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Mon Jun 12, 2006 2:57 pm  |
Summer time finally came to Canada  and it is hard to find safe product against mosquitoes and other types of insects. I get very bad allergic reaction to mosquitoes (and other insects) bites, my skin becomes swollen with blisters. Last summer I used a spray against mosquitoes and got allergic reaction to it  .
There are some products that you can place on your back yard, but what if one will go to vacation, for example, in the forest (that is my plan for this summer). What are the safe products I can use to protect myself from those blood drinking creatures? |
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Blond, blue eyes.Skin: Normal, sometimes oily, during winter very dry. Very sensitive. Occasional breakouts. Very fair. |
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Mon Jun 12, 2006 3:37 pm |
I NEED to know this, too! I remember hearing/reading something about stuffing your pockets with dryer sheets to repel mosquitoes...has anyone tried this or know if it's true?? Would smell alot better than bug spray, anyway  |
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Mon Jun 12, 2006 4:50 pm |
I know what you mean about mosquito season in Canada. LOL I went out to snip some flowers in the garden this afternoon for literally 5 minutes and 2 of those f#@#@!s got me. I came in and found my scalp bleeding as one bit me on my hairline and the other got me in the side. Didn't even notice except for all the buzzing around my head. Sheesh! Can't even go out for a few minutes without being attacked. I think it's time yet again to make up another batch of my natural recipe. I originally posted it in the "eco-resort posting" but here it is again. I find works really well, when I use if of course
All the ingredients I use are organic, biodynamic or wildcrafted
Equal parts of the following Hydrosols (Floral Waters) of Tea Tree, Lavender, and Peppermint to fill a 200 ml bottle
Mix with a tbsp or two of witch hazel
5 drops of citronella or eucalyptus citriodora essential oil
5 drops of lavender essential oil
3-5 drops of peppermint essential oil
10 drops of tea tree essential oil
Put in a 200 ml bottle and shake well before use. Spray and enjoy the outdoors!
If you don't want to make anything yourself I've noticed that Burt's Bees also has a Citronella based bug repellant line in stores. I haven't read the ingredients or tried it myself but usually their products are all natural and pretty good. |
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Mon Jun 12, 2006 6:07 pm |
| A friend told me to increase vitB's, she said she did that and they leave her alone. So I am going to try that, living in Texas, trust me we get hordes of em. |
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Mon Jun 12, 2006 7:13 pm |
B Vitamins help a great deal.
If you don't want to mix your own essential oils you can try this. Cloud Nine Herbal Dip For Dogs. No, I am not kidding. I do not put Frontline on my two Scotties. I use Cloud Nine. Here are the ingredients: 100% Natural Aromatic Herbal Oils of: Tea Tree, Rosemary, Sage, Cedarwood, Pepperment, Sweet Orange, Eucatyptus, Citronella, Pine Needle. The 1/2 oz. bottle makes four gallons. I spray it on my dogs before walks and also put a few drops on a cloth collar. No flees or ticks. 
When taking my dogs for a walk in the evening I spray it on myself. It works!!!! It smells delightful. Totally pure. $12.99 for 1/2 ounce. This sure beats buying all those EO's. |
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Mon Jun 12, 2006 8:11 pm |
Avon's Orignal Scent Bath oil is GREAT for repelling mosquitos.
I have a bottle - you can get it dirt cheap when its on sale. |
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Sun Jun 25, 2006 6:42 am |
| Jala wrote: |
| I NEED to know this, too! I remember hearing/reading something about stuffing your pockets with dryer sheets to repel mosquitoes...has anyone tried this or know if it's true?? Would smell alot better than bug spray, anyway |
I've never tried this, but my grandmother swears by it. She and her friends go powerwalking (she lives in Prescott, AZ), and she just ties one of these on her beltloop and is bug free. It also keeps away noseeums and everything else. |
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29--oily somewhat acneic skin, hazel eyes, long dark brown hair |
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Sun Jun 25, 2006 6:55 am |
Products I've tried:
Burt's Bees Herbal Insect Repellent:
I like the smell--it's citronella and lemongrass I believe. It's on sale now at drugstore.com through June 30 w/ their Burt's sale. It's a little greasy, and unfortunately it doesn't last. So if you are only going out for a little bit, or don't mind reapplying, it's a good natural selection.
