Thursday, May 7, 2009

homemade natural insect repellent

I finally got my order in yesterday from Mountain Rose Herbs and was so excited to get mixing up some recipes from my body care book. First on the agenda was definitely bug spray. It is spring in the Northeast. It was a simple blend of 1/2 cup soybean oil (known for its natural insect repelling qualities), 15 drops each of catnip, lemongrass and geranium essential oils and 10 drops of eucalyptus essential oil (or basil essential oil - I bought eucalyptus as it is used in many other recipes in the book). I also bought the bottle that you see the finished product in from Mountain Rose Herbs - great website - they have a huge selection of herbs, oils, teas, containers, etc. You mix the ingredients in the bottle, shake vigorously to mix and let sit for an hour before use for max potency. You have to shake the bottle before each use. I'm really hopeful about this as I detest little annoying bugs and hate to use poisonous sprays on myself, and definitely needed a safe solution for Charlie. We shall see how it works! A side note - catnip smells very weird! The other oils kind of mask this, but a study found catnip essential oil to be more effective then DEET.



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