For outdoor enthusiasts who want to enjoy hiking, camping, and gardening without being constantly attacked by flies and mosquitoes…here is a list of essential oils known to repel bugs, some of our recommended natural soaps that include these essential oils, and a natural bug spray recipe.
5 Essential Oils That Repel Bugs
- Lemon Eucalyptus: known to keep mosquitoes at bay for a few hours after application.
- Peppermint: supposedly keeps spiders away.
- Citronella: used in the making of many “bug repellant” candles, this essential oil is helpful for keeping mosquitoes away when correctly prepared.
- Cinnamon: known for keeping wasps and spiders away. According to One Essential Community, “use cinnamon bark in addition to powdered cinnamon to get rid of ants! It messes up their pheromones and they get lost. So they lose their way and don’t infest further.”
- Lavender: this common essential oil works on common household bugs such as fruit flies and lice.
Apple Valley Natural Soaps Made With Bug Repellant Essential Oils
Camping Shampoo Bar Limited Edition
This one is for all you outdoorsy, adventuresome folks who like to go camping and fishing, but still want an all over clean right there at the campsite. Our Camping Shampoo/Body bar will clean you from head to toe, is biodegradable and safe to use at campsites near bodies of water. Please note that I said “near” not in! The “Leave No Trace” guidelines state that even with biodegradable soap, the earth is needed to filter the soapy water, so it is strongly recommended that you shower or wash up 200 feet away from any body of water. You can read more about LNT here.
When you go camping with this bar, you can rest assured that you are using a product which is safe for the environment and good for you! Plus, as it’s also made with fantastic bug repelling essential oils, there’s the added benefit of an extra layer of protection from little pests.
We make limited quantities of our Limited Edition soaps, so once they are sold out, they are gone for the season.
Ingredients: saponified oils of organic coconut, organic sustainable palm, organic olive, organic sunflower, organic shea nut butter, castor bean, and organic jojoba, rosemary oil extract, and essential oils of lemon eucalyptus, lavender, organic peppermint, organic rosemary, cedarwood, citronella, and organic lemongrass.
An itch-fighting, bacteria-fighting, bug-fighting bar for the books.
This salt bar, plus our Lavender Rosemary Salt bar make a wonderful shampoo for those with itchy scalps who have tried everything under the sun (including a wide range of our products) to alleviate the itch. Even some of our team members who periodically get itchy scalps, find relief with these 2 salt bars. If you do choose to try a salt bar as a shampoo, try a sample or half bar first as this bar won’t be for everyone. If you have a lot of hair, you may find that it doesn’t lather as much as our regular shampoo bars. A suggestion for this to still get the anti itch benefits from the salt bar, but also get a rich lather, is to use the salt bar gently against the scalp and lather as much as possible, do not rinse but follow with a shampoo bar. Use the Lavender Lemon shampoo bar until you have a think lather and then rinse with water. Follow with an acidic rinse if needed.
Ingredients: saponified oils of organic coconut, organic shea nut butter, and castor bean, European spa salt, and essential oils of lavender and lemon.
Peppermint Tea Tree Shampoo Bar
This bar is so much more than just a spider repellant.
Even though our Peppermint Tea Tree shampoo bar feels great on scalp and skin, the main benefit of this bar is the health it can help restore to both hair and scalp. Nourishment and restorative properties from the specifically chosen carrier oils plus added healing from the essential oil blend.
Some of the benefits, but not limited to, are with ingredients such as Coconut oil which is a super-oil full of naturally present antioxidants, it is an excellent anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial. Olive oil which is packed with anti-aging antioxidants and hydrating squalene, making it superb for hair, skin, and nails. Jojoba oil is a natural anti-fungal, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory, its properties keep the scalp clean and healthy. It can also prevent hair loss and thinning caused by the clogged hair follicles as it dissolves and clears these blockages and promotes the development of new hair cells, which can lead to hair growth. Shea butter strengthens your skin by stimulating the production of collagen, it helps make your skin more supple, more alive, nourished and radiant. We could keep going, but you probably get the idea.
For the essential oils, both peppermint and tea tree essential oils have antibacterial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory properties. Peppermint adds a cooling effect which can help eliminate the urge to scratch, while tea tree, thanks to it’s fantastic anti-fungal properties, is great for fighting dandruff. Tea tree oil is a wildly popular remedy for acne and fights the fungus that causes dandruff without drying out the scalp, it can also serve as a natural conditioner and eliminate problems that lead the scalp to flake.
Ingredients: saponified oils of organic coconut, organic olive, castor bean, organic sunflower, organic sustainable palm, organic jojoba, organic shea nut butter, and mango seed butter, rosemary oil extract, and essential oils of organic peppermint and organic tea tree.
Bug Spray Recipe For Home and Yard
This recipe came from Healthline, for more bug spray recipes including one safe for skin and plants you can check out their original article!
For a DIY indoor/outdoor bug spray, you’ll need the following:
- glass spray bottle
- lavender essential oil
- oil of lemon eucalyptus
- citronella essential oil
- distilled water
- white vinegar
Then follow these steps:
- Mix 10 to 20 drops of each essential oil with 2 ounces distilled water and 2 ounces of white vinegar.
- Shake gently to mix.
- Spray to use.
Well, we can hope that the bugs will die down in August, there’s nothing wrong with being prepared for next summer! Do you have a favorite homemade or natural bug spray you enjoy using?
Feel free to email me at nora@applevalleynaturalsoap.com with any questions or comments you may have!
Much Love,
Nora
APPLE VALLEY NATURAL SOAP BLOG 