extend its little "sucker" and proceed to do whatever flies do for amusement when this particular fly produced something akin to a pneumatic drill and proceeded to drive it into my arm like a hypodermic needle.

It was the first time I realised that there is more than one type of fly!  

PPS

Having dog in the van please be careful to inspect the dog for tics every night; especially at this time of year.

Please check out this site:

http://www.lymediseaseaction.org.uk/about-ticks/

I use the strongest mossy killer available, burn citronella candles and have lavender soaked tissues at the door. Very few Mosquitos get in, mostly because we have the door closed nearly all of the time, hence the concern about screens for the door. Dogs are checked for ticks constantly, I am pretty adept at removing them if they do get through the daily inspections.
I only became allergic to mosquito bites about 30 years ago. I was travelling through France in my car and stopped for the night in an entrance to a field. I only realised in the morning I was parked next to a lake that must have been the best mosquito breeding ground in the country. I had 57 bites on my right side ( the only bit exposed when I was asleep ) and 13 on my right foot, which swelled up to look like one of Frankenstein's monsters feet.
Anyway, since then, any mosquito bite caused a huge reaction that lasts 3 of 4 days.
We get those biting flies in Brittany too. Feels like they stick a hot pin in you, but never had a reaction from them....yet!
Allan

You have my sympathy I have the same reaction to all sort of bugs. I went to France in July equipped with a mossie net, Deet wipes and gel and a electric repeller, plus I hoped that our Windblockers would keep them away when I was sitting outside. For the first time ever we saw hardly any biting bugs so did not get to try them out.  I also had a fly screen from Aldi but did not have to work out the best way to put it up. I have not had such a bug free summer holiday for years!!!
I will be interested to know what fly screen you finds works best.

Louise

To deter fleas and ticks from dogs, use neem oil, can be bought as  spray or a liquid, I have not had one flea or tick on three dogs in three years since I have started using this. easy to find online. natural product not chemicals.

daisy mae wrote:To deter fleas and ticks from dogs, use neem oil, can be bought as  spray or a liquid, I have not had one flea or tick on three dogs in three years since I have started using this. easy to find online. natural product not chemicals.

Many thanks for that daisy mae!

We inherited a Fiama door screen when we bought our W reg Legend.  It is split into two sides so people and the dog can walk trhough, but allows a flow of air and keeps out most flying beasties.  I have added (stick and stick) velcro patches to hold it lightly in place.  When not in use, the two halves roll away to almost nothing...so inconspicuous, in fact, that we had had the van for some time before I even noticed that they were there!   http://www.johnscross.co.uk/products/fiamma-mosquito-net-habitation-door-screen.html

Swansea Jac wrote:We inherited a Fiama door screen when we bought our W reg Legend.  It is split into two sides so people and the dog can walk trhough, but allows a flow of air and keeps out most flying beasties.  I have added (stick and stick) velcro patches to hold it lightly in place.  When not in use, the two halves roll away to almost nothing...so inconspicuous, in fact, that we had had the van for some time before I even noticed that they were there!   http://www.johnscross.co.uk/products/fiamma-mosquito-net-habitation-door-screen.html

I bought one of those. It doesn't work on the Nuevo because of the step up into the van. It has no space to move to let you past easily. That's why I bought the Wilco strings.

WOW!!  My deepest sympathies to anyone who has a major reaction to an insect bite!!     

I've had a couple "go bad" over the years (both on the back of my hand) and it was a painful experience that I wouldn't like to repeat!!

My good lady got bitten in France by a "cleg" (Scottish for horsefly) and the underside of her thigh looked as if someone had slid a small tea-plate underneath her skin; it was that hard and the colours ranged from a bright red on the edge to a sickly yellow in the centre.

It lasted for two whole days and I was assured that the pain was excruciating from about an hour after she felt the initial "nip".  Here's why ......

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photo-horsefly-5-image38308925

Enjoy.  

Best regards,
 

Sympathies from here as well. We both got bitten at Grafham Water CC site by presumably a horsefly (Carol felt hers, I did not) both just below the back of the knee. Took a fortnight for them to go.

