<BR><BR> In the countryside during summer, as someone mentionned, I close the wooden shutters and open the windows when the weather is hot. It keeps the house cool and prevent the bugs from entering. Screens wouldn't help with the heat in a house without A/c. Also, as several people pointed out, the windows open to the inside, and a screen wouldn't fit in. Anyway, I'm happy this way and see no need to have screens. It all eventually fall down to local habbits.<BR><BR><BR>By the way, the giant-sized <BR>"mosquitoes" don't bite, indeed. I think they aren't mosquitoes at all, actually.

The answer is simple: stupidity. However, I am renting an apt. in Venice with screens. The owner's wifee is American. Tom

So if they Italians don't put screens on their windows...like Americans...then they are stupid? Try a little decaf Tom.

OMG, this is one ancient thread.

But since you asked:
The reason is: No bugs.
Depends on region and "altitude" of your place.
I live in Berlin on the 6th floor and leave windows and doors to balcony open day and night since the heat started in late April.
Unless I am away for more than just the day.
I leave the lights on inside at night.
Number of bugs, flies or wasps in three months: maybe 10, maybe less.
Mosquitos and flies are usually a problem on ground or up to 2nd floor, here.
But you can get screens for windows or doors at any home improvement store. Also the lighter version of just attaching a screen between frame and window with velcro. Most people just don't need it.

Depends where you are in Europe, a lot of places have mosquitoes in abundance, especially in hotter countries such as Greece, Cyprus, South of France etc Moscow & St Petersburg & rural areas of Sweden.

In 2001, in early October, I stayed in a moderate priced hotel in Florence with no screens. I got so bitten up at night that my face was covered in welts the next morning. They grudgingly gave me an electric appliance that was supposed to take care of the bugs...and mosquito coils to burn at night.goodness knows what chemical they are made of. .

But in the past decade I've stayed in more upscale European hotels and they all have screens! I'm sure many upscale European homes have screens if there are bugs in warm months. We certainly have them in NYC and I would not open a window without the screen being in place.

What I wish I had were the rolling shutters that blot out the light! Anyone ever have them retrofitted for use in the USA?

Plenty of companies sell rolling metal shutters in the US.

Some years back we stayed at a hotel between Aix-en-Provence and Nice that actually had window screens. We were very happy, as the hotel was in a slightly rural setting.

On the East Coast and in the Midwest the bugs were bigger and there were more of them than in Europe. As a European friend who crossed the U.S. in the mid-Fifties remarked, windshields were splattered with dozens of bugs in a very short time, whereas the number of bugs on the car windshields in Europe is minimal. In other words, east of the Rockies the U.S. has more bugs flying around than Europe does in its inhabited areas. Screens are rare in San Francisco, and we do not have any, nor do we have a bug problem. Marshy areas are the exception to the rule.

We had a house in the Dordogne in the middle of a field, and surrounded by fields where cows often crazed. We had no screens. Horseflies flew in the house whenever the doors were left open, but once inside they did not bite because they were trying to escape. We removed up a dozen or so dead flies every evening from the floor near the windows (only our doors opened, not the windows). Public doorways that are left open all day frequently have a bead screen to keep out the flies.

I have mentioned it before on the Forum, but I once asked a landlord in Spain why there were no screens on the windows of an apartment that had a lot of flies. He looked surprised and said, "But Senor, how then would the flies get out?"

Mosquito-borne diseases are an emerging public health threat in Europe.

https://ecdc.europa.eu/en/disease-ve.../mosquito-maps

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5812531/

My son's mum who I visited in France for years never had screens (Orleans, France- about 70 miles south of Paris) and nor did any residence I ever saw and there were no bugs at all ever except the odd fly.

But they all did seem to have some kind of thing they plugged into wall just below the window in bedrooms they said kept skeeters and such a way - I poohpooed that idea because we would have had them in the U.S. I thought. But in fact or I believe there were few mosquitoes or insects even when I sat outside - for years and years of doing so - why I don't know but perhaps this is true elsewhere in Europe too in large cities or areas with seemingly few insects.

So skimming thru replies above and seeing no reasonable explanation unless those sonor-emitting electric devices or however they work things would be a reason.

I have been quoting these two replies for the past seventeen years. I never imagined I would see where I got this from again.

St. Petersburg and Malaga ....two places where mosquitoes
ruined my sleep..

By the way.. If you ever have an issue with mosquitos in Europe and your accomodation does not provide screens, you can get those little repellent devices the size of an adapter plug.
You can buy them at any larger supermarket or Walgreens-type drug store chain for next to nothing.. around €5-10.
The device does nothing more than slightly heating up the inserted solid or liquid repellant so it evaporates as long as it is plugged in.

They look like this:
https://www.dm.de/raid-insekten-stec....5000204709186

Since (in this case) Johnson is the manufacturer, I doubt that it is a European invention ;-)

We don't have screens. No one here does. We have the occasional flies and mosquitoes, but those little plug-in buzzer things and coils that you burn outside seem to work well enough. That said, we have moths of every color, size, and description that seem to enjoy our home and flock to any source of light. And we have minuscule black things that manage to produce itchy welts 10 times bigger than themselves. Pharmacies here are now handing out ominous pamphlets warning of severe mosquito issues in France, too.

Things hav changed a LOT since this thread started. Screens are a now fast growing industry, esp here in the France/Germany/Switzerland tri-country area. There are several businesses doing custom made screens. The owner of one of them told us they are booked solid year round and could easily have work 12 hours a day seven days a week in spring and summer. Wasps are bad this year and my French friend in Alsace has had her kitchen, dining room and bedrooms screened. Her family loves it. She will have the living room done next year.

We had screens installed three years ago thoughout our apartment. Well worth the investment. The DIY stores here all stock screen kits and they are fast sellers, but we got the pros in for ours.

we get swallows in and they sort out our bugs in Yorkshire

WOW a 17 year old thread. Started pre-registration.

This place needs to revive old threads. It is really dragging here. I noticed the pre-registration also. Those were the days.