Avon Skin So Soft:
The original bath product... when I was a kid my mom would dilute this with water and spray it all over us. It worked very well, but I really don't like the scent--to me it was very strong and perfume-y. Better than something like OFF, but still not ideal.
DEET:
When I was at camp one year I used this for a while b/c the mosquitos were SOOOOOO bad and everyone else was using it. Of course it worked, but now I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.
One other thing that people I know have tried and had success with is Buzz Off clothing. A few brands make clothes/bandanas/hats etc. that are specially treated. They're pretty expensive, but might be worth a look.
I'm going to be travelling in Asia and India at the end of the summer, so I'm trying to figure out what to bring. Avon has a few lines of bug rellents now using 2 different Deet-free formulations, and they also have a combo bug repellent/sunscreen. I'm going to poke around and see if I can find reviews anywhere.
I'm also intrigued by wildflower's home recipe.
BUT--does anyone know:
1) is it okay to store hydrosols in plastic? The people over at NaturesGift.com don't recommend it
2) they also recommend refrigeration, which obviously won't be possible. Would the solution remain effective if I had it in a plastic bottle in my backpack for 2 months? |
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29--oily somewhat acneic skin, hazel eyes, long dark brown hair |
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Sun Jun 25, 2006 7:47 am |
| Avon Skin-So-Soft. |
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25, very fair, dry/sensitive, mild rosacea, otherwise good skin!  |
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Mon Jun 26, 2006 7:03 am |
| burt's bee is natural, have a try |
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Mon Jun 26, 2006 7:48 am |
| violetanne, I've never heard of dryer sheets before. Thanks for bringing that up. I've just did a search on the Internet but wonder whether it's available locally. I don't like the idea of putting insect repellent on my skin. So I'll try searching this locally and see if I have any luck |
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Mon Jun 26, 2006 4:47 pm |
I heard from somewhere that there are specific oils that if you rub a little on yourself you're good to go. But I forgot which oil(s). Does anyone know? I'm pretty lazy and cheap, so I probably wouldn't wanna be buying a whole bunch to mix, one or two would be fine.
And can someone remind me which aromatherapy oil is good for repelling mosquitoes from my room at night? |
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Mon Jun 26, 2006 4:49 pm |
| sormuimui wrote: |
I heard from somewhere that there are specific oils that if you rub a little on yourself you're good to go. But I forgot which oil(s). Does anyone know? I'm pretty lazy and cheap, so I probably wouldn't wanna be buying a whole bunch to mix, one or two would be fine.
And can someone remind me which aromatherapy oil is good for repelling mosquitoes from my room at night? |
A blend of these oils will work well against mosquitoes: Lavender, Peppermint, Tea Tree, Citronella and Eucalyptus Citriodora. |
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Mon Jun 26, 2006 7:54 pm |
| I heard that Lemongrass works too. |
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Fri Jun 30, 2006 12:57 pm |
| I've had good success with lavender, citronella and lemongrass. But except for lavender candles in the garden I don't bother with any. As I'm really into Vitamin B. It really helps. Your body can't keep it in and the mossies hate the taste of it. Take it maybe twice or thrice a day dosage depending on strength and where you ae in the world. And it also helps my moods |
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Fri Jun 30, 2006 6:13 pm |
| wildflower wrote: |
| sormuimui wrote: |
I heard from somewhere that there are specific oils that if you rub a little on yourself you're good to go. But I forgot which oil(s). Does anyone know? I'm pretty lazy and cheap, so I probably wouldn't wanna be buying a whole bunch to mix, one or two would be fine.
