By Jenny Watson
Our family just moved out to a beautiful home on 12 wooded acres with a perfect creek for catching all the crawdads and minnows. Sounds like paradise, right? Well I got a rude awakening the first week of moving after finding multiple ticks on my kids, one of which caused a rash serious enough to head to the doctor’s office for treatment. NOT COOL. Luckily, I scoured the internet and found the perfect homemade natural tick & mosquito repellent that I tweaked with our Castile Liquid Soap and guys, I’m not joking, since using this repellent, we haven’t had a single tick on our kids! I’m so excited to share this with you all and would LOVE your feedback if it works for your family as well as it did for mine! The lemongrass essential oil found in our Castile Soap contributes to the repellent as much as the vinegar so it’s not a completely unbearable scent. My kids line up for it every time they go to play outside.
The Elderberry Co. Natural Tick & Mosquito Repellent Recipe
2 cups distilled white vinegar
1 cup water
½ cup Castile Liquid Soap
In a spray bottle, mix distilled white vinegar, water and Castile Liquid Soap. Adjust the level of soap used to your scent preference.
Like I said, comment below if this recipe helps your family stay safe from ticks and mosquitoes this summer and feel free to share with your friends and family as well! Happy summer everyone!
5 comments
We also live deeply into a forest of oak trees: White Oaks and Burr Oaks for the most part. I have been making an insect spray for our wooden deck and porch railings for years, and it works really well. I also use castile soap—either tea tree or peppermint, and I mix this with water as well and then I add in both tea-tree oil and peppermint essential oils. I usually use about ten drops of each. I do not measure the water or the castile soap. I just pour the water in the bottle first; otherwise, if the soap goes in first it bubbles up so the water cannot be properly poured into the desired amount. I use this on wooden deck and porch railing, wooden siding and into the air surrounding those areas. It works amazingly well.
Hey Sharon, that is a great question! While we do believe that the natural tick repellant should be safe for pets, we recommend that you have a chat with your vet if you have any concern! If you have any additional questions, please let us know and we are happy to help.
I’m going to give it a try! I was covered in ticks when I went on a hike a couple weeks back, now I’m nervous to go. Definitely will give this a try. Thank you!
Can this natural tick and mosquitoes spray be used on dogs as well
Worked great 👏🏻👏🏻 we have oak trees and woods all around us and it’s been terrible