Safe, Easy-To-Make, & Natural Bug Repellents

If you're like me, you love warm weather and being outdoors but you could certainly do without the biting bugs.  Commercially produced, chemical-filled mosquito repellents work fairly well but I don't really feel comfortable coating myself with potentially cancer-causing chemicals and I definitely don't want my kids to use that scary stuff!

That's why I was so excited when I saw some cheap and easy-to-make, natural mosquito repellents on wisebread.com.  Here are recipes from my three favorites...

Lemon Eucalyptus Mosquito Repellent

• Ingredients: Lemon eucalyptus oil and sunflower oil or witch hazel
• Directions: Mix 1 part lemon eucalyptus oil for every 10 parts of sunflower oil/witch hazel. Rub or spray on skin.

Lavender Mosquito Repellent

• Ingredients: Fresh lavender (the flower)
• Directions:  Rub a lavender flower behind your ears, wrists and neck. Not only will you smell great but mosquitoes will leave you alone.

 Vanilla Mosquito Repellent 

• Ingredients: Vanilla extract
• Directions: Apply some vanilla extract or vanilla essence to your pulse points.

Be aware that this will take some experimentation since each person has a different body chemistry and one repellent may work better for you then another.  These are inexpensive enough that you could make all three and find out which works best.  Enjoy!