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I've never seen a window without a screen except in England where they don't have mosquitoes.
You may have been in parts of England (urban areas) where there aren't many mosquitoes. In some areas, there are a lot. Anyway, mosquitoes aren't the only flying insects that screens keep out of the house. There are flies and bees almost everywhere. Wide open windows or doors are just inviting creatures to come in. My husband had a small bird fly into his office when the door was open for a while, and it wasn't that easy to get out!
We have them here in CO though we could probably do without. Hardly any insects here. They were very necessary in my previous life in the mid-Atlantic area.
I’m in CO but I don’t open windows that don’t have screens primarily because of our annual miller moth invasion (which, incidentally, we didn’t have last year) & because my neighborhood, for the last several years has had a problem with wasps.
I already know I’m allergic to bees. I don’t know about wasps but I don’t want to find out the hard way!
I grew up in, and still live in NE Ohio, and all windows have/had screens. I currently have those aluminum triple-track storm windows, as described in post #25. I open my windows in mid-May, and, unless it gets really hot, or we get a very strong thunderstorm, they stay open until about the middle of October.
When I was in Florence, Italy, (study abroad, spring semester) our apartment windows didn't have screens.
OP you are correct, they never seem to open screens on TV. I have never lived anyplace where we didn't have screens (Florida, New York, North Carolina) but my brother-in-law lived in a NYC high-rise part time for work and he had no screens. I guess they figure bugs aren't going up that high, however I would be worried about my kid or pet falling out the window when it is open.
I have screens but will only use them in the back windows. I hate the look of screens on windows so, the front of the house has no screens and, I never open those windows, except to clean them. Back and sides of the house, yes, I keep the windows open with screens in as much as possible but, all screens come out in the winter. I really like the look of clean windows and, with screens in, they never look clean.
OP you are correct, they never seem to open screens on TV. I have never lived anyplace where we didn't have screens (Florida, New York, North Carolina) but my brother-in-law lived in a NYC high-rise part time for work and he had no screens. I guess they figure bugs aren't going up that high, however I would be worried about my kid or pet falling out the window when it is open.
Some high rises don't have opening windows. Did his open? I don't know the NYC laws and policies on the pre-war buildings. Not sure when "screens" started as part of the window.
In FL, for example.
They don't want the screen crashing down to the ground on someone's head.
Something I always notice in movies and TV shows, when someone opens a window, there is no screen - they can jump right out, throw something, lean out, whatever.
Where I grew up (northeast US) we always had screens. But I asked about this on another forum a while ago and apparently not everyone has them.
So, do you have them, and what area are you in? Are there places where it is normal NOT to have them?
I don't think it's that they don't "have them". It's that they don't USE them.
Of course we have screens. This is Massachusetts and Connecticut. You couldn't have the windows open in summer if you didn't have screens. You'd get swarms of mosquitoes.
It's hot and muggy here in summer.
I lived at the beach for a few years and found that there are no mosquitoes at the beach! Also no mosquitoes when I lived on a lake! The breezes keep them away. But all the windows still had screens. I've never seen a window without a screen except in England where they don't have mosquitoes.
LOL people saying they live without screens but open their windows? I don't believe it. House flies, gnats, spiders, bees, raccoons, squirrels, birds, fox, BEARS??? LOL
And in most face on auto scenes in movies and TV shows there is no windshield.
Same reasons.
I agree that screens are often omitted from movies and TV, for artistic license. But, during car scenes, the viewer is not supposed to know there isn't a windshield. People aren't leaning out of, or throwing things through open windshield. Even the Dukes of Hazzard slid across the hood and windshield to climb through the door openings.
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