Yesterday I had a lot of mulching to do, my sister has commissioned me fix up her yard.
I do wish I had some before and after picture of the shade garden I put in for her, but that was before I started blogging and documenting everything.
Anyhow, as it is a shade garden and right by a little creek there is typically loads of mosquitos. And the times of the early morning or at dusk when it it not too hot to work, even more so.
I have long been wanting to make a homemade mosquito spray, as I do not like to use regular repellent, and find that the natural versions from the health food stores, does not work very well.
I found this idea on The Herb Gardener, this spray includes garlic and cayenne pepper, and to that I added some yarrow. I used I'd say 6-7 big cloves, smashed them up skin and all, put them in a food processor with about a cup of water and 1t of ground up cayenne powder, the recipe calls for fresh peppers, but I did not have any on hand.
To this I added a good amount of yarrow, flowers leaf stem and all.
Mashed it up really good in the food processor, I love the way it looked and even smelled, I do love garlic, and then I set it in the sun for a few ours
before straining it through cheese cloth into a spray bottle.
Once strained I added a few drops of lavender essential oil.
I applied a liberal amount to my skin, wondering if the cayenne was going to burn in any way. It did not,
it did feel a bit sticky at first but once dried that went away. I think it worked really well, perhaps not 100%, yet really well, I could do all my mulching without feeling the constant attack of the mosquitos and when I came inside had not one bite.
This may not be the repellent I would use if I was going to town, well actually I rarely put on repellent, but for garden work or a hike at twilight this is the perfect solution for me, with the added bonus of absorbing the benefit of the garlic through the skin.
~Happy rainy monday~.
Yeah, we are getting some rain:)
hmmm. i am curious about this! we have a horrible asian tiger mosquito infestation in our neighborhood. my garden dies every year as we get SO many bites just walking outside. i haven't found any repellents that actually keep us protected. i have been thinking more and more about trying to make my own....and moving!! ;)
ReplyDeleteyou are moving also, where to?
ReplyDeleteLet me know is you make this and how it works for you!
oh perfect. I have 2 freinds who live in highly mosquito infested areas and both have little girls who are allregic to mosquitoes. They look like they've been beaten up when they get bitten, it's soo sad. One is considering cutting down lots of shade providing pine trees and the other is jsut stuck to the indoors for most of the day. They really needed this as they won't use deet filled repellant. Thankyou! Also chewable b6 was suggested by their doctors as it will naturally repell them if you take it daily. Just throwing that out there. I will let you know how this works! Thanks.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Kat
Wow, that sounds really intense! I have horrible breath the next day if I handle raw garlic, so I'm not sure this one is for me, but we do visit an island in Maine in the summer that has clouds of mosquitoes, so I might change my mind...
ReplyDeletei wish to move from this neighborhood...nowhere too far (not yet anyways). i do wish to live a bit more rurally. this neighborhood life is not for me so much.
ReplyDelete