Photo: Christine Schneider/Cultura/Getty Images
1. Deterrents include the smell of valerian and tobacco smoke. 100 grams of camphor, evaporated over a burner, will get rid of flies and mosquitoes even in very large rooms.
2. In the old days, a decoction of wheatgrass roots, one of the most common weeds, was used to repel mosquitoes and other blood-sucking insects.
3. You can use finely chopped fresh leaves and flowers of bird cherry or basil.
4. The smell of cloves, basil, anise and eucalyptus also repels mosquitoes. Any of the oils of these plants can be used for protection - just lubricate open areas skin or drop oil into cologne (5-10 drops), as well as on a fire source - in a fireplace, fire, on a candle or a heated frying pan. Moisten a cotton pad with the oil of these plants and place it on the windowsill.
When you run out of liquid for your electric fumigator, don’t rush to the store for a replacement unit. Pour 100% eucalyptus extract into an empty bottle. Mosquitoes will forget the way to your house.
5. Tea tree oil can also be used as a repellent and helps relieve itching after bites.
Photo by Getty Images/Tetra images RF
6. If you live in country house or spend the night at the dacha, plant elderberries under the windows or arrange a tomato bed. Bring fresh elderberry branches into your rooms; they repel mosquitoes in the same way as the smell of tomato leaves.
7. If you decide to sit in nature, boil a samovar on pine or spruce cones or throw lightly dried juniper needles into the fire.
8. An old folk remedy against mosquitoes is Persian, Dalmatian or Caucasian chamomile (aka pyrethrum). Dried inflorescences, stems and leaves of these types of chamomile, crushed into powder, affect the nerve cells of insects. It is enough to place a few bouquets of chamomile around your apartment or house, and you will be free from mosquitoes for a week.
9. The smell of cedar oil repels not only mosquitoes, but also flies and cockroaches.
10. Not a single insect will touch your face if you wash your face with a decoction of wormwood roots. It’s easy to prepare a decoction: a handful of chopped roots are poured with one and a half liters of water, brought to a boil and left to infuse.
If you've already been bitten
Itching from a mosquito bite can be relieved with a solution of baking soda (0.5 teaspoon per glass of water), ammonia (half with water) or a pale pink solution of potassium permanganate.
Bite areas can be lubricated with kefir or yogurt.
Lightly mashed fresh leaves of bird cherry, plantain, parsley or mint relieve pain and itching from a bite.
And don’t forget about the good old “Star” balm. By the way, it also repels mosquitoes very well.
Yellow color - no passage!
Some fighters against flying bloodsuckers claim that mosquitoes hate the color yellow. So, when going to the dacha, to the forest, to the river, find yourself clothes in a suitable color.
As soon as it became warm outside, annoying mosquitoes immediately began to appear in the apartments. Until the end of summer, these insects will not give us a quiet life - with rising temperatures they will only become more numerous. True, not everyone suffers from them equally: some are avoided by mosquitoes. And for some reason, on the contrary, they “love” other people. Is it true that some citizens are more attractive or “tastier” to insects? How to protect yourself from the bites of these annoying bloodsuckers? The famous pediatrician Oleg Bubnov spoke about this.
“Ah, red summer! I would love you..."
“...If only it weren’t for the heat, the dust, the mosquitoes, and the flies,” Alexander Pushkin once wrote. I completely agree with the poet, especially regarding annoying blood-sucking insects. While relaxing in the evening by the river, at the dacha, and now in the city, we become targets of mosquito attacks. These creatures are omnivorous and give no mercy to anyone. But it turns out that even they have their own preferences. Experts from the University of Florida (USA) confirm this. According to their data, in a group of tourists or summer residents, mosquitoes will have about 20% of their “favorites”.
Another interesting data on this matter was provided by Japanese scientists in 2004. They proved that mosquitoes bite people with the first blood group more often; those with the second group suffer half as much trouble from these insects. In addition, when searching for prey, insects very accurately calculate the increase in concentration carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is found in the air we exhale. It is logical to assume that larger people, who exhale more CO-2, are more likely to be victims of their attack. They also very accurately identify areas of the body with elevated temperature.
Now imagine yourself after playing volleyball in the hot summer air. Introduced? Congratulations, get ready for a visit from a group of hungry mosquitoes, among which only females drink blood.
Flock to beer
“Komarikhs” are especially fond of beer lovers. The same Japanese found that just one bottle of beer drunk makes a person a desirable dish for these insects. What does this say about some Samarans who, in their appetites for dried fish, can absorb monstrous doses of their favorite foamy drink. Japanese participants in the experiment drank only 350 ml of beer, containing 5.5% alcohol, and still the number of mosquitoes landing on these people increased significantly compared to the group that did not drink beer. It was not possible to determine exactly what attracted the mosquitoes: the alcohol content or the increased skin temperature. But the fact that a person who drinks an intoxicating drink is attractive to female mosquitoes has been proven, although the mystery of this phenomenon has not yet been solved.
The attractiveness of “homo sapiens” to mosquitoes is also influenced by the presence of bacteria living on our skin. This was discovered in 2011 by a large group of scientists from the Netherlands, the USA and Germany. Also, the bodies of individual people can secrete repellents (substances that repel insects) along with sweat. This group includes two substances: 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one and geranylacetone.
