How To Make Your Own Bug Repellent With Natural Ingredients

Mosquitoes, ticks, and other creepy crawlies may just be the number one threat to a great summer. Unless you protect yourself, you can end up with anything from bites all over your body to Lyme Disease and in some cases dangerous mosquito-borne diseases like malaria.

The single most effective protective measure against harmful bug bites of all kinds — a chemical called DEET that forms the active ingredient in many bug repellent products — has a few dangers of its own to offer, however. A dermatological reaction is the most desirable side effect of DEET, since seizures and neurological reactions have also been reported. The risks are small if you follow the instructions on the label carefully, but not everyone does that.

It is up to individuals to decide whether the protective benefits of products containing DEET outweigh the small but serious risk of an adverse reaction. A third of the US population will end up using DEET each year, some without even knowing it. If you don't want to be one of them, there are alternatives. You will have to work out from experience if they are as effective as you need them to be.

That's easy: make them yourself! In this article, we'll offer a brief overview of natural ingredients that have bug-repellent qualities, and we'll walk you through the process of making your own anti-bug soaps and creams that can be ready in next to no time.

Citronella And Other Bug-Repelling Oils

Citronella is a potent mosquito repellent made from oil extracted from the lemongrass plants Cymbopogon nardus and Cymbopogon winterianus. It will also keep many other insects away, but there is no evidence that it helps against ticks, unfortunately. There are numerous commercial products on the market that contain citronella. However, you can also buy the oil yourself to use in home-made products including soap, cream, and candles.

Geranium oil, tea tree oil, eucalyptus oil, peppermint oil, and clove oil can all be used in home-made soaps and creams. All help against mosquitoes and other insects, and geranium and clove oil are said to be effective against ticks — this is frequently reported by people who apply the oils to their cats and dogs to keep ticks as well as fleas away. Eucalyptus oil is very effective against various mosquito species, and some studies suggest that it works just as well as DEET. You can use all of these oils in your home-made products, but don't go overboard. A few drops go a long way.

Coconut Oil And Soybean Oil

Both coconut oil and soybean oil have been shown to have insect-repelling qualities. They also incidentally form a really nice base for soaps and creams. Folks who are thinking of making their very own natural products to keep creepy crawlies away are often tempted to just throw a bunch of the ingredients together in a mixture, and then apply a lot of it to their bodies.

The easiest way to create an anti-bug product at home is to combine 15 to 20 percent essential oils with alcohol, and to use the resulting product as a spray. But, you want to be careful that spray doesn't end up in your eyes or airways. This is why creams and soaps make a good, safer solution to your bug problems. Coconut oil, soybean oil, or a combination of the two form carriers for your essential oils and are also bug repellents in their own right. It's a win-win!

Making Soap And Cream — The Basics

Making Soap 

There are a few different ways of making soap, and some are more complicated than others. You can simply buy glycerine from a craft shop and add a few oils, coloring, and dried herbs, but this isn't very creative and the resulting soap isn't all that great (it gets slimy). Then you've got cold process soap, which uses lye and takes three to six weeks to harden before you can use it.

If you want your home-made soap with bug repellent ingredients to be ready very soon so you can start using it within a day, you'll need to opt for the so-called “hot process soap”. This method uses the chemical natrium hyrdoxide, also known as caustic soda, as well. It's just the same as the cold process, with the addition of oven or crockpot time for your soap to speed the hardening process up a lot.

This makes great soap, but you need to be careful. You can get really nasty burns if you don't protect yourself while making soap, and the stuff can damage your eyes for life. So, wear gloves and safety goggles at all times if you make your own soap, and keep your process away from other people. Keep a bottle of vinegar ready to counteract the effects of natrium hydroxide in the event that you do get it on your skin, as well as a phone in case you need to call 911. 

Things you'll definitely need for soap making are:

• Natrium hydroxide

• Oils or fats

• A saucepan

• Excellent digital kitchen scales — your measurements need to be precise

• An immersion mixer

• A wooden spoon to stir

• A mold to put the soap in

• A kitchen thermometer

• Gloves and safety goggles

You say how many oils you want to put in, and how much of each. Then, the calculator will tell you how much natrium hydroxide you need to use.

Soap making sounds scary, because of the natrium hydroxide, but it really isn't that hard. The key to success is following the steps precisely. Thankfully, you'll find all of those steps on crafty internet sites and blogs without any problem at all. Your measurements and temperatures need to be just right. Expect a few fails before you get the soap of your dreams. 

The great thing about soap is that you can add dried herbs to the mixture (at the end of the process) as well as oils. Consider using cloves, dried basil, and chamomile flowers for instance.

Making Your Own Bug Repelling Cream

If you want to make your own cream, it is best to start off with a simple basic recipe that does not require the purchase of special products. For this simple starter recipe, you'll need two glass jars. For the first jar, you will need:

• 20 grams of water-free lanolin

• 12 grams yellow bees wax

• 35 grams coconut oil

• 35 grams soybean oil

Your second jar should be filled with 30 grams of rose water, orange water, or plain distilled water.

Place both jars in a saucepan filled with water, and heat them up slowly over a low heat until the water reaches 60 degrees Celsius or 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Make sure that the lanolin and bees wax are melted completely and you have mixed the ingredients in ja/r number one thoroughly.

Remove both jars from the pan, and then add the liquid jar to the other jar while stirring the mixture continuously until a homogeneous mass has been created and the mixture has cooled down to room temperature. At this same point, you can add the ingredients you would like, including eight to 16 drops of the insect-repelling essential oils listed in the first part of this article. You can add vitamin E for your skin or wheat germ oil for young-looking skin. And that's it! Enjoy your cream!

Only time and experience will tell you whether natural bug repelling products are as effective as commercial solutions. Is it worth it? That depends on the reactions you may have had to deal with from commercial products before, as well as the types of creepy crawlies you might encounter in your locale.