I made a DIY bug screen to stop mosquitoes getting into my bedroom at night – it’s the best £10 I’ve spent this summer

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that it’s been warm at night recently, although, thankfully, July has seen cooler overnight temperatures than we saw during the tropical nights of the June heatwave.

That means that as long as you can open your bedroom windows at night, a cooler sleep is available. And as I've learnt in my five years as Ideal Home's Sleep Editor, when it comes to sleeping better, a cooler sleep tends to go hand in hand with a deeper, more restorative sleep.

However, in my experience, opening the bedroom window at night can create its own problems. And where I live, those problems are mosquito-shaped.

That’s why, a few weeks ago, I found myself awake at 2 am, scratching the bite I’d just received on my ankle whilst a mosquito’s high-pitched buzzing sounded in my ears, and searching the internet for a solution.

Could I find a simple fix? No. At least, not a ready-made solution I could buy off the shelf. In other countries, fly screen mesh in a frame seems to be very common, but I couldn't find anywhere to buy a similar product in the UK. So, much googling later, I set about making one myself.

It took me several failed attempts (and a lot of disappointing Amazon purchases) to find a solution that worked, but in the end I created a DIY mosquito screen for my bedroom windows that couldn’t be simpler to install, and it only cost me roughly £10.

Should you too wish to outsmart the biting bugs and find a way to open your bedroom windows to make the most of the cool evening breeze after sunset, this is what you’ll need.

What you'll need

All you need for this fix is two items. That said, finding the *right* two items turned out to be trickier than I anticipated. Luckily, you can learn from my mistakes and head straight to the products that worked.

First up, you'll want some mesh fabric to create the window screen, and secondly, you'll need some hook-and-loop tape, also known as Velcro, if you buy the branded version, to fix that screen onto your window frame.

How I made the DIY mosquito screen

Velcro and fly mesh sourced, I then set about creating a screen that would keep those pesky mosquitoes at bay.

Now, there is one caveat to this DIY solution. The best solution I could conjure involves fixing self-adhesive hook-and-loop tape to your window frame.

I was initially reluctant to do this because I didn’t *really* want tape stuck to my window frame, and when it came time to remove it, I knew the self-adhesive would probably be tricky to take off without leaving sticky residue.

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However, you can’t make a cake without breaking some eggs, and after some very hot nights with the windows closed and some very itchy nights getting bitten when I opened said windows, I decided I could live with the tape.

Buy white hook-and-loop tape if you have white window frames, and I’ve found it really isn’t as noticeable as I feared. In fact, I'm happy to leave it on my windows all year round, ready for next year.

In the end, I used VELCRO Cut-To-Length Strong Hook & Loop Self Adhesive Sticky Tape. It’s self-adhesive and comes in various widths and lengths, as well as in both black and white. I used the 20mm width, which I found was the best width for my window frame.

I measured the frame around the window I wanted to leave open at night, and then bought enough tape to tape around all four sides of my window.

Next up, the fly screen or mesh. I tried multiple types of mesh, but by far the best was this £5.95 Fly Screen Mesh from SISI UK, which I bought on eBay. However, the brand does also seem to sell similar options on its SISI UK Amazon store.

This mesh is stiff, so it holds its shape well, and the holes are big enough to let through a breeze, yet small enough that even the smallest biting bug hasn't been able to penetrate.

I cut the mesh to size so that it covered my window opening and the frame completely, and then stuck the other half of the hook-and-loop tape along each edge of the mesh.

Because the mesh I finally chose is fairly stiff, I found the self-adhesive stuck pretty well. However, if you have more time and patience than me, you can also buy sew-on hook-and-loop tape, which you could stitch along all edges of the mesh. That would probably be stronger still.

Now, as night falls and the outdoor temperature gets cooler, I simply open my window and attach the hook-and-loop tape along the edges of the mesh fly screen to the hook-and-loop tape on my window frame.

This means that the mosquito screen is sealed all around each edge, so there’s no way anything can crawl or fly through.

Then, each morning, I simply peel the hook-and-loop tape apart, and my window is back to normal (minus the tape around the edge of the frame).

However, if you want to make your house impenetrable to flies during the daytime too, you could leave the screen in place all day.

The only downside I’ve found in the past few weeks of using this hack (other than the taped window frame) is that the mesh does restrict the breeze a little.

It’s now far cooler in my bedroom at night than it would be with the windows closed, but not as cool as when the mesh is completely removed. However, for me, that compromise is worth it to remain unbitten.

I've also found that you can counteract this problem by adding a mosquito screen to windows on both sides of your home, where possible. This creates a cross breeze that draws air through the building and keeps things cool whilst you sleep.

And, it isn't just mosquitoes that this DIY fly screen has helped with. Whilst I'm very grateful for the wildlife that makes use of my garden during the night, I do prefer moths to stay outside if possible, rather than flying around my room.

Plus, I think that both myself and the bats who live under my roof eaves are happier to greet each other from a distance. I imagine neither of us particularly wants to experience the chaos that might ensue if we found ourselves sharing the same room!

Considering what a difference this DIY hack has made to my sleep comfort, this is easily the best £10 I've spent this summer, and (once I'd sourced the right products) it really couldn't have been easier to install.