As true predators, mosquitoes, in addition to their sense of smell, also use their vision when going out to “hunt.” Even the color of your clothes plays a role. Those people who wear black, dark blue or red clothes have the greatest chance of becoming a victim of mosquitoes. Keep this in mind.
A special delicacy for mosquitoes are expectant mothers. They get on average twice as many mosquito bites due to the combination of the two factors described above. There is 21% more carbon dioxide in the exhaled air of a pregnant woman, and average temperature body approximately 0.6°C higher.
Protective herbs
— Now a few words about protection. When going outdoors, don't forget to take proprietary repellents with you. Their assortment today is very large. Skin creams provide protection for 2–3 hours, and aerosols that are applied to clothing, protective nets, and tents can last for a month if items treated with repellent are not washed.
But when using synthetic products, it is important to remember that they may be less safe. The toxic substances contained in repellents are not harmless to humans or pets. According to doctors, 12% of people suffer from an allergic reaction to insecticides.
Along with patented products, there are many traditional recipes for mosquito repellent. Since ancient times, people have been fighting bloodsuckers, mainly with the help of pungent odors that mosquitoes cannot tolerate. The following can repel mosquitoes: camphor or valerian, evaporated over a burner, candle or lamp. But this scent is not for everyone. These annoying insects do not like the smell of fresh elderberry branches and tomato leaves.
To repel mosquitoes, you can wash your face in the morning and evening with a decoction of wormwood roots. To do this, pour a handful of chopped roots with 1.5 liters of water, bring to a boil and leave for 20-30 minutes. Essential oils can help: cloves, basil, anise, eucalyptus, cedar, which are applied to exposed skin (5-10 drops per glass of water). Soak a cotton pad with this oil and place it next to your pillow. It wouldn’t hurt to rub the skin with pre-cut fresh bird cherry or rowan leaves.
In nature, juniper branches in a fire, if the fire situation allows, will also help protect yourself from unpleasant guests.
In addition, during a walk or picnic, proper clothing will provide universal protection against both mosquitoes and ticks. Wear light-colored, thick clothing with long sleeves and a hood that covers exposed areas of the body as much as possible.
Final tip: Try to protect yourself from mosquito bites with everything available means, because no one has canceled the diseases that these insects can transmit from one person to another.
Good to know if you have allergies
In some cases, a mosquito bite leads to severe allergic reaction, up to anaphylactic shock, among the signs of which are: fever, redness of the skin and itching, headache, suffocation, laryngeal swelling, dry cough and convulsions.
In this case, to avoid death, assistance must be provided within an hour after the mosquito bite.
So, if the bite site turns red, first treat the wound with antiallergic gel or cream. Take it immediately antihistamine, which will help prevent more severe allergy symptoms. Be sure to apply a cold compress or ice to the itchy bite area and periodically moisten the mark with a soda solution (a teaspoon per 1/2 cup of water).
Vladimir Yudin, Samara Izvestia
Essential oils of tea tree, eucalyptus, clove, thyme, geranium or lavender will help get rid of mosquitoes, midges and ticks.
If you tolerate contact of oil with skin well, you can mix 20 drops of any “anti-mosquito” oil with 30 grams of any base oil (preferably from grape seeds or wheat germ), and apply the resulting mixture to exposed skin. You can “enrich” baby oil, cream or Vaseline with essential oil.
If you are wary of the idea of applying essential oils to your skin, you can drip them into a medallion-jug and wear it around your neck.
In an apartment or country house you can add essential oils to aroma lamps and place them near open windows. Another option is to soak a napkin in a mixture of oils and place it next to your bed at night.
Spicy cloves against mosquitoes
A proven and very effective folk remedy for mosquito bites is cloves, a popular spice. The specific smell of clove tree buds is pleasant to humans, but insects cannot tolerate it.
Pour a tablespoon of cloves into a glass cold water, bring to a boil over low heat, wait until it cools and strain. Apply clove decoction to exposed skin with a cotton swab; you can also spray it on your clothes. This will provide you with protection for several hours.
Cloves can also be used to replace a fumigator or anti-mosquito coil. Cut the lemon into thick slices and stick clove buds into them. The citrusy-spicy scent is usually associated with Christmas spirit, but also works great as an insect repellent. Place the resulting composition next to the bed or table on the veranda - and insects will not bother you.
Vanillin is an effective repellent against mosquitoes and midges.
The aroma of vanilla is associated with fresh baked goods. Compared to cloves, this smell is much less pungent, and making vanilla mosquito repellent lotion is much easier.
Dilute a teaspoon of vanillin in a glass of water - and the product is ready. Soak a cotton swab in the solution and wipe the exposed skin. You can also spray your clothes or room with vanilla water.
Vanillin solution is especially valuable in cases where we're talking about about the annoying midge - it is more difficult to scare away than mosquitoes, and even special means do not always cope with this task. Vanillin will provide good protection.
Vanillin does not have to be used in solution: you can add half a teaspoon of vanilla powder to 50 grams of baby cream, then mix thoroughly. Apply the resulting aromatic cream to the skin, exude a “buttery” aroma - and enjoy life without mosquitoes.
