3 Ways to Make Your Own Mosquito Repellent
25 comments
As your family begins to move outdoors for the summer, you’ll have to take precaution against mosquitos and other insects. Using mosquito repellent helps reduce your risk of exposure to West Nile virus or other diseases. It also allow you to enjoy your summer activities with a low risk of disease. Even if you're indoors, it's recommended that you use mosquito repellent, especially at dusk or when the sun goes down. Products that use Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus have been found to last a lot longer and work better.
Besides applying repellent, you should also take steps to avoid any exposure to mosquitoes. For example, wear long pants and long sleeves while you're outdoors, use mosquito nettings and get rid of standing water near your home in order to avoid mosquito nesting grounds.
You can also make your own mosquito repellent - which will save you time and money. Check out these recipes below to see how you can make your own repellent and add your comments below:
Garlic Mosquito Repellent
There is good reason that they say that garlic repels vampires. Mosquitos hate the stuff!
You’ll Need:
• Minced Garlic
• Mineral Oil
• Lemon Juice
• Cheesecloth
Directions
Mince a few cloves of garlic and cover them with mineral oil. Allow them to sit and soak for 24 hours. After they are done soaking, remove the minced garlic chunks and mix the oil with 2 cups water and 1 tsp of fresh lemon juice. Strain everything through a cheesecloth and add to a spray bottle.
Lemon Eucalyptus Mosquito Repellent
You’ll Need:
• Lemon Eucalyptus Oil
• Sunflower Oil (or Witch Hazel)
Directions:
Mix 1 part lemon eucalyptus oil for every 10 parts of sunflower oil. You can rub the mixture on your skin or add it to a spray bottle and apply that way.
Lavender Mosquito Repellent
If you rub lavender flowers on your wrists, neck and behind your ears, you’ll smell great but you’ll also avoid mosquitoes. If you don’t have any lavender at the moment, you can always plant one in your yard.
What Are Your Ideas?
Comment below and tell us ways that you avoid mosquitoes during the summer.
12 years ago
Comments
12 years ago at 7:13 AM
I supplement (through tablet form) my regular diet with high levels of Vitamin B Complex (it is one of the water-soluble vitamins so you will not over-dose)for certain health reasons and find that when I go outside the mosquitoes do not lite on me while my friends around me serve as unwilling blood donors. Another source for Vitamin B is Brewer's Yeast.
12 years ago at 9:32 AM
Vitamin B complex will keep skeeters off. It even worked well in the Everglades.
12 years ago at 3:23 PM
You can also place citronella plants in your flower bed. You will have the smell like you do from store bought mosquito candles, but with a living plant. You can even place them in planters on your deck or porch area.
12 years ago at 3:35 PM
You can take the following steps also:
1.Wear long sleeves and pants to cover whole body
2.Set up net over the screens on windows
3.Citrus oils can be applied to open organs
12 years ago at 10:30 AM
A solution of liquid soap (dish or body) in a spray bottle will kill bugs. Spray it on your skin to prevent bug bites.
12 years ago at 9:28 AM
While in the Northwestern area of Thailand I found some real answers to the problems of mosquito. The diet of the tribal people in these areas cook with a lot of garlic and sweeteners were not used hardly at all, including sugar. While I was there I found that eating this kind of diet really helped with the mosquito issue.
12 years ago at 9:24 AM
6 drops of peppermint
6 drops of geranium oil
8 oz water
Put 8 oz water into spray bottle, and drop each of
the oils into the water. Shake and spray. Smells
wonderful, and keeps mosquitoes at bay. I have used
this recipe camping and at home. It always works for us.
12 years ago at 6:26 AM
Beware: Dryer sheets are highly toxic concentrated chemicals; never apply to your skin!
11 years ago at 11:10 AM
Garlic Salt and olive oil are like bug force fields and are coking foods:)
11 years ago at 12:58 PM
I live in a swamp. So we get those things like crazy. I also heard they are more attracted to certain blood types. I plant mint leaves around my garden it helps repelling bugs and rodents. I rub the leaves in my hands and rub it on me it helps a lot. If I find any baby snapping turtles in the yard I always put them in the tiny pools that get streams running into them from high tide. They help to. Looking to grow citronella this year. And building bat boxes. We have them around us. I don't like using chemicals bc I go fishing and crabbing in the swamp.
11 years ago at 1:10 PM
Dryer sheets work, but place them in your waistband not on your skin! Texas skeeters can drain a small dog, but a dryer sheet in the collar and puppy is much happier...
11 years ago at 3:55 AM
I have also heard that you put the fabric softener sheet at your waist, not your skin. Also, dryer sheets are great for bedbugs. Put a couple between your mattresses along the edges. 1@ ea corner on the long sides.
11 years ago at 6:41 AM
Those of you who avoid chemicals are wise to do so; dryer sheets are chemicals. As to using them to get rid of bedbugs? This will not get rid of them - it will simply cause them to "move", but they won't go far from a food source (you!). Bedbugs are not that easily gotten rid of. Ants will eat them, however; if you have an ant trail in your house, make sure they aren't coming in to eat the bedbugs; do some reading on bedbugs so you know what you're dealing with; once you have them, they are very difficult to get rid of. Not impossible, but, very difficult. We learned this when we allowed a homeless man to live in a trailer we owned.
Your skin is an organ; anything you put on it will absorb into it, it will then get into your blood stream and your vital organs. No, no toxic chemicals! The BVitamins and garlic are proven to work. I grew citronella and don't believe it had any effect, but, try it and see what you think. Liquid soap on skin? Not for me.
