Bugs away!

My family and I live in the country - on about 12 acres of land, about an acre of which is a pond. It's a pretty wide-open stretch of land and a lot of fun to chase my girls around on! I grew up in the suburbs, very near a city, and never thought I'd ever live on acreage or like it so much! Part of living out here has been dealing with a deluge of bugs, especially mosquitoes from a nearby swampy area and wasps that like to nest around our house since it's the only structure in a couple hundred feet in every direction. I happen to be allergic to stings and mosquitoes tend to be extra-attracted to me. So what do I do? Even though this isn't *strictly* a soap or wax-related post, I'm happy to share how I make a bug spray that I've found to be pretty effective.

Before I get to the spray part, you want to make your home as inhospitable these types of bugs as possible. Some of this information is probably a repeat for most folks, but it's important all the same. For mosquitoes, try to drain or treat any standing water. My daughters have a wading pool that we treat with bleach to keep it sanitary. For as semi-crunchy as I try to be, I have yet to find a better method for small wading pools that actually work. Our pond gets these mosquito dunks (Summit is the brand name) that are rated as organic for gardening and even safe for watering troughs for animals. The active ingredient is BTI - a bacterium that is toxic to mosquito larvae only. We don't treat 100% of our pond surface area because the fish do a decent job at getting the rest of the larvae and we don't want to deprive them of a food source. For wasps and yellow jackets, they love to have access to an open trash can or rubbish in general. Try to make sure your trash cans have a tight-fitting lid. I also like to do an extra good job spraying the cans (and the area around them) with the spray that I'm going to tell you about further down.

Second, I looked around for any evidence-based articles about wasp deterrents. I found the following link. For those who'd rather I just paste the important part from this link, here it is: "Two essential oil mixtures - 3EO-mix (clove, geranium and lemongrass) and 4EO-mix (clove, geranium, lemongrass and rosemary) - totally blocked the attraction of vespid workers."

There are a lot of home remedies that include cloves for wasp deterrents, and this link appears to back that up. I didn't want to use my precious geranium essential oil, but clove, lemongrass and rosemary were definitely ones I had on hand and were willing to spray with!

For mosquitoes, I chose to include lemon eucalyptus ('Corymbia citriodora') essential oil. The CDC has rated a synthesized version of this (known as PMD, which is also present in the pure essential oil form) as being as effective as DEET in repelling mosquitoes (source). I included the Latin names of these essential oils so you can be sure that you're getting the right type of oil. There is a misconception that lemon eucalyptus essential oil is a mixture of lemon ('Citrus limonum') and eucalyptus ('Eucalyptus radiata') essential oils. Seeing the Latin names, it is obvious that they are not the same. Lemon eucalyptus contains about 80% citronellal, so despite its name it does have a very strong citronella-like scent. I added Lime as an option because to my nose, it really helps calm down the citronella scent and adds a nice summery feel to the blend. You can also play with using other citrusy essential oils.

Essential Oil Method:
*Clove Bud Essential Oil ('Syzygium aromaticum')
*Lemongrass Essential Oil ('Cymbopogon Citratus')
*Lemon Eucalyptus Essential Oil ('Corymbia citriodora')
*Rosemary Essential Oil ('Rosmarinus officinalis')
*Liquid Soap (dish soap or bath soap is fine - or you can grate down bar soap and melt into hot water)
*Pump Sprayer (most garden centers and big box retailers will have this)
*Water

Optional
*Lime Essential Oil ('Citrus aurantifolia')

Directions: I'm going to give essential oil percentages so that you can adapt this to fit whatever you plan to use to disperse it. If you're doing a small area, you could just reuse an empty spray bottle. I like to make a big batch and put it in a 2-gallon pressure pump continuous sprayer since I like to spray anything that stands still! I have a lot of plants on my patio and front porch, and this mixture won't hurt them. I like to have about a 5% concentration of essential oils (equal amounts of each), a generous squeeze of liquid soap (I do about another 2-5% of soap) and the rest is water. Shake, shake, shake. Spray away, occasionally shaking again to reincorporate the oils. Pay special attention to areas where wasps like to nest - crevices, under eaves, and around doorways and windows. Spray down your garbage cans and the area around them. I have a lot of brick and I spray all of it since it's a nice porous surface that will hold onto that spray longer than smoother surfaces will. I also spray down all my window screens and find that flies don't like to land on them anymore. It will be awhile before I can report if it really keeps flies at bay, and I may not be an accurate judge of that since I have a 4 year old who doesn't do the best job at keeping doors shut. I spray my patio furniture, around my daughters' plastic pool, everywhere we like to frequent! After spraying so much, I still had the majority of my 2 gallons left over and plan to reapply the spray as I see an increase in bugs or we get a big wash down of rain.

Don't want to chase down essential oils or intimidated by them? I don't blame you! It takes time to become better acquainted with EOs and to not stare at those displays of little blue and brown vials without being overwhelmed. And this method may be a cheaper, easier-to-find way for most folks. It uses steeped herbs to create a concentrated "tea" that will also help deter bugs. Cloves and Catnip are the two most important components here. Regarding the Catnip/Catmint ('Nepeta' Walker's Low is what I use): unless you are sure that it's a 100% dried version of this herb, I would suggest going with a fresh version over buying something from the pet section of a store. It's a hardy perennial herb that has pretty purple flowers throughout the summer and makes a nice potted plant to keep by the door and repel mosquitoes! Studies have begun to confirm the efficacy of using this herb as a mosquito repellent (source).

Non-Essential Oil Method
*Whole Cloves - spice section of grocery stores
*Fresh (or dried) Catnip sprigs
*Fresh (or dried) Lemongrass - produce section of your grocery store may have some fresh lemongrass
*Fresh (or dried) Rosemary - you may find fresh next to the Lemongrass, or you can use clippings from your own herb garden.
*Liquid Soap (dish soap or bath soap is fine - or you can grate down bar soap and melt into hot water)
*Pump Sprayer (most garden centers and big box retailers will have this)
*Water

Optional
*Fresh (or dried) citrus peels of your choice - Grapefruit, Lime, Lemon, Orange, go nuts!

Directions: I like to dump an entire spice jar of whole cloves and several large sprigs of each of the herbs listed into a stock pot, cover with a few inches of water and bring to a boil. If you want to add some citrusy scented fun, add citrus peels at your own discretion - just be sure that everything stays covered with water (add extra water if needed). I turn down the heat and let it simmer for about an hour then turn off and let cool. Generally this is best to do the night before (mostly because I'm impatient and maybe that extra overnight steeping time makes it extra potent?). I strain the cloves, herbs and citrus peels out of the tea and pour into my spray pump, add a generous squirt of liquid soap and fill with water until my 2 gallon container is full. Shake, shake, shake to incorporate everything and spray away! Just as with the EO mixture, try to hit the areas where people tend to congregate, or bugs are likely to enjoy as a habitat. This mixture is safe for any plants you have outside as well!

I know I'm not using direct measurements here, but it's really not an exact science. I've seen a dramatic decrease in wasps using these sprays. I went from seeing a wasp or hornet every time I looked outside to seeing zero! The mosquitoes have been trickier and we use other deterrents in addition to this one (potted herbs on the patio, burning lemon eucalyptus candles). As the bug season wears on, I'll be sure to update this post with how well these sprays continue to work for us!