Decoctions for repelling mosquitoes: wormwood, wheatgrass and valerian
Another old and proven folk remedy for protecting against mosquito bites is decoctions of valerian root, wormwood or wheatgrass.
For one and a half liters of water, take a handful of crushed roots of any of these plants, bring to a boil over low heat, then pour into a thermos and leave for 30-60 minutes, then strain and let cool.
The resulting product is used to wipe open areas of the body and spray clothes; this can protect against mosquito bites for 4-5 hours. However, cat owners should use valerian with caution: the smell of valerian will repel mosquitoes, but is guaranteed to attract undue attention from the pet.
Mosquito repellents from your home medicine cabinet: camphor and “Zvezdochka”
If you have camphor preparations in your home medicine cabinet, they can also serve good service in repelling insects. Any camphor-containing product for external use can be rubbed little by little into the skin behind the ears or lubricated on the wrists. And to drive mosquitoes out of the house, you can boil water in a small saucepan, add a few drops of the product to it and boil for several minutes - the fragrant camphor steam will force the insects to leave the room.
Another excellent mosquito repellent is Vietnamese Golden Star Balm, commonly known as Star. It contains clove, cinnamon, eucalyptus and peppermint oils, and this “cocktail”, precisely applied to the skin in small quantities, quite effectively protects against mosquitoes. However, it should not be used by allergy sufferers, and “Zvezdochka” is not recommended for children under five years of age.
Cologne “Carnation”: the best of alcohol-containing means of protection
Blood-sucking insects also do not like the smell of alcohol, so for short-term protection you can treat the skin with alcohol, vodka or even cognac. However, the best alcohol-containing folk remedy for mosquitoes is “Carnation” cologne, which contains clove flower extract.
This is an inexpensive cologne with a rather pungent odor that many find unpleasant. However, as a mosquito repellent, Gvozdika is very good. A small amount of cologne is applied to the skin or clothing, providing protection against insects for several hours.
Summer is perhaps the best time of year for outdoor recreation. You can walk all night long. But there is one problem - mosquitoes that lie in wait for people everywhere. A wide variety of devices have been invented to combat them. The most popular are repellents with questionable chemistry.
But today we will remember about environmentally friendly products that are available to everyone and tested by our ancestors. In this article we will look in detail at several excellent ways to fight mosquitoes with improvised means. Surprisingly, these simple tips They are very helpful in fighting even very evil and numerous hordes of bloodsuckers, not only at home, but also on a lake or in the forest. Sometimes the advertised aerosol gives up within 20 minutes after its use, and the modest and unattractive apple cider vinegar inflicts a crushing defeat on mosquitoes!
So, let's start, perhaps, with the same apple cider vinegar that was mentioned just above. So, it should be taken orally, and not rubbed, as many people think. Take a tablespoon of this vinegar, drink it and do this three times a day. As a rule, mosquitoes don’t even come near you after this! But I don’t recommend doing this often, since vinegar is, after all, not very useful substance and it is better to pay attention to more gentle means.
The next folk remedy for mosquitoes is vanilla. Mosquitoes simply cannot stand the smell of vanilla and it’s not a sin to take advantage of it! To do this, you need water and vanilla in the amount of a tablespoon: dilute the powder in water and lubricate your skin and clothes with the resulting solution - not a single insect will bother you anymore!
I have long heard that baby cream helps fight mosquitoes. I heard about it, but I didn’t know how to use this cream correctly. Now I know and will tell you in detail:
- Take a simple baby cream;
- Vanilla sugar or pure vanilla is added to it;
- The cream and vanilla must be mixed very well until a homogeneous mass is obtained;
- Apply the resulting mixture to the skin.
After such manipulations, not a single mosquito will land on you, let alone try to bite you! The method has been tested by many, including me.
Mosquitoes all have their own scent preferences. They like some smells, others not. Since we want these small evil ghouls not to fly closer than a meter to us, we are interested in precisely those aromas that mosquitoes really don’t like. These odors include:
Tobacco smoke. Despite general statements that tobacco smoke is good at repelling mosquitoes, I cannot say that bloodsuckers bite people who smoke less often than non-smokers. Therefore, you should not start smoking just to get rid of the “biters”.
Mosquitoes really don’t like valerian, so you can safely use it as a remedy against blood-sucking mosquitoes.
If there is a need to expel mosquitoes from large room, then you should turn for help not to a vacuum cleaner, with which many suck up midges before going to bed, but to banal camphor. Just one hundred grams of camphor oil, if evaporated in a regular electric fumigator, will rid you of mosquitoes for the whole night! Moreover, eucalyptus has the same effect, only to combat bloodsuckers you need to use 100% eucalyptus extract.
If you want to prepare your own mosquito repellent, we recommend making a decoction of fresh basil or bird cherry flowers. Not only flowers, but also the leaves of these plants are suitable for this. The roots of the wheatgrass weed are also quite suitable - a decoction is also prepared from it and used against mosquitoes.
Various oils are very good at repelling blood-sucking brethren, such as:
- Basil oil;
- Clove oil;
- Eucalyptus oil (we’ve already talked about it, but it wouldn’t hurt to repeat it!);
- Anise oil.
