Homemade Mosquito Repellent
Thanks to a friend last year introduced me to this awesome recipe for a Homemade Mosquito Repellent. I can spray this on my clothes or on my skin and I won’t be bit. It is amazing stuff.
Materials:
- 15 drops lavender oil
- 3 Tbsp of vanilla extract
- 10 drops of citronella oil or lemon-eucalyptus oil
- 1/4 Cup lemon juice
- Spray bottle
Directions:
Combine above ingredients in spray bottle. Fill remainder of bottle with water, water/vodka or water/witch hazel mixture.
I used water and vodka and it worked great. I purchased this Essential set from Amazon it is perfect for this application.
If you would prefer to purchase a good insect repellent I strongly suggest this AVON skin so Soft with picaridin This has worked very well for me.
Prepare your yard
Fairfax County has information about mosquitoes and how to prevent them in your yard.
I suggest installing bat houses around the yard. Bats eat a lot of mosquitoes each night. We have 2 but our bats haven’t used them 100% of the time so we will be adding more this year.
We use a handful of Tiki Torches in the yard and use a citronella oil that we find does help get the mosquitoes confused and we get less bites.
Education
Teaching kids how to prevent mosquitoes. Fairfax County has created the Fight the Bite campaign
If you get bitten
If you have a lot of bites and get a strong reaction talk to your doctor about taking Benadryl or other anti-histime. It will help decrease the reaction immediately. In addition, if the bites are very swollen they may not be mosquito but chiggers and they too are painful. Talk to your doctor if you don’t know what the bites are. I’ve had to do this myself. You may need a strong cortizone cream.
Don’t scratch! This is so much easier said then done. To prevent scratching I strongly suggest using a Lidocaine cream or antithetic so that it will be numb. There are so many on the market. I’ve used lidocaine for waxing, and even tooth gel works great.
Per my dermatologist I have to put bandages on them. It is essential to prevent yourself from scratching and I do scratch even when I don’t realize it. Oops! I like the Dollar Tree bandages the best since they are a little less sticky so they will stay as long as I want and then come off when I need them too.
I hope this helps you! Have a great summer!
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