Natural Insect Repellant

my understanding is that mosquitos are attracted to the co2 you breathe and heat. Most reppellants act to disrupt their senses with volatile substances (volatile meaning produces lots of vapors) I would guess the baby oil acts as the inert ingrediant to stick to you and the dettol and lemon oil produce the vapours. BTW I wouldnt go anywhere where mozzys abount without bushmans that stuff works to a really serious degree. It was the only way we could fish in the Port River at night. you could see the clouds hanging about 20cm from you but hey come no closer the stuff actively repels them and you dont need it all over you

Hi
You can buy from camping store Fly & Mozzie Buster it is all natural.
It contains natural repellants and plant extract. (according to bottle) It is a company out of W.A,I have used this product seems to work well has a citronella smell to it, 125ml spray $12 Not sure about your mix but this is another option.
Derek

Yes it does work. I lived and fished in darwin for 11 years.You'd be surprised what
"RID" and some other brand's will do to you, (melt plastic chair's). some fishing guide's ask cleints to provide their own repellant. Long time use ????

Hilli

Timely post! I am sitting here scratching my sand fly bites because I forgot to take my repellant fishing on the weekend in gippsland but the one I have/made works a treat. I am not a fan of the commercial types which would make good painstrippers (couldn't be good for you)

I started with Tallebudgera herbals brand repellant as a base (from supermarket) (which has tea tree oil as the active ingredient from memory) then I upped the active ingredients by adding pure lavender oil and tree oil. If you also need sunscreen you can just add these things to the sunscreen which then acts as the base. I made these for fishing at Cape York and I think it worked a treat.

Others who we were staying with last weekend had a dettol and baby oil mixture which they were happy with. With sand flies oil seems to act as a bit of a barrier.

regards,

Itchy Darren

Not that a pharmacist would know (!) but up in Darwin years ago we used to mix citronella oil 5% in baby oil. A bit greasy but does the job...

Personally I can't go past Rid...

For a fixed location I find the old coils work well. We stick one at each end of the camper awning poles and have no problems. They smell a bit, but nothing compared with the smell, and residue, on your skin of repellants.

Cheers,

Jim.

Dear Brumac
I have heard good things about systemic Vitamin B1, particuarly against sand flies (Taken for about 1 month before exposure). Off to NZ in Feb and I am taking it now in antacipation.
Cheers John

AbleepING BIG THONG

Bru,

Add metho to the baby oil/dettol mix, dunno why but it really works. For kids, and bigger kids, SKINTASTIC for kids, is hard to beat. We use the normal Skintastic, and it's good for bush flies, mozzies and sand flies.

We live on the Diamantina River, the home of bush flies and , at the moment, plenty of sandflies. That Bushman stuff is toxic enough, that it should be banned.

I like the big thong idea, too.

Hooroo...

75% metho, 25% dettol with a dash of baby oil. This has been used by myself for years on the boats that I have run in FNQ QLD. Works a treat for cuts etc from fishing and coral as well as repelling mozzies, flies etc. The metho dries out the cuts, the dettol obviously treats the wounds and the baby oil stops your skin from drying out too much. Also the combination seem to drive the bugs away for whatever reason. If you ask around the charter boats in either Gladstone or Cairns you'll find they all use this mixture.

Hi,

We used to go into Malaria areas a lot in Mozambique, and we could not live on the tablets, as they affect your liver.

We started using Aqueous Cream mixed with either tea trea oil, or citronella oil, or eucalyptus oil. They all worked well, and no-one in our family got malaria, when others in our group got it even on tablets.

Aqueous cream is cheap, so you can really put it on thick, and it helps keep the moisture in so your skin does not dry out.

Regards

Anthony

I found that in the Tent/ Trailer the best is for two Coils (one at each end ) as Jimbo said. However when on the beach you can't stop them biting you (sandflies) so the alternative is to stop the itch. TELFAST from the chemist will do the trick. One tablet per day and no itch whatsoever. I am allergic to Midges etc and these things work for me.

Ditto on the equal parts dettol / metho / baby oil approach - does give you one hell of a tan too! As for those @#$%&%#@ midgies, take vitamin B supplements (I think it's B12 you want, but any multi b-vitamin will do) a couple of weeks before you head north. It doesn't stop the little blighters biting, but the itching is considerably reduced, and the bite tends to disappear after about 1/2 hour if you don't scratch it...

T-Bone.

Hi Brumac,

My experience is that if the little buggers are going to bite you, they'll bite you through any of the organic things. Bushmans brings me out in a terrible rash, but it isn't the DEET because I use tropical strength Rid, which has just as much DEET. (Yes it does melt plastic!)
While we were in Broome I was eaten alive by sandflies while HWMBO got about 4 bites, so I must taste better! Actually its all got to do with CO2, body heat and pheromones, which no amount of confusing the smell will alter! I tried all the Kimberley tricks - I asked every local and got all sorts of ideas, but nothing worked except tropical strenth Rid. For treating the bites I had daily visits to the pharmacy, and ended up taking Telfast and eventually another antihistamine! What actually worked was regular application of aloe vera, which I bought in a green tube. To keep flies away we found that sandalwood sticks work really well, probably like the coils. We used a couple strategically placed around the campsite. I hate using chemicals, but sometimes I get driven to it!!!
Have a great holiday. We're going to Broome again in a couple of weeks - can't wait, even if the sandflies are waiting for me!
Cheers
Anni

i use a product called 'Bee Natural' it is made up on the coast of NSW, got it at the greenstore in brunswick st Melb. Heaps of citronella in it and beez wax and some other goodies (cant remember) . Works really well, but the fumes can bring a tear to the eye. I was down south of Sale the other month and was in the state forest next to a big swamp, got out of the car for a look see and was swamped by big muther mozzies almost straight away, put on a small amount of the goo and straight away they were gone, fantastic.. Dont know how it goes on midges .

And a friend uses vicks vapourrub on bites and reckons it works a treat, havent tried that one yet myself.

The smallest of the Wombats is allergic to mossie bites so we lite a sandalwood stick underneath each end of the camper at dusk. To date this seems to have kept the pesky critters at bay and she has been bite free. On this basis I would suggest investigating sandalwood oil as an alternative rub on repellant. If it works let me know!

just rcieved a fax from westernex supplies - they have a bracelet called GONE supposedly all natural

John mentioned Vitamin B1, it works for some people. I have used it before.
However just be careful with long term use, if you take B1 the body will absorb B1 and ignore B6, B12 from foods etc so you miss out.

One option is take mutli B group in morning and B1 in evening.
E