Window Help - how to block bugs from entering

Kates_Moby

Could someone please tell me the link that was posted a couple weeks ago that showed how to line window tracks to keep bugs out? Just about eaten alive in northern Wisconsin last week. Thank you.

RZRBUG

I recently posted this information on the LG site and hope it might help with your problem, or at least give you some ideas.  I found there are tiny gaps on both sides, as well as the top and bottom, of my windows to let in skeeters and other unwanted six-legged creatures.  There have been solutions discussed elsewhere, including one excellent one I saw somewhere with pictures, but I can't remember where or by whom and a search of this site did not turn up anything.  Perhaps it was on the Yahoo Group site.

My solution was to take round foam that comes in rolls and stuff it along the sides and top of the windows.  It can be found at hardware stores.  If you can’t find the round, almost any store will have the square type.  I’d suggest the kind without the sticky side as it will be easier to maneuver.  This stuff is about the size of my little finger (I know that's rather ambiguous because my little finger may be larger or smaller than yours, but you get the general idea).  Take a look at the channels at the side and get a thickness that will fill them up.  Be sure to take a blunt object, like the erasure end of a pencil, and stuff it way back into the track along which the shade and screen slides so as not to interfere with its operation.  Do just one side and test the up-and-down motion of the shade before proceeding.  Same with the area at the top where the shade rolls up when it is raised.  You want to be sure the foam does not interfere with this operation as well.  You will need to reach up under the shelf at the top of the window, but it can be done rather easily.  Just don’t pull out too hard as you don’t want to break the plastic frame.

I then took some very small screws and fastened the bottom of the window frame to the walls of the T@B.  There is a gap there to the outside large enough for bugs to enter.  These screws need to be short enough not to go through the wall to the outside.  This operation is made easier by starting the hole with a drill bit smaller than the screws you use.  I know some of you are averse to drilling into your walls, but the screws are in the window frame, then the wall and are not very noticeable.  You will need more than one or two because of the material they are screwed into and you don’t want them to pull out.  I understand some windows may already have some time of foam insulation here, so nothing may need to be done.  If you can find some very thin type of foam to stuff up under here, the screws may not be necessary.

No more skeeters.

:-q

Verna

Ya beat me to, Larry.  Here's the LG link: 

(Click on the blue link:)

Kates_Moby

Thank you. I had also seen the one with pics, but that's ok, your description has me going the right direction.

IACamper

The one with pics was done by Jay Rogers, and it is available on Yahoo and the two Facebook sites. He used the fuzzy weatherstrip that's used in storm windows and doors, which slides in a track on the T@B windows and closes the gap between the window frame and the screen. The side tracks of the windows are easily removed by removing one screw toward the bottom. The weatherstrip is a little difficult to find, but I was able to find some that had .350 pile on a .187 backing at Amazon that worked perfectly. Keep in mind, this is for the old Dutchmen T@Bs.

Kates_Moby

Thanks so much, that is the one I have seen. I am going to do this.

RZRBUG

Great.  Hope it is a successful project for you.  Of course my T@B is a 2013 model made by Little Guy, so I have no idea how the windows compare to the Dutchmen models.  I just know that on my model it is not necessary to remove any of the window frame in order to accomplish the objective.

Kates_Moby

Definitely will try to put it in without removing the frame, but I have a Dutchman so it may be necessary. Anything to be bug free! My husband told me tonight I was whimpy when it came to bugs.

IACamper

It was very easy. Several folks did it at the Midwest rally recently, and it took 15-30 minutes per T@B, even for someone who hadn't done them before.