DIY Magnetic Insect Screen – Keeping Those Nasty Insects Away From Your House!

“OH MY GOD!”

I hear Raevian’s petrifying scream from the kitchen and jump up from the sofa, thinking that someone has broken into our house.

I turn around and rush to the kitchen, fists instinctively clenched to protect my home and honour.

Battle ready, I find myself face to face with the terrifying intruder: an unlucky bee that has somehow flown into our kitchen.

“CATCH IT QUICKLY! IT’S GOING TO FLY INTO THE LIVING ROOM! QUICK!!”

I try not to roll my eyes as I look around for tools to swat the poor insect.

This article was last updated on 07 January 2020 with the current condition of the insect screens, see bottom of this article.

DIY Magnetic Insect Screen

Therefore, as you can tell, it was a priority for us to get an insect screen to keep out any unwanted visitors. Searching online, we came across DIY Magnetic Insect Screen on Qoo10, a local company that sells affordable magnetic insect screens.

The product keeps out insects and mosquitoes by using a mesh. The mesh is attached to your existing window frames by using magnetic strips. The magnetic strips are pasted on your window frames using 3M adhesive tape. Therefore, the insect screen mesh can be removed anytime to be washed. Since the insect screen uses a mesh, air can still flow through and therefore ventilation will not really be affected. There is no nailing or drilling required.

On Qoo10, the DIY Magnetic Insect Screen costs between $20 and $55 based on size. This is significantly lower than the prices we saw in other retail shops.

Installing Insect Screens on Our Bathroom Windows

common toilet window before installing the insect screen

MBR toilet window before installing insect screen

We only installed the DIY Magnetic Insect Screen on our bathroom toilet windows because of a few reasons. Firstly, we did not replace the default HDB toilet window panels, which have big gaps for insects to easily fly in. Secondly, the windows in the rest of our house (living room, MBR, etc) are not the sliding types. Therefore, they have handles that would obstruct the installation of the insect screens. Thirdly, we keep our windows closed almost all the time. Therefore, technically the insects can only come in through our toilet windows.

Choosing the Colours

The insect screen mesh is available in black and grey colours. The PVC frames are available in six colours: black, grey coffee, green, ivory and white. For our MBR toilet, we chose the black mesh and black PVC frame. For the common toilet, we went with the grey mesh and grey PVC frame.

Self-Installation

We ordered the DIY Magnetic Insect Screen through Qoo10 and it arrived in just a few days. All the insect screen parts arrived in good condition, and the kit even consisted of a complimentary cutter for us to cut the hard PVC frames and magnetic strips. This was pretty thoughtful of the company.

Installation was not too difficult and I took about two hours. There was a step-by-step installation guide provided, which consisted of a link to their website that also has a YouTube instruction video. After watching the video I understood much better how to install the screen. The links are at the bottom of this article.

We had to make a small slit in the mesh to create allowance for the toilet window handle. This was slightly tricky because we had to ensure that the slit was at the same position as the handle.

Final Result!

MBR toilet window after installing magnetic insect screen

MBR toilet window close-up

common toilet after installing magnetic insect screen

common toilet window close-up

We were quite happy with how the magnetic insect screen turned out in our bathrooms. For our common toilet, the light grey mesh and PVC frame blend in nicely with the surrounding white tiles and grey window frame. In fact, we almost can’t see the mesh at all.

For the MBR toilet, the black mesh blends in nicely with the dark tiles and is hardly visible too. However, the black PVC frame contrasts a little too much with the window frame and tiles. On hindsight we should have gotten the grey PVC frame instead.

Conclusion

On the whole, we are very happy with the quality of our DIY Magnetic Insect Screen. The holes in the mesh are definitely small enough to keep out most insects and mosquitoes, though very tiny bugs can probably still get through.

We also like that the insect screen is removable for washing. We simply spray it with water to remove dust and leave it to dry for a while.

Based on our observation, this magnetic insect screen can only be installed on sliding windows, since window handles would obstruct the mesh. In our case, we had to make a small slit in the mesh to give allowance for the toilet window handle.

On the whole, this is still a very good product. If you are a homeowner who hates insects, I would highly recommend the DIY Magnetic Insect Screen.

DIY Magnetic Insect Screen
Phone: +65 83672383 (Matthew Teo)
Website: https://magneticinsectscreen.blogspot.com
Qoo10: www.qoo10.sg/gmkt.inc/Goods/Goods.aspx?goodscode=408261070
YouTube Instruction Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohqNLhzVNy4

Update 07 January 2020

We have been using the insect screens for over 1.5 years and so far I have not seen any insects entering our house. The screens are still in very good condition. They are very easy to wash – we just pull them off the magnetic strips and rinse with water. We wash them about once every three months.

This article is part of our completely free and super informative Singapore Home Renovation Guide. Why spend weeks researching when all your renovation information is simply a click away?