Bunny season. My favorite. Mommas and babies have been hopping around the lawn teaching them about the street, and the wicked people who live here with dogs, and all about the patrols of flying things. I'd guess being a bunny out here is a bit of a disadvantage, but they do run like lightening.
I am in full learning mode about what repels insects, and what might make a good non-deet/non-skin-so-soft repellent. It started with that confounded pool next door and devising things to plant in garden beds nearest to it. And from there ... the idea just sprung from somewhere generic on the web. A posted homemade repellent caught our eye, we mixed some up and loved it. It worked really well. I tracked it back to several websites and lost the thread on a site called Grow Food Not Lawns. Where it originated I may never know.
Theirs was a simple combination of household ingredients and one essential oil. We consistently use it and it consistently works on mosquitos. But now we are in little black gnat season - gnats - chiggers - noseeums - that land unnoticed and leave big painful and itchy welts. We need something that works on them, too.
I've rounded up several vials of essential oils of plants naturally discouraging mosquitos and other flying insects. Next, I needed a cross section of people willing to try it in different parts of the country, so I put a shout out on FB through our City Folk Farmers page to give away 25 free samples. Small samples of Repellent #1 will be headed soon to Texas and Illinois, Oregon, Arkansas, Colorado, Virginia and Washington state. As more types of repellent roll out, hopefully they will be willing to try it out in their areas and report back to the hive.
We see a handful of non-chemical mosquito repellents on the market but they are really expensive. Why?! Wholesome repellents that are good and good for you should be cheap and effective so people use them safely. We won't use repellents occasionally; we spray down every day on every part of our bodies including our faces and scalp. What we use has to be safe and really work.
We have used solution 1 for about ten weeks, on ourselves and the dog. The scent is indescribably delicious - sweet vanilla lavendar that dries with no sticky residue and lasts a good long while. It's easy and safe to reapply as often as needed. It doesn't attract bees, which I thought it might.
Market research continues, and hopefully solution #2 will roll out sometime in June to help the Hubs' gnat allergy. We are stalled on a name that will convey a natural skin product that repels bugs without using the word repellent. Should it include the word natural? from the garden? from the pantry? skin treatment to discourage bites? We will not be using the word Organic, too heavily regulated.
Another mosquito update. We are in week three of the SkeeterVac and it is interesting a LOT of bugs, and not just mosquitos. Is it a success? We'll know soon ... the rice fields to the east are ready to roll, and we'll be abuzz with transformation in no time. Stay tuned for updates when we are in the thick of it.
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