Try to anoint the exposed parts of your skin with any of these oils and go somewhere where there are a lot of mosquitoes - mosquitoes will shy away from you like hell from incense! You can smear yourself pure oil, you can add oil to cologne - the effect will always be the same. It would also be a very good idea to soak a cotton pad with oil and put it somewhere in the room overnight - mosquitoes will not bite!
Mosquitoes also don’t like the smell of tea tree oil, but, alas, I don’t know where to get such oil.
The most popular remedy for mosquitoes is a decoction of wormwood roots. To make such a decoction, you need to take the roots of wormwood, chop them finely and add 1.5 liters of plain water (take about a handful of roots). Then they put it on the fire and just bring it to a boil, after which they insist. The resulting decoction is applied to the skin and clothes - the mosquitoes fly away in horror!
If in the summer you spend most of your time at the dacha and mosquitoes annoy you there, then plant an elderberry near the house or create a bed of tomatoes - mosquitoes simply cannot tolerate either one!
Flying bloodsuckers lie in wait for us not only in the garden - they feel great in the forest and near water bodies. As a rule, to ward off mosquitoes, people, when making a fire in nature, throw pine cones or spruce branches into the fire. The smoke from cones and pine needles reliably drives away mosquitoes.
Fish oil repels insects very well: try lubricating your skin with it and see for yourself that mosquitoes will stop biting you.
There is a common belief that mosquitoes are able to distinguish colors and, for some reason, they do not like yellow. That's why some people, when going to places where mosquitoes reign, wear clothes yellow color. According to some people, this really helps...
If it turns out that mosquitoes have already bitten you, then here are a couple folk recipes how to relieve the itching and burning of their bites:
Take a small onion, cut it into two halves and apply the cut side to the site of the mosquito bite. Leave for a while so that the onion juice is thoroughly absorbed into the skin.
The well-known Vietnamese balm “Zvezdochka”, which we all know, helps quite well with the unpleasant sensations after a mosquito bite. Moreover, this strong-smelling product can also be used to repel mosquitoes.
Sheet house plant Mash the aloe firmly in your hands until the juice releases and apply to the bite site. To be sure, you can even tie this sheet with a gauze bandage and walk with it for several hours.
Helps well with mosquito bites garden parsley leaves - treatment is the same as with aloe leaf.
Not only parsley is successfully used after bites, you can also use plantain, fresh bird cherry leaves and peppermint. Apply according to the principle described above.
Some people lubricate mosquito bites with yogurt or regular store-bought kefir. They say it helps, but I haven’t tried it myself...
Prepare a highly concentrated saline solution, soak a cotton swab in it and wipe the bites - the itching and burning will quickly go away. The same effect is achieved by a soda solution, for the preparation of which you will need half a teaspoon of baking soda per 200 grams of water.
And further
1. Valerian or camphor
It is enough to place 100 grams of valerian or camphor over a burner or in an aroma lamp to get rid of mosquitoes even in very large rooms or to protect yourself from insects in nature.
2. Rowan
To prevent mosquitoes from attacking on the street, it is enough to finely chop fresh rowan leaves and rub them on exposed skin.
3. Essential oils: cloves, anise, basil
5-10 drops of essential oils of clove, anise or basil per glass of water, and lubricate exposed skin with this solution. This is a great way to protect yourself from annoying blood suckers. You can place a container with aromatic liquid on a heated frying pan or over a candle. You can moisten a piece of cotton wool with one of the oils and place it on the windowsill.
4. Elderberry
It is enough to place fresh elderberry branches in the room so that not a single mosquito will fly into the room. The smell of tomato leaves works in much the same way.
5. Juniper
To prevent mosquitoes from bothering nature, it is enough to throw juniper branches into the fire.
6. Cedar oil
The smell of cedar oil can repel not only mosquitoes, but also cockroaches and flies.
7. Wormwood
Not a single mosquito will come close if you wash your face and hands with a decoction of wormwood roots. To do this, add 1.5 liters of water to a handful of chopped roots, bring to a boil, and then let it brew for 20-30 minutes.
8. Eucalyptus
If you run out of liquid for your electric fumigator, there is no need to rush to the store for a replacement unit. You can pour 100 percent eucalyptus extract into the bottle. You can be sure that mosquitoes will forget the way into your house!
And the most famous DIY trap:
Several times already last days I have come across questions in some LiveJournal communities about protection from blood-sucking insects (ticks, mosquitoes, horseflies...). With the onset of warm spring and almost approaching summer, the topic became relevant, and I decided to take these questions out of my voluminous (recently updated on this topic) post as a separate line. In this post, plus some new ones to the old one useful information I post:
There are a lot of natural remedies for protection, in particular from blood-sucking insects, all that remains is to choose something more suitable, or for greater effectiveness - combine different natural remedies.
From mosquitoes:
"The natural enemies of adult mosquitoes are dragonflies, predatory flies, wasps, ants, swallows, the bats; The larvae are eaten by hydras, leeches, water spiders, swimming beetles and others, as well as fish and waterfowl.
