Natural Mosquito Repellent- Buzz Away????

[sidandspencersmom]

We will be traveling to MN next week, and will need some mosquito repellent.

Anyone have a natural homemade repellent, or tried anything like "Buzz Away"?

thanks!

[suzyfakename]

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[DaytonsMom]

In Peggy O'Mara's book Natural Family LIving there is a recipe for insect repellent. It says to filla spray bottle with 3 ounces wayer, one ounce witch hazel or aloe vera juice and 24 drops of tea tree oil. I haven't tried it but it sounds good. She said you can also but tea tree oil on insect bites to stop the itching! I hope you get some good respones because I am very curious also. We are in N. Cali and mosquitoes have been horrible up here. Best of Luck!

[jadekat]

I use California Baby bug spray and have had good luck with it. Plus it smells good.

[milkmommie]

We use buzz away and love it. Well, I have a love hate with it. The smell is slightly annoying to me....not my favorite. But for the price, and it WORKS, it's worth it. I've tried the homemade kinds and haven't found any that really cut it for us here in PA.

[Astrid1024]

I'm so excited to see this post! The other day, my MIL came over to help me garden and she wanted to know if she needed to bring over her DEET spray (ew!). It just so happened I had all the necessary essential oils to mix one up really quickly. I took Rubbing Alcohol in an 8 ounce or so bottle and mixed in about 2 tsp of the following oils - eucalyptus, citronella, rose geranium, lemon and basil.

I didn't get one bite and it smelled good. I would only spray it on skin, because of all the oil (It might stain clothes) - but it worked really well.

[DevaMajka]

I use the Burt Bees stuff (with lemongrass in it I think?)
I did some research, and a couple of the active ingredients are supposed to be some of the most effective bug repellents that are used.

here's where I read it http://www.bchealthguide.org/healthfiles/hfile96.stm
"These include repellents with p-menthane-3,8-diol (PMD), also known as lemon-eucalyptus oil. This product has been shown to be as effective as DEET, but protects against mosquitoes only for about 2 hours. Lemon-eucalyptus oil should not be used on children less than three years old. It should not be applied more than twice a day."

I got the feeling (from other sites) that the reason they said not to use it on kids under 3 because it hadn't been tested for that particular age group, not necessarily because it's not safe.

I should add that I don't think the burt's bees stuff has an age limit on the label.

[mumkenna&lucas]

Originally Posted by milkmommie

We use buzz away and love it. Well, I have a love hate with it. The smell is slightly annoying to me....not my favorite. But for the price, and it WORKS, it's worth it. I've tried the homemade kinds and haven't found any that really cut it for us here in PA.

Where do you find it? Thanks!

[Contrariety]

Originally Posted by Deva33mommy

I use the Burt Bees stuff (with lemongrass in it I think?)
I did some research, and a couple of the active ingredients are supposed to be some of the most effective bug repellents that are used.

here's where I read it http://www.bchealthguide.org/healthfiles/hfile96.stm
"These include repellents with p-menthane-3,8-diol (PMD), also known as lemon-eucalyptus oil. This product has been shown to be as effective as DEET, but protects against mosquitoes only for about 2 hours. Lemon-eucalyptus oil should not be used on children less than three years old. It should not be applied more than twice a day."

I got the feeling (from other sites) that the reason they said not to use it on kids under 3 because it hadn't been tested for that particular age group, not necessarily because it's not safe.

I should add that I don't think the burt's bees stuff has an age limit on the label.

I also use Burt's Bees and it works pretty well. I used it on DS while we were camping this week, and he seemed to be fine... I don't know why it says not to use it on kids.

[mamaMAMAma]

I've tried burt's bees and buzz away. Buzz away worked slightly better for me. But its really your body chemistry. I was applying and reapplying every few hours and still managed to get 30+ bites from a 10 day trip to NH. DH, on the other hand, has a grand total of 3 bites and he didn't use any spray. He attributed it to his taking Vit B... Good luck! I hate mosquitos. BTW, this stuff works really well. We borrowed some from a friend of ours, and my girls thought it worked really well.