Natural Mosquito Repellent


Last November, when I was at San Jacinto Battleground Historical Site (scene
of the last battle for Texas independence) the mosquitoes were as bad as
I've ever seen them anywhere. (The swamps that helped General Sam Houston
defeat the Mexican Army are still prolific mosquito breeding grounds.)

One evening I was trying to go for a walk and mosquitoes were swarming in my face, trying to get in my eyes, nose and mouth to the point that I just had to give up and go inside.

I remembered hearing about someone who sprinkled lime juice on their lawn to
keep away mosquitoes. I thought that was pretty unlikely, but decided to
give it a try, anyway.

I had no lime juice, but I did have some reconstituted lemon juice... the one that comes a little plastic lemon.

Straight out of the bottle, the lemon juice was too strong... burned my
skin... so I wet my hands and face, and using just a few drops of the lemon
juice spread it over my face... even around my eyes.

I went back outside, and, although they were still swarming around me, not
another mosquito landed on my face or tried to get into my eyes, nose or
mouth.

I sure can't prove the lemon juice was really working... but it sure looked that way to me!

Thanks for the tip.
I've had success with a mixture of peppermint oil (1/3) and alcohol (2/3). Best to keep away from eyes, though! Smell like a candy cane!
I did try orange oil and water mix. It worked alright, but the bees liked me, too. The one time that I did this, a bee landed on me about 4 times. It was a good lesson for my stepdaughter, though. I showed her that the bee had landed on me and explained to her that I did not get stung because I did not swat at the bee.
(I just let him bee).

Does anyone have info. as to using vanilla mixed with water as a repellent for mosquitoes? This was brought up on Howard's radio show and numerous people said it worked. I believe Howard was promoting it also as a repellent.

Anyone interested in additional info, ck the posts below.

http://www.dirtdoctor.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1274&highlight=vanilla

I've tried the vanilla mixed with water and it seems to work pretty good. Also it doesn't stink like other concoctions do. I usually mix about 2 tbls with about 1 qt of water in a spray bottle. Spray it on my self and the pesky critters stay away.