So as many of you know, my husband and I bought a house in January so we could have a garden and grow food, have space to can and do food prep, and make all the things that I need, like soap, lard and tallow, that were really inconvenient to make in a second story balcony apartment. We now have a large garden, a huge lawn, and a lot of fruit trees. And when spring came, we also had a crap ton of ticks.
Because of my allergies and as I was trying to grow safe food, I didn’t want to use pesticides. I looked into diatomaceous earth, but I didn’t want to kill the bees. I looked into commercial stuff I could spray on my clothes, but they didn’t have the inactive ingredients listed, so I didn’t know if it was safe for me. I found an all-natural tick repellent at Blue Seal Feeds that used essential oils, but it had citric acid (corn) in it. I looked online for other all-natural repellents, but they had other corn or coconut derivatives. So I did a little googling, swiped some of the ingredient list from one of the all-natural repellents, and came up with a do-it-yourself version. Make no mistake, it reeks. But if I sprayed down my clothes and my rubber boots with it, I didn’t get ticks. Now, I don’t know if that was coincidence or not, but since I really don’t need Lyme disease in addition to my body deciding to be allergic to the world, I’ll keep using it. Also, if you want more information on ticks and tick-borne diseases, check out the information from the CDC.
I used an essential oil 4 ounce spray bottle (shown only for illustration purposes, we have no affiliation with Amazon or the seller).
Homemade Tick Repellant
- 2 ounces of apple cider vinegar
- 1 ounce of water
- 20 drops of peppermint essential oil
- 20 drops of Eucalyptus citradora essential oil
- 15 drops of lemongrass essential oil
- 15 drops of rosemary essential oil
- 10 drops of tea tree essential oil
Put all the ingredients in your 4 ounce spray bottle, put the sprayer top on and shake well. Spray on clothes and shoes. Make sure you don’t get it into your eyes, it would not be fun.
It also seemed to help with the black flies, but I’ve not yet tried it with mosquitoes. When I do, I’ll let you know how it goes.
Be safe out there!