(comment from one person: “In addition to the list of natural enemies of mosquitoes, lizards (wood, grass) and toads also eat mosquitoes, as far as I know. Heaps of pieces of wood were specially raised for lizards :) They live there, crawling out to bask in the sun.”)
Mosquitoes are afraid of the wind and sun, so it is best to escape from mosquitoes in elevated, sunlit places.
-- There are plants whose smell repels mosquitoes: they try to stay away from walnut leaves, do not tolerate the smell of common basil; To one degree or another, insects are repelled by wormwood, mint, cloves, lavender, rose geranium, serviceberry leaves, lemon, tangerine, orange fruits, fir needles, thuja leaves, common ivy, and horse chestnut.
- Mosquitoes will not be affected if you grate a few cloves of garlic and cover the backs of your hands, collar, and headdress with this mixture. They cannot stand the smell of incense either.
-- While walking, put cotton balls soaked in clove, lavender, and cedar oils in your pocket. Or lubricate exposed areas of the body with clove, anise or eucalyptus oil.
-- Another proven folk remedy is to drop a few drops of camphor oil or eucalyptus tincture onto a hot frying pan.
“The scent of valerian also repels mosquitoes very well.”
Remedies for blood-sucking insects, wasps, bees:
" -- The easiest way out is to try to protect yourself from mosquitoes and other blood-sucking insects with clove cologne. Based on almost any cologne, you can prepare a product that will repel insects for a short time (up to one hour). Add 5-6 drops of clove or anise oil, and if there is no oil - a few drops of valerian. The effect of a mixture of 40-50 cm3 of cologne with 10-15 drops of a decoction obtained by boiling 5-6 g of cloves (spice) in 200-250 ml of water for 15 minutes is similar. A drop of anise oil is enough to prepare “repellent” paper, after the oil has spread over the paper, wipe your face and hands with it.
-- A plant repellent is prepared from wheatgrass roots. A handful of chopped roots are poured into 1.5 liters of water, brought to a boil and allowed to boil up to 3 times. Use the cooled light yellow broth to wash your face and hands; you can also wash your animal’s body with it - not a single mosquito will come close.
-- For example, laurel, thuja and eucalyptus oils also have repellent properties.
-- Mosquitoes that have flown into a room or tent are expelled by pouring a little camphor onto a hot frying pan or other object.
*If you evaporate a small amount of camphor over a burner, you will get rid of flies and mosquitoes in large areas*
-- Wasps and bees are afraid of mint cologne, that is, cologne to which mint oil or mint decoction is added. If they do manage to sting you, first of all, carefully remove the sting and apply a cold compress to the affected area. After an hour or two, the redness, swelling, and most importantly, the pain will disappear. You can moisten the stung area with a mixture of ammonia and water, a pale pink solution of potassium permanganate, and moisten it several times for 1-2 hours with a weak solution of blue. The juice from thyme leaves and parsley leaves soothe pain. The appearance of edema, urticaria, and abdominal pain indicates the development of an allergic reaction. In this case, urgent health care."
(* Here’s a recipe shared by one of the LiveJournal users: “I’d like to add a personally tested remedy for a bee sting: lubricate the sting site with a cut onion. It didn’t swell at all and didn’t remind me of itself.” *)
There are also some materials about natural remedies for mosquitoes, midges, etc., at the link: http://www.soznanie.info/feeding.html
For example, an excerpt from a selection on the topic “Mosquitoes, midges and others”:
Smelling herbs - lavender, thyme, wormwood - used to be used to fumigate premises and pens for animals, expelling ticks, flies, mosquitoes and other insects from them, and this remedy was very effective and efficient...
And here are our folk remedies for scaring away these bloodsuckers:
-- In the old days, a decoction of wheatgrass roots, one of the most common weeds, was used to repel mosquitoes and other blood-sucking insects.
-- The scent of cloves, basil, anise and eucalyptus also repels mosquitoes. Any of the oils of these plants can be used for protection - just lubricate exposed skin, or drop the oil on the source of fire - in the fireplace, bonfire, on a candle or a heated frying pan.
-- Tea tree oil can also be used as a repellent, quickly eliminating itching and swelling of the skin after insect bites.
-- Plant elderberries under the windows of your house. Bring fresh elderberry branches into your rooms to repel mosquitoes.
-- You can use finely chopped fresh leaves and flowers of bird cherry or basil.
-- You can make a bed with tomatoes under the windows; mosquitoes cannot stand the specific smell of tomato leaves.
*Mosquitoes cannot stand the specific smell of tomato tops. Several pots of tomato plants on the windowsill or on the balcony will serve as a reliable barrier against mosquitoes during the hot season. *
-- If you decide to sit in nature, boil a samovar on pine or spruce cones or throw lightly dried juniper needles into the fire.
-- To prevent the bite of bedbugs, mosquitoes, flies, midges, gadflies, and ticks, lubricate all exposed parts of the body with fish oil.
