How to Make an Herbal Bug Repellent

Many bug repellents can irritate the skin almost as much as the bug bites that you use them to avoid. Harsh chemicals can cause rashes and inflame eyes if you get the mixture on your face, and almost all processed repellents smell terrible. However, there are many types of herbs that fight off bugs and even can kill the ones that land on you. In this article, we will discuss how to make an herbal bug repellent.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Lemon peels
• Orange peels
• 1/4 teaspoon mint leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon pennyroyal leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon sage leaves
• Rubbing alcohol
• Spray bottle
• 2 cups of water
• Container with a lid
• Strainer

How to Make an Herbal Bug Repellent

1. All the herbs in this bug repellent are common and can be found in most herb gardens or purchased dried in natural food stores. Mix two cups of water, the lemon and orange peels, mint leaves, pennyroyal leaves and sage leaves in the airtight container. If you like the way any one ingredient smells in particular, double the amount of that ingredient to make your bug spray smell like it. Pregnant women and women trying to become pregnant should leave the pennyroyal out of the mixture.
2. Let the mixture steep for twenty-four hours. Make sure it is tightly covered.
3. Strain out the herbs and peels. You can catch the tea in a bowl or pour it straight into the spray bottle.
4. Shake in two cups of rubbing alcohol. Make sure that you keep the lid on the spray bottle so that the mixture does not evaporate, as rubbing alcohol evaporates very quickly.
5. Spray yourself with this mixture before going outside. It should keep outdoor bugs like mosquitoes and indoor pests like fleas away from you all day.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are pregnant or trying to become so, leave pennyroyal out of the bugspray.