Natural BUG-OFF Spray

Herbal BUG-OFF spray.  This spray works on mosquitoes, ticks, black flies, no-see-ums, fleas, and lice.  The spray acts as an insecticide, too, and its safe and effective for humans and other mammals.

Homemade Bug-Off Spray Use the spritzer top from a cleaning solution spray bottle (use a new one) as the applicator for you Bug-Off spray, and the spray mechanism will last all season. The little sprayers that are common on essential oil bottles get bunged-up with the essential oils and break after a week or so of use. These bigger sprayers are more effective and last longer.

This recipe makes 500 ml of herbal mosquito repellent:

1 –  500 ml (pint) amber glass bottle (you can upcycle a bottle that essential oils came in or use an olive oil bottle)
2 tbsp (30ml) Organic Tea Tree E.O.
2 tbsp (30 ml) Lemon Verbena E.O.
2 tsp (10ml) Cedarwood E.O.
2 tsp. (10 ml) Peppermint E.O.
2 tsp. (10 ml) Lavender E.O.
1 tbsp. (15 ml) Eucalyptus E.O.
2 tsp. (10ml) Rose Geranium E.O.
Fill up remaining space in bottle with Olive Oil or Sweet Almond Oil

By using an oil base for your bug-off spray, you preserve the essential oils, you make the repellent water proof, and you avoid rancidity.

Variations:

If you don’t have some of the essential oils you can substitute or use more of one and less of another.  As it is, it works perfectly, for the bugs we have around here.  Lemon and tea tree are the basis.  Its not just a repellent.  It will actually kill the bug, if it bites you, so the bugs avoid it.  It works for ticks and fleas, too.

You can use it to spray pets, livestock, and its safe for babies.  (Omit the tea tree e.o. if you are using it on cats or rabbits)  Reapply as often as necessary.

Adapting a commercial spray mechanism to the glass bottle for more effective application:

The spray mechanism is the spritzer top from a spray bottle, sold for cleaning solutions.  It fits perfectly on the 500 ml amber bottles.  It will also fit the screw-top olive oil green glass bottles.  To make it fit, you simply detach the plastic tube from the sprayer-top.  Measure the tube against the bottle that you want to use to hold your bug-off repellent.  Cut off the excess tube at the top (not the bottom).  Reinsert the cut edge into the sprayer top.  And screw onto the top of your bottle.  You can shut off the spray, so the bottle doesn’t dribble during transport.  And you can control the fineness of the spray for application.

You don’t want to store the product in plastic, though, as the essential oils will leach from the plastic and degrade the plastic bottle.  Always use glass or another inert container to store products that contain volatile essential oils.

Source: http://fiberarts.ca/blog/effective-homemade-herbal-mosquito-repellent/