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Best homemade bug repellent?

Posts: 88

Location: St Charles, MO

posted 3 years ago

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Does anyone have good luck making their own homemade bug repellent either using plants themselves or the essential oils? I have some of the store bought natural kinds with lemon and eucalyptus but nothing seems to work on gnats and flies. They still buzz around my head and face non stop. Care to share your recipe and what you feel it works best against?

Cristo Balete

Posts: 1041

Location: In the woods, West Coast USA

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posted 3 years ago

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I think the lemon eucalyptus is for mosquitoes.

Gnats and those pesky little flies don't like mint, at least mine don't. Make really strong mint tea and a few drops of jojoba oil or Vitamin C oil, or some oil you like on your skin, so it will stay on your skin a little longer. Shake it before applying each time. You might have to reapply once an hour depending on how much you sweat. Spray a non-oil version on your hat and your clothing.

Probably the easiest thing is this hat:

NettedHat.jpg

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Anne Miller

steward

Posts: 17668

Location: USDA Zone 8a

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posted 3 years ago

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I don't know if this recipe will work for flying insects though it might be worth a try.

This is similar to taking garlic to repel insects:

https://www.motherearthnews.com/natural-health/repel-ticks-sulfur-remed

I have never tried this:
"following my grandfather's recipe, mixed dry sulfur with wild honey or molasses and we all ate some. You have to mix it with something because sulfur tastes really icky.
Mix one-eighth teaspoon of powdered sulfur with a little honey or molasses. Take this mixture once a day for a week in early spring. The next week take it every other day. The next week take it every three days. Thereafter take the mixture once a month through tick season."

Be sure and let us know what you find that will work for flying insects.

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

Cristo Balete

Posts: 1041

Location: In the woods, West Coast USA

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posted 3 years ago

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So, Anne, was everybody smelling like sulfur (rotten eggs)? Is that the goal, to have an unappealing smell?

Douglas Alpenstock

pollinator

Posts: 5520

Location: Canadian Prairies - Zone 3b

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posted 3 years ago

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Cristo Balete wrote:... was everybody smelling like sulfur (rotten eggs)? Is that the goal, to have an unappealing smell?

Actually, over the last two years this was a practical and desirable survival strategy. (haha)

Rachel Lindsay

gardener

Posts: 1416

Location: Tennessee

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posted 3 years ago

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Last year I grew some citronella, and when the mosquitos swarmed I pulled off some leaves rubbed them all over my arms and hands. It seemed to help!

“If we are honest, we can still love what we are, we can find all the good there is to find, and we may find ways to enhance that good, and to find a new kind of living world which is appropriate for our time.” ― Christopher Alexander

Robin Katz

pollinator

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posted 3 years ago

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The homemade insect repellent we currently use:
2 ounces vodka (can use water but it helps to have something to get the oils into solution)
1 tsp aloe gel
40-60 drops of essential oils. I use a combination of the following:
-lemon eucalyptus (this is not lemon and eucalyptus, it's [i]eucalyptus citriodora[/i] oil). This makes up a big part of the essential oils in the blend
-citronella
-lavender
-lemongrass
-thyme

If you just have lemon eucalyptus then use that for the 40-60 drops. It's about what you have on hand and what you want to smell like.

This keeps mosquitoes away and most everything else we have up here. It needs to be refreshed every couple of hours. We use a spray bottle to apply it.

Douglas Alpenstock

pollinator

Posts: 5520

Location: Canadian Prairies - Zone 3b

1519

posted 3 years ago

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I have used commercial potions based on lemon eucalyptus in our regular eruptions of mosquitoes-from-hell-that-ate-the-Bronx (and everything between there and the Pacific Ocean).

Verdict from the field: it works.

Tereza Okava

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Posts: 4556

Location: South of Capricorn

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posted 3 years ago

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I soak lots of cloves (like 1 cup) in alcohol (i think it's 46%; you could use rubbing alcohol) for a week or so, strain, add a tablespoon of mineral oil if you have it on hand (I never do) and put in a spray bottle. It works really well for mosquitoes and biting flies. It WILL STAIN and you need to reapply it every couple hours, but it's good stuff. (obviously be careful on irritated skin, near eyes, and near flame- it's alcohol.)

Anne Miller

steward

Posts: 17668

Location: USDA Zone 8a

4526

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Cristo Balete wrote:So, Anne, was everybody smelling like sulfur (rotten eggs)? Is that the goal, to have an unappealing smell?

I have been dusting with sulfur for almost my whole so why would you say I would smell like something like that?

Where have you been all my life?

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

Opal-Lia Palmer

Posts: 197

Location: North Idaho. Bonner County

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posted 3 years ago

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I make my own based off this stuff a friend has, works great in North Idaho forest, ( where I swear the mosquitos are on steroids) check it out, maybe order a bottle and see if you like it. I have loved it and used it.
Sagebrushsoapfactory.com
Happy Horse fly repellent ( they developed it for the horses with flies and the biting flies in Nevada)
https://www.sagebrushsoapfactory.com/natural-mosquito-repellent-p/horsemosquitorepellent.htm
Opal

Alice Fast

Posts: 43

posted 3 years ago

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I don't believe that natural repellents such as oils/plants work.
Not to the noticeable effect.
I tried them before giving up, used to have tons of essential oils like the ones listed above and more, the ones claimed to repel bugs, every single one of them... these were high quality oils with strong smells. I tested each of them individually in high mosquito places and mosquitos don't seem to mind them at all. In fact I watched a mosquito trying to land right on the opened citronella oil bottle, it didn't care.
Another thing about those remedies is they have strong overpowering and lingering smell, which will kill me before it repels a single mosquito, this includes vanilla extract some people swear by.

Opal-Lia Palmer

Posts: 197

Location: North Idaho. Bonner County

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posted 3 years ago

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Opal-Lia Palmer wrote:I make my own based off this stuff a friend has, works great in North Idaho forest, ( where I swear the mosquitos are on steroids) check it out, maybe order a bottle and see if you like it. I have loved it and used it.
Sagebrushsoapfactory.com
Happy Horse fly repellent ( they developed it for the horses with flies and the biting flies in Nevada)
https://www.sagebrushsoapfactory.com/natural-mosquito-repellent-p/horsemosquitorepellent.htm
Opal

This lotion worked! I have seen the mosquitos near flying by me but they didn't land and bite! It was amazing!

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