If you’ve ever spent an evening on your Port Orange lanai and come back inside covered in tiny itchy bites, you probably met the no-see-um. These little biting midges are so small you can barely spot them — and the frustrating part is that they’re slipping through screens that look perfectly fine.
We hear about this all the time from homeowners around Port Orange, Daytona Beach, and New Smyrna Beach. Here’s why it happens, and what we can do about it.
Why Your Screens Let No-See-Ums In
Standard pool enclosure and lanai screens are woven at 18/14 mesh — that means 18 strands by 14 strands per inch. It’s great for keeping out mosquitoes, flies, and palmetto bugs, but a no-see-um is only about 1/16 of an inch long. A determined one can work its way right through standard mesh.
That doesn’t mean your screens are “bad.” It usually means one of three things:
- The mesh is standard 18/14. It was never designed to stop insects this small.
- There are small gaps or tears. Even a pinhole tear, a gap along a door edge, or loose spline gives them an open door.
- Screens have loosened over time. Florida sun and storms stretch and weaken mesh, opening tiny pathways you can’t see from a few feet away.
The Fix That Works Best: 20/20 No-See-Um Mesh
For porches and lanai sections where you actually sit and eat outdoors, upgrading to 20/20 mesh makes a real difference. The weave is noticeably tighter — 20 strands by 20 strands per inch — which blocks no-see-ums while still letting the breeze through. Many of our customers in Port Orange have us swap just the seating-area panels to 20/20 while leaving the upper panels standard, and that’s a smart, budget-friendly middle ground.
Don’t Forget the Entry Points
Mesh alone won’t solve the problem if the little guys are walking in through the gaps. When we do a no-see-um upgrade, we also check:
- Screen doors — worn weather stripping and gaps around the frame are the number-one way biting insects get in. A door sweep and a properly adjusted latch make a big difference.
- Spline condition — spline is the rubber cord that holds your mesh in the frame. When it dries out and shrinks, the mesh pulls away from the frame and leaves a gap all the way around the panel. We replace spline as part of every rescreen.
- Small tears — if your mesh is otherwise in good shape, a single torn panel might just need a spot repair instead of a full rescreen. We’ll tell you honestly which one it needs.
- Pet-door inserts — the flaps on screen-door pet inserts wear out and hang open. Replacing them keeps your pet happy and the bugs out.
What Doesn’t Work
We’ve seen homeowners try a few things that rarely solve the problem. Citronella plants look nice but won’t stop a hungry no-see-um. Fan placement helps a little — these insects are weak flyers — but it won’t hold up as a permanent answer. And patching mesh that has already stretched and sun-baked across the whole enclosure is throwing good effort after bad; if the whole panel is loose, a rescreen is the real fix.
A Quick Fall Test You Can Do Yourself
Stand outside your lanai around dusk, when no-see-ums are most active. Run your hand slowly along the bottom edges of your screen panels and around your screen doors. If you feel air movement where you shouldn’t, you’ve found a gap. Look for daylight showing through the spline channel, and press on the mesh — if it dimples and doesn’t snap back tight, it’s time for new mesh.
We’ll Make Your Lanai Bite-Free Again
We’re Atlantic Coast Screens, and rescreens and screen repairs are all we do. We work all over Port Orange, Daytona Beach, and New Smyrna Beach, and we’ve helped plenty of local families get their evenings back from the no-see-ums.
Give us a call at (386) 262-9787 for a free quote. We’ll come take a look, tell you exactly what’s letting them in, and give you an honest recommendation — whether that’s a single panel repair or a 20/20 mesh upgrade for your whole sitting area.