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When is it safe to leave the window open at night?

24

Posts

  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    it's only ever been warm enough on 3 nights in the last 10 years for me to leave the windows open at night.
    Devon.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    edited October 2021
    We have doors and windows open all day long but, now it's cooler at night, we do now close them but it's only in the last couple of weeks that I've been collecting bites that itch - 2 or 3 a night and sometimes more.   Tends to happen every October and closing the windows and using a diffuser against them doesn't help so I just keep a tube of anti-itch next to the bed and in my bag.

    Legs, rib cage, back of neck.   No Avon in France.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • floraliesfloralies Posts: 2,718
    Fly screens and plug in mosquito things here in the summer at night, I have more trouble with Horse fly bites than anything else, just getting rid of one from five weeks ago.



  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    I think it depends which floor you are on. In the loft I never get mozzies etc flying in. If the backdoor is open, mozzies etc fly in every month of the year. In the winter the bastards are bigger and slower but in London they never go away, whatever the month. I used to be amazed to see mozzies in January, but not any more.
  • didywdidyw Posts: 3,573
    The gnats have been coming in the bathroom window here - little divils. Got 2 of them though!  I generally have the bedroom window open all during the summer and often during the day for an hour or so in winter to air the room.
    Gardening in East Suffolk on dry sandy soil.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Is 'gnat' a general term or something specific? Culicidae? (Just checking). I think 'midge' for some people means a specific critter (Chironomidae ?) and for others is a general term. I'm not being pedantic. I just always wonder. People talk about swarms of midges (or miggies) in western Scotland but wonder if that means 'lots of biting insects', including mozzies.... 

    Thanks
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    My bedroom windows have been on the catch [overnight] until last week when we had temps only just above zero. I doubt it would have made much of a difference, warmth wise, on those nights though. 
    My bedroom windows are always open during the day all year round, to air the room. 
    I've never had gnats or anything like that indoors [apart from fungus gnats on basil] and we don't get mosquitoes much anyway - I've only ever had those at the edge of a waterbutt - once .
    We only get flies and spiders, unless I bring something else in on my clothes. Nothing really bites me much anyway, even the infamous midge. 
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I like to have my bedroom window open a bit even in the middle of winter. I hate having to keep it shut in the summer.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • WoodgreenWoodgreen Posts: 1,273
    @Fire.Apologies for using such a non-specific term 🙂
    The gnats I referred to are probably mosquitoes, but I really don't know. I just call them gnats! They make a high pitched whining sound as they approach one. Some are bigger than others. Often I can hear one but not see it. But the increase in volume at least alerts me to its approach. They bite . 
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    @B3   Skin so soft disappears as soon as you put it on,  it’s not oil.  You could have the smell under your nose for a while but it’s quite nice and that wears off after a little while. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

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