Last bites were 2 weeks ago, despite covering myself in Jungle Formula maximum. 2 on the back of my right forearm ( looked like one of Popeye's arms) and one on my left index ginger next to the nail. ( looked like one of those pointy sponge fingers)
We might try one of those chenille rope screens if we can find one. We are in France till 12th so am hoping somewhere here sells them

Dogs are stick tick free after almost 3 weeks so we must be doing something right
Allan

When we go abroad, I very rarely get a mozzy bite, but here at home we live opposite fields and at the moment the farmers are harvesting, I walk the dog in the fields and while it has been hot I have had shorts on. Big mistake something has been feasting on my legs and ankles really big bites and really itchy, its never happened before so don't know why its happened this year..

I'm one of those people that checks out all the other people on La Rambla, on the bus, in fact everywhere, in case they're pickpockets. I check every unusual sound outside the house (in fact I caught a car theft ring through my obsessive vigilance a few years ago). I call the police if I see a car with 'yoof' in it outside a remote house (and got a gang of burglars caught in the act).

This obsessive behaviour extends to mossies and especially horse flies, I   hate the little   .

So, I'm always aware of them and, especially horse flies, I'm on a mission to make sure they don't get away to do it to someone else.   

I got bitten behind the elbow by something while under the van draining the rad, in France this year, but that's unusual for me, I'm very vigilant. (SWMBO has another description for it   )

I even made special nets to fit the hatches on the yacht we used to hire in Greece, and took them with us, along with the plug-in mossie killer tablets, which I carefully placed above the cabin reading lights to keep them warm.

I have one of those electronic zapper tennis racquet thingys too, and I have great fun pitting human ingenuity against six legged evolutionary weaponry.

OTOH, I love insects in general, and wouldn't harm a...........

     

Do the chenille strips- or plastic strips - work ?

We've tried several different door screens: one of the cheap ones intended for house doors from the likes of JML, online catalogues and Poundshops. That worked fine on our old van and we might get another for this one. We've also had the Fiamma one which we did not get on with as we kept pulling it down and never managed to get it so that the overlap was big enough to keep determined insects out. I've also tried a piece of (soft) mosquito netting, hung from a thin aluminium pole above the inside of the door and with a length of lead curtain weight on the bottom. This is excellent for keeping out insects but you need to be fairly patient and careful when finding the way in and out.

By far the best was the  fitted door screen on our first two vans years ago.  I can understand why fitting the flat aluminium version on some doors is impossible but I could see a concertina type one- if they exist- fitting in our Broadway door.

Q

Reading the last post I have remembered how I was planning to hang up the netting I bought in Aldi where the fittings were not really suitable. I am off to Wilko to buy a small expanding rail that comes with two hooks which will screw into the wall above the door and then a little work with the sewing machine to sew the curtains together at the top so they overlap and make a channel for the rod. I will post a photo when it is finished
Thanks Quilter for jogging my memory.

Louise

We had a retro-fitted sliding mozzie screen on our last van (not and A/S).  It was great except for one drawback...The mesh was so fine that it was invisible, and people tended to try to walk through it!  I resorted to trying to embroider on it to make it more noticable.  However, that is not as easy as it might appear.... You need to be both outside it and inside it to pass the needle through... and the spring loaded door had a mind of its own!...and there couldn't be any trailing bits of cotton either, as they would have fouled the rolling mechanism!...I still laugh whenI remember my antics trying to solve that problem! 

Interesting thread, we tried the JML screen and found it useless so will be searching an alternative before we go to France.
Currently in Canada, mosquito spray in these parts is important but bear spray even more so and you don't want to be bitten by one of them! 

Well, we bought a chenille rope screen and a fly swat from Calais caravannes. Seems to do the trick unless it's windy, then it's all over the place. I guess whatever we have, some of the little bitey bu***rs are going to get in. The fly swat works great on those. Trouble is, I'm like a man possessed running around the van with a torch and swatter at midnight!
Allan