First to arrive are the black flies, tiny little bugs that crawl under your hat, crash into your hair and disappear into your ears, followed by the high pitched screaming mosquitoes. Summer, with its long hot sunny days, beckons these annoying pests out of hibernation and into our lives, where we will spend the next several months waging war on these blood thirsty insects.

Natural Bug Repellents

Scared off by the dire threats of Deet, and inspired by an article written by Dr. David Suzuki, I decided to investigate some natural options to insect repellents. Here is what the “naturalists” are saying:

Best Bug Repellents

It seems mosquitoes, like vampires, have a strong aversion to garlic. EarthEasy.com recommends putting one part garlic to five parts water in a spray container and misting your body. Don’t be surprised if you repel more than just bugs.

Oils - Soybean, Eucalyptus, Citronella, Catnip (be careful with this one), Tea Tree and Neem oil are all touted as having bug repellent properties. Among them, Eucalyptus was reported to be the most effective in keeping the bugs away. Again, the concentration of oil will impact the outcome. My experience has been that concentrated oils can be pricey, but a little does go a long way.

A lot of people swear by Avon’s Skin So Soft - great bath oil, but I’m not a big fan of greasy. Not sure what the success rate is with this product.

Other ways to deter mosquitoes is to:

1. wear dark clothing,
   
2. avoid sweating as mosquitoes are drawn to moisture
   
3. mist yourself with vanilla. According to one message board pure vanilla (the higher the alcohol content the better) is very effective, but don’t be surprised if bears suddenly find you very desirable.

If you love to garden, marigolds are reported to be a good bug deterrent. Perhaps even a few potted plants on a picnic table may just keep the pesky bugs away while you enjoy dinner.

Bite Blocker - if all of the above seems like just too much effort, Bite Blocker seems to be getting some good reviews. Its ingredients include:

• soybean oil
• coconut oil
• geranium oil
• citric acid
• vanilla

Hmmm, maybe the natural oils do work after all. If anyone has any good natural remedies, please leave me a comment.

Cheers,

Julie

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 at 12:46 pm and is filed under Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.