Natural Insect Repellents

[DanieMarie]

Just thought I'd share a few, because I've come to find that they work better than synthetics anyway. In Berlin, you always have issues with carpet beetles, and clothes and meal moths, because it's such an old city and even if it's a new building (like mine) they'll make their way in because they're EVERYWHERE. I'm currently fighting a battle with all 3 (I didn't really bother before because I live in a brand-new building and it took them this long to find their way in here). Anyway I guess I'll list stuff by herb:

Lavender: Carpet beetles, clothes moths, meal moths (they don't like the smell), flies
Rosemary: Mosquitoes
Bay leaves: Weevils.

Feel free to share more!

PS I should have put screens on my windows when I had them installed. Being a first time homeowner comes with so many lessons....

[Almost_lost]

Re: Natural Insect Repellents

Apparently horse chestnuts (conkers) repel spiders, i dont know how true this is but apparently they dont like smell conkers give off.

[DanieMarie]

Re: Natural Insect Repellents

[quote author=Almost_lost link=topic=328.msg3873#msg3873 date=1287333919]
Apparently horse chestnuts (conkers) repel spiders, i dont know how true this is but apparently they dont like smell conkers give off.
[/quote]

Yeah I heard that too!
I actually let spiders live in my house because they don't bother me and they themselves are natural insect killers, but I was going to put a few horse chestnuts under my bed because sometimes, every once and a while, they make their way in there and bite me when I'm sleeping. And spider bites=not pretty lol.

[Clive]

Re: Natural Insect Repellents

Patchouli and cedar also repel moths and flies. I make sachets of lavender, patchouli, and cedar and their oils and store them in our kitchen cabinets to keep moths and flies out. They get BAD here in the summer.

Lavender, cedar, and rosemary are natural flea repellents. We couldn't afford our usual flea medication this year so I added four drops each lavender and cedar oils to a spray bottle of water and sprayed down our dogs, carpets, and upholstery every day this summer. No more fleas! You can also make your own flea collars by putting four to six drops of any of these oils on your dogs' collars, and fresh sprigs of rosemary stored with your dogs' unused bedding will keep fleas from hiding there.

On a related note, you can add a bit of tea tree oil to regular dog shampoo and voila, it becomes flea shampoo.

Fun fact: Lavender repels moths because it contains a little bit of camphor, which is what moth balls are made from.

[Ophidia]

Re: Natural Insect Repellents

[quote author=Clive link=topic=328.msg4141#msg4141 date=1287385261]
On a related note, you can add a bit of tea tree oil to regular dog shampoo and voila, it becomes flea shampoo.
[/quote]

You have to be very careful doing this with tea tree or eucalyptus oil. It wouldn't take much to make a small dog extremely sick. Cats are even more susceptible to poisoning and can die quickly.

[Hoho]

Re: Natural Insect Repellents

call me crazy but dandelions have worked for me to repel mosquitoes. I was in boy scouts as kid and split dandelion stems in half them rubbed the juice on me. I didn't have any problems afterwards; silly scouts and their 9$ bottles of OFF that's so sticky ><

[Clive]

Re: Natural Insect Repellents

[quote author=perzephone link=topic=328.msg4150#msg4150 date=1287387136]
You have to be very careful doing this with tea tree or eucalyptus oil. It wouldn't take much to make a small dog extremely sick. Cats are even more susceptible to poisoning and can die quickly.
[/quote]

This is true. When I said a bit, I meant a tiny bit. I can say that I did this with all of our dogs, including small ones and they were perfectly fine. The proportions I used were two drops oil to each silver dollar-sized portion of shampoo. All in all it amounted to four to six drops per dog. When in doubt, ask a vet.