Monday, September 24, 2007

A natural bug repellent

My poor daughter, she seems to be a target for bugs, especially mosquitoes, and she will swell up a lot from the bites. We always tell her that the bugs like her because she is so sweet. Well, a few years back I learned about tea tree oil, an essential oil that would repel bugs, so I started making my own spray with it. The store bought insect repellent is just not safe unless you are shopping at a health food store then it is very expensive. So, I decided to try to make my own, I just put the tea tree oil in a spray bottle with water and a drop of liquid hand soap to get the oil and water to mix. There you have it; homemade, all natural, and completely safe bug repellent and it costs less than the health food store repellent. The really cool thing about this spray is that it can also be used as an antibacterial and antifungal treatment. Also, as an extra bonus, in my experience it helps with the pain and the swelling when use on a scrape, bite, or sting. In fact, my daughter got stung by a bee last week and she asked for the tea tree oil and preferred it over the ice and sting kill ointment. If you live here in Georgia, you'll be happy to hear that it even takes the sting out of fire ant bites (again same sweet daughter). It will also repel ticks and fleas. We use tea tree oil on our pets, also. I have a tea tree spray bottle in my van as my first aid kit. Hope this helps your family like it has mine. It's easy and safe.
I just recently found tea tree oil at Walmart in the vitamin aisle.
Michelle