DIY Insect Repellent

Essential oils are a great tool for repelling those nasty ticks and mosquitoes that drive you nuts during the summer.  You can easily mix up your own batch of insect repellent with ingredients you may already have in your house.  This spray works great and is safe enough to use on babies and animals; although, you want to keep the spray away from the animal's face.  Cats and dogs have much more sensitive noses than we do.  I am listing the recipe I use below.  If you don't have all of the ingredients, don't fret.  There are a host of insect repelling essential oils that you can use in pretty much any combination.  Essential oils known to repel insects are: cinnamon, citronella, clove, lemongrass, rosemary, tea tree, cajeput, eucalyptus, thieves, cedar, catnip, lavender, orange, grapefruit, peppermint, and rose geranium.  You can use any combination of these oils you have in your possession, but you'll want to have for sure a lemon/citrus smell, lavender, and some type of mint as those 3 repel mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas.  Other than that, you can mix and add to your heart's content.  Be aware that citrus essential oils can cause you to be more sensitive to the sun, so use sunscreen if you're going to be outdoors quite a bit with repellent on.  Also note that if you use a spray with cinnamon, thieves, and/or clove, you cannot use this on babies or animals.  These 3 oils are extremely strong and can irritate sensitive skin. 

All-Natural Insect Repellent:
8 oz spray bottle (this needs to be glass or PET1 recyclable)
20 drops lavender essential oil
15 drops peppermint essential oil
10 drops rosemary essential oil
10 drops tea tree essential oil
10 drops lemongrass essential oil
5 drops eucalyptus essential oil
1 teaspoon sweet almond oil or vegetable glycerin
witch hazel

Simply add essential oils to spray bottle along with oil/glycerin and top with witch hazel.  Give it a shake and spray wherever needed.  If you don't have sweet almond oil or vegetable glycerin on hand, you can use the spray without that ingredient.  The purpose of the oil is primarily to help the mixture stay on your skin longer; although, sweet almond oil has insect repelling properties itself.  The recipe above can be used on dogs and cats, but again, be sure to keep it away from their eyes and only use a little.  You can also use a drop of lavender or rose geranium on a dog's collar once a month to repel ticks.

Just as an aside, you will read all kinds of terrible things about DEET if you research bug repelling sprays.  I never go hiking or outside in a heavily wooded area without using a DEET spray first.  DEET is absolutely safe to use.  I simply prefer to use a more natural spray when I'm not in a heavily wooded or overgrown area.  Here's a link with more information about the safety of DEET: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/factsheets/chemicals/deet.htm.