Bugs hate apple cider vinegar (ACV); the natural with the "mother" still in it works best; eat fermented foods using ACV (it's good for healthy guts, too!); if it you can take it, drink a teaspoon a day; try hiding it in locally-produced, raw honey (it's not yellow!).
Don't allow water to stand around your home, which breeds biting insects such as mosquitoes.
Do wear long sleeves and even nets over a hat to protect your face.
"Purpose" brand soap is said to keep ticks off, but you must use it daily, and start a few days before going into infected areas, such as the woods. It is a Johnson & Johnson product; I had to order it online, but you can find it through Amazon, I believe.
11 years ago at 7:54 PM
I use teatree oil. A few drops in a diffuser in your house will keep them outside. A few drops in your hands and rubbed on your clothes will keep bugs at bay when outside.
11 years ago at 2:47 PM
I use a mixture of (liquid Castile soaps) Tea Tree, Eucalyptus, Peppermint. % drops of each in a 16 oz atomizer mixed with water. It is harmless to your skin yet the bugs of all kinds away; e.g. : mosquitos, no-see-ums, gnats horse flies, deer flies, etc. I even use this mixture to spray around the outside of the house to ward off paper wasps & dirt dobbers. I keep a small spray bottle of this handy at all times
11 years ago at 8:01 AM
Robert
Could you tell me how much percentage of each drop do you add of the Tea Tree, Eucalyptus & Peppermint Liquid Castile Soap in your 16 oz container and how much water??
Thanks. Sounds like a great repellent recipe.
10 years ago at 9:32 AM
If you plant citronella put it where you & pets will brush against it, or do so purposely when going out, that is how you get the essential out from the plant. Just putting it there does nothing until it is disturbed, releasing the plants defense mechanism, the oils! That is what keeps the buggers away! A small leaf crushed and rubbed on exposed skin, & pets will keep mosquitoes away. Don't touch your eyes & keep away from pets eyes, obviously!
10 years ago at 11:44 AM
Two words, FLAME THROWER. Kills thousands with one blast. Just be very careful where the flame goes. Should be used in open areas only.
10 years ago at 10:17 AM
Diatomaceous earth (ground oyster shells) dessicates exosceletons of many insects. Prevention against bugs along wallboards between mattresses, couch cushions & in cups or trays is not toxic. Use caution with citrus essential oils cause phototoxicity...harsh skin burns or sensitivity when magnified suns rays
10 years ago at 10:31 AM
Citrus is better to eat ajust body ph as mosquito repellant. Tea tree oil mixed with lavender geranium & eucalyptus safer for sensitive skin than any citrus oil. Oil & water don't mix, dilute with food grade oil or seal on with coconut oil & Shea butter with some natural unscreen protection. Previous comment of diatomatious earn in cups or trays under bed & couch legs, sprinkle on mattresses carpet floorboards 24-48hrs b4 vaccuming avoid breathing dust. Don't kill dragonflies they are best natural mosquito predators. If standing water ponds nearby treat water with baking soda to clarify & kill mosquito larvae but doesn't hurt fish or frogs. Not available in Canada yet is microbe lift mosquito controls also kills larvae yet safe for fish people & pets also rated well against gnats &no seeums
8 years ago at 10:54 AM
Plant Geraniums & Lemon Grass around home. Works 100X's better than Citronella.
Yard Spray: 3-5 whole garlic heads, peeled & crushed. 5+ hottest peppers you can find, chopped (wear gloves).
Boil garlic & peppers in 2-4 cups water. Let sit overnight, then strain. Mix ratio 1:5 part water. Pour in 1gal sprayer, add 1-2 tablespoon liquid dish soap per gal. Spray yard.
Tips: Spray early morning, best w/dew still on ground. Make sure to cut grass, before spraying. Mosquitoes & biting flies love to hide in tall grass. Can spray garden to keep pests away, also.
6 years ago at 1:31 PM
I have been using concentrated garlic capsules for many years. I worked construction jobs in several states; so I was able to watch how the blood suckers reacted to me after I took a couple of garlic caps each day. They never landed on my bare skin; when they landed on my shirt sleeve and stuck their straw through the cloth; they jump off and fly away. I was fitting pipe and my welder, defiantly said he wasn't going to use garlic; as a big one was filling it self up from his cheek. I just told him "okay"! I have also grown Citronella, and break off a small leaf and rub it on several places; bare skin and clothes. You don't even have to cover your whole body. For the second time I am making a spray solution from raw and garlic powder. I use a food processor to chop up the unpeeled bulblets. then I put them in the blender with water, vit c; then liquefy . I'm using a pound of garlic per gallon jug. I fill half a jug with this MASH, then top off with water. Use a funnel now and when you strain off this juice into another gallon jug. Refill your garlic jug with water, and fill this juice with water; add liquid dish soap to let it mix with water and stick to anything. You can always add more garlic to the first jug to keep it potent. This last batch I've added some citronella oil and lemon grass oil to the juice jugs. Strain half a gallon of the juice into a 2 gallon pump up sprayer; fill to line with water and some more soap for good measure. This works on those 1/2"+ black and gray mosquitoes in Galveston county Texas!!
5 years ago at 10:35 PM
There are some nice solutions on here. I will have to try some since insects love my skin. Long sleeves and long pants do help, but they're not 100% effective (then again, I doubt anything is). I have always preferred to dress modestly so the majority of my body is usually covered. However, I have still occasionally somehow gotten insect bites on areas that are prerty much only uncovered when washing or getting changed.