The best insect screens for DIY vans

UPDATE 09/2022: Sadly it has come to our attention that the service by Down by the River has been less than stellar lately. We have read that a lot of people are having customer service issues and that orders are taking an unrealistic amount of time to fulfill. This is unfortunate, as we truly love the quality of the insects screens we have. We would encourage you to do your homework first before purchasing items from Down by the River. It sounds like this company may not be a good fit for you if you need your screens in a timely manor.

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When we hit the open road in November of 2019, we didn’t have insect screens in our build. Boy were we idiots! When doing research, you never see the interior of vans covered in bugs, but it is sadly a cold hard fact of living in nature. Do yourself a favor and add them to your must have items when doing your build-out.

Why do you get so many creepy crawlies in your van? Well, often times your home is going to get hot and keeping the doors open is a fast and effective way to manage heat gain and allow a massive breeze to exhaust the heat in your van along with using your roof fan. This huge hole in your home is an obvious entry point for bugs to get inside. The other, maybe less obvious situation is when it’s warm out at night and you have a door open with the lights ON in the interior. This is literally an insect beacon, as many bugs will be attracted to your bright, shiny LED fixtures. We have had times where there has been at least 50 flying hellions circling the lights inside. You don’t want this.

We were quickly convinced that we needed insect screens to manage the little flying bastards. We researched a lot of DIY strategies so that we could make our own screens. There are some clever solutions out there! However, we didn’t find a DIY solution that gave us supreme confidence that we’d end up with a durable and well fitting product. We really wanted something that was going to fit like a glove, as your insect problem is only as good as the number of gaps in your openings. For this reason, we started researching pre-made screens.

At the end of the day, after hours of research, we landed on the Down by the River Medium/High Roof Mosquito Screens. These screens are really, really nice. The mesh is strong and the screen holes are small - even for tiny gnats that like to hang near your van to get out of the wind. The sliding door set comes as a pair, with a right and left screen that attach together via magnets when you want to keep the screen in the closed position. They also come with tiebacks located on the outer sides which allows you to secure the screens open when the bugs aren’t troublesome and you need easy access in and out of the van. The screens have very strong magnets all around the perimeter as well that attach directly to the interior steel around the opening of your door. These are made to attach on the inside face of your door opening, which allows you to close the sliding door without taking the screens down at night.

Since our build was already completed when we decided to purchase the screens, we had to do a little hack that we ended up really loving. We had built an over-door shelf above the slider to house our cheap DIY Awning and a few other odds and ends that we use frequently and wanted quick access to. When our Mosquito Screens came, we realized that the area where they would “stick” at the top was covered by this over-door shelf. We removed the shelf and then screwed the screens into the back of it and added velcro straps. Then we re-mounted the shelf with the screens and straps in place. We love this hack because the velcro straps keep the screens rolled up and out of our way when we don’t need them, but they’re right where we want them when we do. It also saved us from having to find a place to store the screens when we knew we wouldn’t need them for long periods of time (such as cold climate conditions).

Why we love it: The quality of these Mosquito Screens are top notch. The photos on the seller’s site aren’t great, but we can assure you that they are of the highest quality. The screen, the magnets, and the fit are terrific. Most importantly, they do a great job of keeping bugs out of your build!

Things to keep in mind: The magnets are strong! The screen has a tendency to “stick” to the outside of our van when entering and exiting. Learning how to open and close the screens takes some getting used to, but it’s well worth getting the hang of! We mentioned that you can keep the screens up at night when closing the slider, but this can be a bit awkward and the screens can occasionally get caught in the door. Be careful when closing!

The take-away: If you’re looking for top notch Mosquito Screens and don’t want bugs crawling on your face at night, then these are the ones you’re looking for. They aren’t the cheapest ones on the market, but we feel they are the best. Down by the River carries front, slider, and back door screens for Fords, Ram/Dodge, and Mercedes. They also carry a number of other products that you may be on the hunt for. Go check out their offerings now!

Enjoying a bug-free evening in the great outdoors