I have been so excited to make my own mosquito repellant (henceforth forever referred to as the more common term “bug spray”), and I finally got all the ingredients together! Now, I’ve been scouring pinterest for diy bug sprays for years, and there are approximately 24,386 of them. And I’ve probably pinned 13,207 of those. But as with all pinterest finds, how do you choose one that will really work? Enter my go-to for all things natural: my favorite blog, Wellness Mama. A quick search of her site turned up a post with multiple spray options. But you know I like to keep things simple, so I went with the essential oil bug spray recipe and changed it up very slightly. And since I already had the oils, all I needed to buy was witch hazel and distilled water!
Ok, so did you know that organic witch hazel is a thing?! Because I didn’t. Until I was browsing around the Vitamin Shoppe and found some! Now, if you’re on a budget or don’t really care about organic witch hazel, by all means go with the drug store kind for less than $2. The problem I found with that was that the ingredients list went something like this: 2% witch hazel, 98% other ingredients. And the “other ingredients” weren’t listed anywhere. So, I went with the $10 organic one. Call me a witch hazel snob, I guess.
Besides being a snob, I’m also an Amazon junkie, and their Subscribe & Save monthly delivery service is life, so naturally I am signed up to get a six pack of essential oils dropped off at my door once a month. It has lavender, eucalyptus, tea tree, orange, lemongrass, and mint. I normally just use them in a diffuser or for cleaning, but thought I’d give them a try in the bug spray. Let me just say here, this particular brand of oils works great for my purposes, but do your research if you plan on using topically or even ingesting (if you’re into that sort of thing).
I picked up a gallon of distilled water at the grocery store (again, if you’re thrifty you can just boil water and let it cool before using), and a cheap 12 oz. spray bottle at the Dollar General, and got to work.
4 oz distilled water
4 oz witch hazel
1 tablespoon rubbing alcohol
10-20 drops each of eucalyptus, lemongrass, mint, tea tree, and lavender oils
Shake it up and spray!
How easy is that? You can add more oils if you prefer a stronger scent. I definitely added more than the original recipe called for because I like my bug spray to dominate the world! You can also double the recipe if you have a bigger bottle. Before you ask, I’m not sure how long it lasts after you make it. I’ve been using this on my whole family this summer, but I’m pretty sure peppermint oil isn’t recommended for babies or children under a certain age (2, I believe), but you could just leave that out if you need to use it on babies (although check the safety of the other oils on children just to be safe). I did just get some rosemary and citronella oil that I plan to try out, too!
Try the recipe and let me know your results!