-- If mosquitoes have already bitten:
A mosquito bite causes itching, which can be relieved with a solution of baking soda (0.5 teaspoon per glass of water), ammonia or a pale pink solution of potassium permanganate, and ammonia-anise drops or “Star” balm will also repel mosquitoes. The mashed leaves of plantain, bird cherry, mint and parsley relieve burning and itching. A good analgesic effect can be obtained by rubbing the bite area with a clove of garlic, lemon peel, or applying clean clay mixed with water to it. Finally, the bites will be less itchy if you rub them with dandelion juice, green onions or take a bath with sea salt. Bite areas can also be lubricated with kefir or yogurt.
(* Some essential oils also help well: clove essential oil not only repels mosquitoes, moths, flies well, but also eliminates swelling and burning after insect bites; by the way, it is also used for burns (along with lavender and clary sage, one of whose properties are anti-burn); also, for example, clary sage essential oil: not only repels mosquitoes, but is also used to lubricate areas after insect bites. Only essential oils cannot be used in pure, undiluted form due to their concentration! Essential oil should be mixed with vegetable base (about 2 drops per 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil, or mix with clean water and wipe the bite areas with this solution). *)
More useful tips against mosquitoes are sounded (something in general outline It’s already been written above, but some tips are new):
- Wheatgrass helps a lot against mosquitoes. Fill a tea glass of chopped wheatgrass roots with a liter of water and boil several times to obtain a rich decoction. If you wash your face with this decoction, you will not be afraid of mosquito attacks all night.
-- In addition to mosquitoes, the smell of cedar oil can repel flies and cockroaches.
-- Mosquitoes are also very sensitive to other odors, such as cloves, anise, eucalyptus, valerian, lavender, geranium, tea tree, thyme, mint. A few drops of oil or a mixture of oils from these plants are applied to open areas of the body or onto a fumigator tablet.
- You can do the same with camphor alcohol, the smell of which mosquitoes are also partial to. Before fumigators became widespread, camphor alcohol was poured onto a hot frying pan and “fumigated” living quarters with it.
-- A natural mosquito repellent is pyrethrum (available in pharmacies). A substance based on pyrethrum is used in tablets and liquids for modern fumigators. You can prepare it yourself. To do this you will need 10 g of pyrethrum powder, 75 ml of ethyl alcohol, 15 g of green soap and 25 ml of glycerin. Pyrethrum is infused in ethyl alcohol for one week, the residue is filtered and the remaining components are added. Fumigator tablets are impregnated with the mixture or, diluted with water in a ratio of 1:10 - 1:20, sprayed in the room or moistened with a napkin over the bed.
Pyrethrum powder can be applied to strips of paper coated with paste and hung around the room, preferably near windows and doors.
"An ancient folk remedy for mosquitoes is chamomile (Caucasian, Dalmatian or Persian, also known as pyrethrum). The smell of dried chamomile, crushed into powder, is destroyed nervous system insects If you place several bouquets of dried chamomile indoors, you will forget about mosquitoes for a week.
Or you can hang gauze bags with dried Dalmatian chamomile, for example (sold in pharmacies)"
*Pyrethrum is a natural insecticide (against many types of insects) prepared from the flower heads of chamomile (Dalmatian, Caucasian or Persian).
Family: Asteraceae - Asteraceae.; Synonym: Dalmatian chamomile, Caucasian, Persian chamomile.; Popular name: chamomile; Pharmacy name: pyrethrum flowers - Pyrethri flos (formerly: Flores Chrysanthemi cinerarii folii).
Parts of pyrethrum used: leaves, grass.*
Also some people's advice:
--For horseflies: bird cherry flowers, wormwood, tansy, decoctions of green pine cones or hazel.
-- Recipe for mosquitoes: a packet of vanillin per liter of water, apply to the skin approximately every two hours. Hypoallergenic, suitable even for pregnant women and babies. Do not confuse with vanilla sugar. The concentration can be changed at will (you can dilute it by two liters if there are few mosquitoes, and by 0.5 if there are clouds of them - but then the smell is strong, it’s not for everyone).
- No insect will land on your skin if you wipe it with a decoction of wormwood roots. The decoction is easy to prepare: a glass of crushed roots is poured with 1.5 liters of water, brought to a boil and infused (for example, for half a liter of water, you should take a third of a glass of crushed wormwood roots).
-- If there are mosquitoes in the forest, but the repellent is at home, rub the skin with birch leaves. Also, the number of blood-sucking mosquitoes decreases when you fan yourself with a birch branch, the leaves of which must first be crushed so that the juice flows - mosquitoes do not like the smell of tar that is released at the same time.
"...Now another quote. I found this on the Internet by searching for “tick protection”:
- Maybe there is some reliable protection from ticks? Tell me, please.
- Among the plants that have insecticidal (acaricidal) properties, the following can be distinguished: Calamus Acorus calamus L. - contains azarin aldehyde, essential oils (pinenes, camphor); Kanufer Pyrethrum majus Tzvel. - contains mainly ketones and paraffins; Laurus nobilis L. - the essential oil contains pinenes, cineole, limonene, camphor; Walnut Juglans regia L. - hydrojuglone, phytoncides; Common tansy Tanacetum vulgare L. - contains thujone, pinene, camphor; Types of Wormwood Artemisia L. - thujone, pinene, cadinene, thuyl alcohol, camphor, camphene.
