Have you heard the one about the fly and the neurobiologist?

If you’re one of those people who is driven nuts by flies and insects, it’s probably about time you got prepared for the onset of spring/summer. Explore your screening options.

If you’re one of those people who is driven nuts by flies and insects, it’s probably about time you got prepared for the onset of spring/summer. Having had such a wet, miserable start to the year, it’s hard to imagine that balmy days are ahead of us, but hopefully, that mythical scenario will come to pass!

Whilst other parts of Europe and the States are way ahead of the UK where the use of insect screening is concerned, it is becoming more popular here and better understood, especially as the effects of climate change take their toll. Here at Streme, we saw a significant uptick in business during the pandemic. This was probably due to the combination of people having more time to ponder such matters (due to furlough) and also because of the huge increase in home working, meaning that people were plagued by insects for 16 hours a day instead of 8…that’s assuming your sleep wasn’t also disturbed by the annoying little blighters!

To go off at a tangent, (humour me for a moment), the aforementioned little blighters may be more self-aware than you think. It’s easy to assume they are just primitive genetic organisms, put on the planet simply to bug human beings (pardon the pun), but I was intrigued by an article in the New York Times, based on research by Christi Gendron, a neurobiologist at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Gendron and a colleague, Dr Pletcher, found that fruit flies that had seen dead compatriots were avoided by other flies, as if they’d been marked by death. Those which had seen other fly carcasses also suffered from a rapid loss of stored fat and died sooner than their untraumatised counterparts. There are suggestions that this is down to the impact such trauma has on serotonin levels… who would even guess that serotonin plays a part in the life of a fruit fly, let alone that it could have that kind of impact? Perhaps it’s a salutary lesson that the creatures we share the planet with are more evolved and self-aware than we suppose and consequently, keeping them out of our houses is a better way forward than simply planning ways in which we can annihilate them.

Ordinarily, the end of April/start of May is when you can expect to see the onset of insect activity, so now is a good time to take action. At Streme, we have an ever-evolving range of solutions, with an increasing focus on how you can source an insect screen to complement your décor, rather than simply having a utilitarian function that does the job but may not look so great! Most of our window and door fly screens can be painted or powder-coated in a variety of colours to co-ordinate with your home, and if DIY is not your strong point, we have a growing network of installers. An installer can come along to discuss alternatives with you and conduct a survey, so that you can be sure that what you’re ordering will fit the bill. Alternatively, we’re happy to take calls and advise you over the phone.

Throw out your fly paper and tins of Raid – give us a call today and do the right thing. Stop traumatising your fellow creatures! But, by all means, keep the annoying, dirty, nasty little pains in the rear out of your home!