Precautions and Prevention
Methods include:
Protective Clothing
Wearing long sleeves.
Wearing socks and closed shoes and long trousers (USA pants).
Door and Window Barriers
Doors and windows to cover:
Front door
Front door into house or hotel bedroom. Notice the double doors in many bedrooms in hotels (Thailand and Indonesia) with outdoor corridors, not just providing privacy and a place to leave your breakfast tray so it can be collected without disturbing inhabitants of bedroom, not tripping up passers by in corridor.
Side and Back doors
No point blocking the front door if the flies are coming in from the garden or patio windows or sliding doors. Shutters outside and inside can provide barriers whilst letting in fresh air or cool air. In France you often have outside wooden shutters for cooling and therefore windows open into the room.
In the UK we have windows opening outwards.
Side windows. Bathroom windows. Skylights. (These have the advantage that often flies go upwards and can be let out.)
Covering Choices
Covering windows with insect-proof nets which seal at edges.
Covering doors with nets. Or bead curtains.
Fixing self-casing hinges so doors are not left open.
Double barriers - double doors, as are a legal requirement in the UK and UK territories since
Victorian times between toilets and kitchens, so flies can't go from the toilet to the kitchen each time you open the door.
When I was in the USA I noticed that in the hot southern states in was common to have fabric or metal insect proof barriers on windows and doors. If your windows don't already have these, as a landlord or tenant or even somebody staying temporarily for short stay abroad you can do this. How to you fix the covering? Just look at the work surfaces and google the possibilities or photograph the surface and take the picture into a DIY store.
Choices include:
1 Touch and close loops (known in the UK by the brand name Velcro);
2 Blue tac or white tac,
3 Washable glue
4 Hammer in nails
(For old property or somewhere about to be demolished where you don't mind damaging the walls when you leave or change decor)
Or drill holes and when you need to leave then fill in holes afterwards with filler and if necessary cover with paint or varnish or decorative gold stars or curtain hooks or stickers.
Hong Kong
In Hong Kong I have stayed with two families. Windows are often overlooked. Some windows have no outlook. Others allow the neighbours in the same block or adjoining block to look in at you, or you are distracted by them. Solutions used by my friends include inside horizontal slatted blinds, or paper pasted onto a closed window.
Australia
In Australia flies can be a great nuisance, quite apart from any danger, especially near beaches and even tourist landmarks such as the multiple rocks in the sea.
In Australia camping shops and outdoor shops and clothing shops sell hats with front brims like baseball caps with side and back covering over the neck.
You can also buy amusing hats with corks around them. However, I find corks bobbing across my sunglasses and vision are a nuisance. Wasted money? I found a different use for these hats as a novelty for wearing on stage in England talking about Australia.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
No comments:
Post a Comment