You can make an aroma medallion from a mixture of essential oils of these plants and it will repel not only ticks, but also mosquitoes and flies. As you can see - three in one :-) Or you can just take camphor, for lack of other ingredients..."
Example homemade natural spray to repel blood-sucking insects:
fir hydrolate 90 g; hydrogenated castor oil 4 g; geranium essential oil 3 g; tea tree essential oil 3 g; potassium sorbate 0.2 g.
In details
(* Of course, instead of or in addition to the EOs (essential oils) given in the recipe, you can take other EOs with repellent properties, such as EOs of lavender, cloves, eucalyptus, clary sage, lemon, fir, pine, thuja...
Instead of fir hydrosol, you can take vegetable oil or distilled water, adding to it, for example, rapeseed oil or grape seed oil. *)
Spray with lavender works well to repel flies, mosquitoes, and ants.
In general, tar is a unique natural remedy for many misfortunes!
"Birch tar (birch bark) is a product of dry distillation of the outer part of birch bark. Birch tar is a black or dark brown liquid with a specific odor. It is a mixture of resinous substances, phenols and aromatic hydrocarbons...
Birch tar Application:
- externally for the treatment of skin diseases;
- as a radical remedy against midges and ticks: a small amount of tar is moistened with a headdress, field clothes around the collar, arms, legs.
To protect against ticks, a woolen thread is impregnated with tar and tied on the hands, neck, legs (!);
- How insecticide in gardening practice;
- spraying against Colorado potato beetle(100g tar per 10l of water);
- to repel butterflies, codling moth - spraying fruit trees, currant bushes and gooseberries (2 tablespoons of tar per 1 bucket of water);
- to repel sea buckthorn flies - placing jars of tar solution in the roots of sea buckthorn." info from here
It is best to use tar water (tar diluted in water) for various purposes, and it can be treated by taking it internally. Here is an interesting article on this topic - about tar water.
For example, you can anoint your goal with tar water. clothing, exposed parts of the body (when going to the forest), should help not only against ticks, but also against other blood-sucking insects.
Moreover, you can also treat pets (dogs, cats...) with tar water, and at the same time lubricate the collar with tar - all this should greatly help against ticks! Pets can also be treated with repellent essential oils diluted in water (such as clove or lavender, clove is a particularly good EM repellent), simply spray them periodically in a spray bottle with this water with repellent essential oils diluted in it. But if the water is tarry, add a few drops of one or a couple essential oil repellents, then the effect will be even greater.
In my opinion, of the essential repellent oils, one of the most powerful is clove. Moreover, if you don’t have clove oil, then you can boil the clove spice (about a pinch of spice in a glass of water, the more cloves you take, the more fragrant the mixture will be, but you shouldn’t overdo it with the amount of cloves), let it brew and wipe your face and hair with this infusion , all exposed parts of the body. It helps against mosquitoes quite well, and if you mix this infusion and a decoction of the leaves or roots of wormwood, the effect will be very good, even without tar.
In practice, even simply boiled and infused clove spice repels mosquitoes quite well if you periodically wipe bare areas of the body with this infusion. But against ticks or when there is a cloud of hungry mosquitoes - here you need tougher and percussion methods, here are mixtures based on tar - that’s it.
The best thing to do against ticks is to use a tar-based repellent! And add there a bitterness like a decoction-infusion of wormwood, and a substance like clove with a strong odor (a decoction-infusion of clove spice, or a few drops of clove essential oil, or a clove-like essential oil with repellent properties)
It is best to follow this excellent advice: “To protect against ticks, a woolen thread is impregnated with tar and tied on the hands, neck, and legs” (it’s only good to grease the edges of the headdress with tar water).
Speaking of insects, here are some other tips:
(1) From flies.
"To drive flies out of the room, create a draft in it from time to time.
Flies do not like the smell of kerosene - add a little of it to the water when washing windows or floors.
Flies will fly out of the room if you cover the windows in it, and then quickly open only the window - they will fly into the light.
By covering the windows with nylon mesh or gauze, you will prevent flies from entering your home. Strips of paper on the open window will also serve as a barrier for them.
People say that flies cannot stand the smell of castor beans. Place a pot of this plant on a kitchen window. "
You can keep castor seedlings in pots at home on the windows (the seedlings grow quickly) while the castor seedlings are still small; you can plant castor beans under the windows in your dacha; You can collect not very large castor bean leaves and place them in jars of water on the windows.
But castor bean seeds are very poisonous, so you need to be very careful (with castor bean seeds so that they do not fall into the mouth of any adult, child, or pet); you should not leave castor bean seeds unattended!
That's what different people They advise against flies (many people recommend castor beans):
People share opinions about castor beans, for example:
-- The fact that castor oil protects the territory from flies is for sure; for this purpose it is even grown as indoor plant in pots or planted under the window for the summer. Flies cannot stand the smell of castor beans.
-- Castor bean not only drives away flies, it is a good "chemical" in itself. in the best sense. Castor bean infusion can be sprayed on plants affected by the fungus. It will also be beneficial for the soil if you apply it as fertilizer. We make a compost heap and lay castor beans there in layers (and starting with small plants and so on until late autumn).
