In what she calls an “integral” part of her weekend cleaning routine, 30-year-old Brooklyn resident Kira Phillips says she loves throwing open her apartment windows on a nice day and letting some fresh bugs in.
“My apartment always feels so stuffy and bugless when I have my windows closed for too long,” Kira told reporters. “Which is why after I finish my Saturday afternoon chores, I love to open up my windows and let a little breeze carry some new critters in.”
Kira added, “It doesn’t really feel like summer until there’s a warm breeze floating in through my window, and six to 10 horse flies zooming around my apartment.”
Kira says she picked this habit up from her mother.
“My mom absolutely loved having the windows open during the summer when I was little,” Kira said. “Although, now that I think about it, I’m not sure if that’s because she wanted a bunch of bugs in the house, or simply a light breeze. I guess I’ll never know!”
Reporters reached Kira’s mom for comment and she confirmed that it was “definitely the breeze thing.”
Sources close to Kira say they’re not sure why she doesn’t just get screens installed if she wants to keep her windows open during the warmer days.
“Every time I go over to Kira’s apartment, there are a million insects flying around,” Kira’s friend, Leigh, told reporters. “She just runs around with a rolled up magazine trying to swat them, and it really kills the vibe. I don’t get why she doesn’t just put screens up.”
Kira says that she doesn’t feel truly at home in her apartment unless she’s attempting to shoo a bee or squash a spider. She then added that her proclivity to keep her windows open without screens might stem from childhood nostalgia.
“Growing up in the suburbs, I lived around a lot of trees and nature,” Kira said. “In the summer, I would get so many mosquito bites. Like, an alarming amount. I guess keeping my windows open now is a way for me to try to recreate that experience in the city.”
At press time, Kira’s friends were urging her to close her windows for her own well-being as well as others, but Kira was too busy welcoming the biggest crane fly in Brooklyn into her apartment to pay them any mind.
