You could try mosquito netting, my wife wants to try the kind that are like curtains. Building a screened porch is not an easy task. Everything has to be perfectly square, usually here in Texas, our homes are not! I also plant lemongrass near my garden (although I'm not sure it helps much!). With all this rain recently, you are going to have more mosquitos, just try to ensure you have no standing water in or around your yard. Even a small bird bath is very welcoming to mosquitos!

Me too beachplant.

Unfortunately, I don't have one, but if I did I'd put a fan in it. Sometimes a gentle breeze that you'd feel outside doesn't get through the screen.

Our non-air conditioned back porch space has large removable windows, so sort of qualifies. When we're older, might have to hire someone to lift the ~2.5ft x 5ft Low-e thermal glass panels out/in each year, but the glass gives us another 3 or 4 months of use over the year; just another option to consider. It's west facing but neighbor's huge oak keeps worst of the direct sun out, still can get a little death valley-ish at mid-afternoon July into September.

We have a ground level patio out back and I like stepping out any way I like. We've discussed the screened/glassed option and can't decide if we would be happy with having to enter and exit through a door. Skeeters are fierce this year though, it's a good idea to screen them out.

I wish I had one. I think it would get used a lot.

I have one. It has huge glass-sliding doors with screens, and it is then surrounded on three sides by the deck. It is used A LOT. Really, it becomes the summer living room. I've got a huge dining table in there, a cable outlet for a TV, a sitting area with a futon and two wicker chairs, and a table fan that can be directed at a person when it's warm or hot. I get the old oscillating fans that were made in the '70s and '80s on eBay. They were GREAT fans.

we moved into our newly completed home last sept, we are about 12 miles from the gulf and our 12x34 ft porch faces southeast (for prevailing winds)
my favorite times to use it have been in winter when temps are around 50 and the sun is out -- the sun keeps it nice and warm and the house shields it from the north/northwest winds, i also use it every time it rains (summer) and in the evenings and early in the mornings i love ours....love it....

I'm in New England -- in wooded hillside with nearby streams and ponds. After dusk, the mosquitoes get wild. I don't have a screened in porch but wish I did. I would sleep there and listen to whippoorwills and frogs and later in the summer I'd enjoy the crickets. I'd breath in the fragrance of the grass and woodlands a d pond. At dawn and dusk, I'd swoon over theusical flute like call of the wood thrush. For old time sake, I'd light a kerosene or Coleman lantern and playing cards or an attic fragrant board game.

No screen porch, but large windows with screen in a woodland home. If you are lucky enough to have a screened in porch (floor too), count yourself lucky and enjoy every second on it. Breath deeply. Totally relax.

...easy to say if you live in New England. With temps in the 90s and humidity climbing to the 90s after sundown, it's not something you can enjoy.

We had a screened "sleeping" porch on our house in San Antonio when we bought it. Eventually we glassed it in and made a playground for the girls. It looked like they were playing outside but it was air conditioned and no bugs. The room faced south and would have been unbearably hot had it not been for the tree canopy.

We had one at the old place and have one at the retirement place. As soon as we built it, we were there every day, 365 of them.

I don't know how I missed this thread, lol