And can someone remind me which aromatherapy oil is good for repelling mosquitoes from my room at night? |
A blend of these oils will work well against mosquitoes: Lavender, Peppermint, Tea Tree, Citronella and Eucalyptus Citriodora. |
Does it have to be a blend? Can I just pick one and rub a few drops on my skin? Which would be the most effective? I remember just using Tea Tree when I was in HK as an aromatherapy at night to repel mosquitoes from my room and it worked very well (I got 9 bites in ONE NIGHT before using it). |
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Mon Jul 03, 2006 8:06 am |
| I do use the dryer sheets. I spend a lot of time outside in the evenings at my son's baseball games and I too get eaten alive. I hate all the sprays, sticky smells and skin reactions. Someone turned me on to using the dryer sheets and they work wonderfully. I buy them at the dollar store and keep them with me whenever I go. After rubbing them on my legs and arms (I skip my face) I put the left over sheet in my baseball hat on my head. Works everytime. |
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Mon Jul 03, 2006 8:02 pm |
bergquis, thanks for the tip about picking some up at the dollar store. do you use the sheets new? I saw where CareKate talked about using a used dryer sheet. Have you tried used ones?
I'm going to take some on vacation with me! |
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Tue Jul 04, 2006 1:08 am |
| i am soon going to be the guinea pig for our lovely forum member Candy and her Candessence product to keep the skeeters away. i have the unique problem of indoor buzzies, dive-bombing me in my sleep (we don't have screens here). i have tried sleeping with the dryer sheets between my sheets, but they still find me delectable.... i will get back to everybody on how effective her stuff is for those who aren't into the whole DIY stuff and the dryer sheets are just simply not enough. |
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Tue Jul 04, 2006 1:21 pm |
| sormuimui wrote: |
| Does it have to be a blend? Can I just pick one and rub a few drops on my skin? Which would be the most effective? I remember just using Tea Tree when I was in HK as an aromatherapy at night to repel mosquitoes from my room and it worked very well (I got 9 bites in ONE NIGHT before using it). |
No doesn't have to be a blend at all but mixing a couple of them with teatree or lavender hydrosol would be most effective. If you don't have any hydrosols you can always use plain witch hazel as well. If you can only pick 2 or 3 oils than I would suggest Eucalyptus Citriodora and Lavender as the top two and Peppermint as a third. |
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Fri Jul 07, 2006 10:44 pm |
| la vie en rose wrote: |
| i am soon going to be the guinea pig for our lovely forum member Candy and her Candessence product to keep the skeeters away. i have the unique problem of indoor buzzies, dive-bombing me in my sleep (we don't have screens here). i have tried sleeping with the dryer sheets between my sheets, but they still find me delectable.... i will get back to everybody on how effective her stuff is for those who aren't into the whole DIY stuff and the dryer sheets are just simply not enough. |
Boxed & being shipped tomorrow  |
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Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too. ~ Voltaire www.Candessence.com |
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Sat Jul 08, 2006 12:50 am |
http://miessenceproducts.com/product.asp?productid=46
About these things. Do you need to spray them on all exposed skin, or just generally give yourself and clothes a good spray and the scent will repell them? I am having a hard time with them munching on me while I sleep too. We have no screens and it gets so hot here I can hardly sleep without the windows open and the patio door in my bedroom open. What makes it worse though is that we live on these water canals. Lots of ducks live there and love it but unfortunetly being a stagnant water they are breeding grounds for those blood suckers and they love it too. I never see them bother me or land on me when I am awake during the day. I've never caught one feasting on me. However I keep noticing these little red bumbs on my arms and hands that look like bites from them. Oddly though they do not ever itch or anything like they used to from them. I'm sure that's what they are from though. |
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Sat Jul 08, 2006 1:16 am |
| I noticed while searching through Neal's Yards products that they have an insect repellant that is very similar to BB's. But I think this might be LESS oily than BB's after looking at the ingredients. You can find this from the Neal's Yard website. |
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Sat Jul 08, 2006 2:28 am |
| BYRG wrote: |
| What makes it worse though is that we live on these water canals. Lots of ducks live there and love it but unfortunetly being a stagnant water they are breeding grounds for those blood suckers and they love it too. |
Linnie Canals, perhaps??? if so, i've seen the bitie things come out en masse at dusk and stay around all night. ugh! several chunks were taken out of me as a child there.... they're viscious! |
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