All Natural Insect Repellent That Really Works!

Do natural insect repellents work? I used to wonder that same thing. Summers in the South are wonderful, but bugs can really make the great outdoors seem...not so great!  If you're sick and tired of being "today's dinner special" every time you step out the door, read on to learn how essential oils may be the safe, toxin free answer to your summertime insect woes!

Thanks to Melissa Norris for this helpful article!  Be sure to check out Melissa's awesome website!

With our critters, garden, and homestead, we spend a lot of time outdoors. Especially come summer time. We’re camping fools. Last weekend we caught about 15 trout. You know you love the great outdoors if you go camping in the rain. Ever seen those campsites with the blue tarps strung from one end to the other? Yep, that would be us.

Despite my love of the outdoors I can’t stand mosquitoes. They carry nasty diseases and they itch like the dickens when they bite. And the buzzing. If you’ve ever had a mosquito in your tent you know exactly what I’m talking about.

When I was younger I used whatever bug spray we could find. Most of these contained Deet. One time I got some on my lip. It went numb. Yep. Totally numb until hours later when the spray wore off.

My brother works in the woods and used some Deet insect spray from a fellow worker. It melted the plastic coating from his glasses. Yes, melted!

Um, I don’t know about you, but I don’t care who says it’s safe, if it makes my skin go numb and melts plastic, it ain’t safe enough for me. You can go here (scroll down to the middle of the page to health effects) to read about Deet and seizures, central nervous system, and insomnia.

We’d been using a natural bug spray from Badger which worked pretty well, but I had a hard time finding it locally and it was over $10 for 4 ounces. Kinda spendy.

This natural bug spray is simple to make, no nasty chemicals, pesticides, or ingredients, takes literally less than a minute to make, and get this, only costs $1.28 to make. You know this frugal mamma loves those kind of prices.

Natural Insect Repellent Spray Recipe

4 ounces distilled water
5 drop essential Peppermint Oil
15 drops essential Purification Oil blend

Pour water into a glass bottle. (Note: I wouldn’t use plastic or metal with essential oils. They’re powerful and glass is best). Place drops of essential oils into water, put on lid, and shake. Spray on to skin and clothing as an insect repellent. Repeat as needed.

I have to tell you how awesome it was to just close my eyes and spray this spray right on my face. No worries when my kids grabbed the bottle to spray themselves. We passed it around the campfire and shared with other campers. It was truly a relief to have something that worked and I wasn’t worried about the health consequences for me or my family.

I did have to reapply to my forehead after the first hour, but an extra spray was totally worth it for me. We watched the mosquitoes fly towards us, get close, and then turn in the other direction.

Update: The Purification blend is a blend of citronella, lemon grass (low enough it doesn’t seem to attract bees, or hasn’t when we’ve used it), melaleuca (tea tree), lavender, and myrtle oil. If making your own blend, be sure to keep the lemon grass low so it doesn’t attract bees.