NATURAL INSECT REPELLENT

I just guessed on how to put this together after researching the most common recommendations for natural mosquito / insect repellents. I tried it when we were going into a situation that has been known to be miserable with mosquitos - on a river bank where the critters come out at a certain moment around dusk and typically they regard deep woods off as a appetizer. I didn't have a lot of confidence that this would work, but it worked great, and I never had to bring out the serious chemicals that I had packed as back up in case of failure.

This is what I tried, and it worked -- so I stuck with the same formula for refills. It is possible that other proportions or combinations would work. In fact, I probably didn't make it up exactly the same every time. Basically this is it:

In a 16-oz spray bottle put:

15 drops cedarwood oil

15 drops bergamot oil (bergaptene free)

5 drops rosemary oil

5 drops tea tree oil
5 drops peppermint oil

fill the rest with water

Spray on all exposed skin as well as on clothing. For the face, spray on hands and rub on face avoiding eyes. The only caution is some peoples' skin may be sensitive to one or more of these oils. None who used it on our trip had any adverse reaction (or any mosquito bites!) Also, if you have it on your face and then sweat so the stuff gets in your eyes it might sting. But probably no more than chemical repellent would.