Natural Bug Repellents
Making human skin an unappealing snack to mosquitos, ticks, fleas, and flies is something that never goes out of style! Different groups of people have used a variety of methods including: mud, smoke, oils, and various herbs.
Our society’s current choice is DEET, and is so powerful it can dissolve some plastics, rayon, spandex, other synthetic fabrics, leather, and painted or varnished surfaces including nailpolish. DEET is also connected to neurological damage such as seizures and other long term problems. With the HUGE rise in neurological diseases (learning disorders, autism, ADD, ALS, MS, and more) we are not taking any chances with our family.
So, what to use instead of DEET containing Repellants?
Here is a natural bug repellent from Burt’s Bees. From a glance at the ingredients it is an all natural blend of various essential oils. I think I’ll be trying that spray this year.
If you have other issues like Mice, Lice, Jungle Bugs, or a threat of Plague read about these:
Tansy
History: During the American colonial period meat was frequently rubbed with or packed in common tansy to repel insects and prevent decay. Also during the colonial period common tansy was frequently worn in shoes to prevent ague and malaria. In England, tansy was placed on window sills to repel flies, sprigs placed in bed linen to drive away pests, and was also used as an ant repellent. In the 1940s distilled common tansy oils mixed with fleabane, pennyroyal, and diluted alcohol was a well known mosquito repellent. Common tansy was planted along side potatoes to repel the Colorado potato bug, one study finding tansy reduced the potato bugs population by 60-100%!
Personal experience: I had a friend that lived in the jungle of Papua New Guinea for several years. She told me she sprinkled dried Tansy in her hair and bedding reguarly. Though lice and scabies were rampant, she never contracted them…. and the large spiders stayed away from her bed.
Warning: Do not inject Tansy. It is toxic.
Vinegar of Four Thieves is one of the most interesting articles I’ve ever read about natural bug repellent. Just imagine – Thieves from the middle ages combining herbs to save them from the plague that killed over 30% of the population! (the plague is transmitted to humans from fleas that carry the disease)
Better figure out what you’re going to do this year, because bug season is fast approaching. Here in central Tennessee, I saw the first tick a couple of weeks ago.
Posted in Children's Health, Herbs, Natural Alternatives
April 8th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
In my experience Burt’s Bee repellent does not work. Last year I was at the lake past dusk sitting near a light and there were many mosquitoes around. I had been covering myself with the Burt’s Bee all evening but kept getting bites. Then I sprayed a massive amount on my right arm so that it was thick film standing on my arm. I watch as a mosquito landed on my arm and stuck its “sucker” through the thick visible film of Burt’s Bee Repellent and got a meal. I think in the Northwest, at least, this stuff actually attracts mosquitoes.
April 9th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
I read a few years back that catnip was better than the lemon-style herbs, so I grew patches of it here and there. Gardening was so hard, with mosquitoes landing on my ankles or wrists.. I took to grabbing a few leaves of catnip and scrubbing my skin with them, and I have to say it did the trick for me! Not very portable, though…