- I grow castor beans for beauty. It looks very original, like a small palm tree. I grow it through seedlings. In the fall, after freezing, I chop up the entire plant and place it in compost.
-- On summer cottage I plant castor beans to create natural protection from the sun's rays.
- Flies don't like castor beans. Last year I planted all the castor beans in the garden, but there wasn’t enough room for one. She stood, a lonely poor thing, in a seedling pot... grieving... And I planted her in a large, large pot with very good soil, and placed her on the veranda, where there are usually clouds of flies. There wasn't a single fly on the veranda all summer!
And for the winter I moved it in the same pot into the house on a bright window. She overwintered well with me, only she became winter-stretched. Now she is back in her place on the veranda, and again there are no flies there!
And about the danger in castor beans (so be careful with castor bean seeds!): “I used to sow castor bean seeds with green and red leaves every year in the form of an alley (it protects the yard well from the sun), but now by decision of the city administration its cultivation is prohibited - some- then the children ate the seeds, saved the spruce, and walked around the yards and fined..."
Advice from some people on how to deal with flies in the country:
—You should plant castor beans and tansy in your dacha. They are very effective against flies. Flies are afraid of the smells of these plants and do not fly close to the places where these plants grow, or within a circle of 1.5-2 meters. Tansy is also good against moths. It can be dried and hung in wardrobes in winter.
- Pour turpentine into the soap dish, they won’t fly within a kilometer. In the village, the sink for washing hands was washed with turpentine; there were never flies in the room.
- Flies follow the smell food products. Especially meat and fish. Do not allow their presence. Odors can be neutralized with a vinegar solution. You can plant castor beans. Flies do not like elderberry.
- And also fill all damp places with dry peat. Flies lay eggs in it, but they die because it dries out very quickly. From plants - Chamomile Pyrethrum (low, leaves are pale green, round, soft). Hang tansy and wormwood sprigs and sprinkle vinegar. Wash the table on the terrace often, wipe the surface with vinegar. And turpentine stinks strongly.
- Plant an elderberry near the terrace and you won’t have flies. Elderberry can also be planted compost heap, by the toilet.
Well, for example, tips on how to get rid of flies (in addition to the advice about castor beans - keep them in pots near the windows in the house):
1. Flies cannot stand the smell of fern and black elderberry. It is enough to place these plants in different places in your living space to get rid of these annoying insects. You just need to select fresh elderberry branches with leaves and tie the fern in bunches.
2. An ancient folk remedy for repelling flies is tansy flowers. Tansy flowers and stems secrete an essential oil that causes paralysis of the motor organs of flies. Having sniffed the tansy, the fly will be able to fly with only one wing and walk very slowly, dragging its paralyzed hind legs. Therefore, there are no flies in the room where there is a bouquet of tansy flowers. Dried tansy flowers, which are sold at the pharmacy, are ground in a mortar, casein or wood glue (or starch paste can be used) is applied to strips of thick paper, and the glue layer is generously sprinkled with tansy powder. When the glue dries, hang strips of paper near windows and doors.
3. Flies do not tolerate the smell of laurel oil. Once or twice a month, all tables, windows, and doors should be wiped with this oil, the smell of which is relatively pleasant and does not irritate a person at all. The flies will completely disappear from the room and forget the way back.
(2) From ants:
There are tips at this link; and on this
For example:
-- Ants will disappear if you smear their habitats with ordinary sunflower oil. The same result can be obtained by sprinkling chamomile or shag on their path.
-- It is necessary to anoint the ant paths with garlic juice, preferably in those places where they enter the house.
-- Ants leave those places where parsley is laid out or cloves (spice) are poured. Leaf smells repel insects walnut, elderberry and tomatoes, wild mint and wormwood."
Here are a couple of tips (on this topic) voiced in one of the LiveJournal communities:
- From the ants - garlic on their paths. Garlic, of course, not in heads, but dried, or spread with gruel, or make garlic salt, they don’t even like salt (gruel + salt, mix for a day, scatter everywhere). I made garlic salt and scattered it; I got rid of ants twice in two different homes.
- Vinegar essence helped us a lot against ants. The husband sprays a syringe into the places where they crawl into the house.
And one more tip from the Internet:
-- To repel ants, it is better to prepare a mixture of water and peanut oil, adding 2-4 drops of essential oil to each liter of mixture. You can also get rid of ant nests by dropping 1-2 drops of essential oil into one of the anthill's passages; the ants will leave the anthill in a matter of seconds.
Upd. I met another one:
A proven folk remedy for blood-sucking insects. A folk remedy for mosquitoes, ticks and other blood-sucking creatures has finally been tested.
I once heard that our ancestors rubbed themselves with garlic against midges, ticks and mosquitoes. We took 100g of medical alcohol, cut 1/3 of a head of garlic and preserved it in alcohol for a day. Afterwards, the clean solution was poured into a spray bottle of some perfume. We tested it and sprayed outer clothing.
What’s most interesting is that mosquitoes don’t even fly up to the sprayed outerwear. However, a natural remedy without chemicals! No ticks or mosquitoes were found after testing. True, after 1.5 - 2 hours the effect seems to weaken and you need to spray again. Well, of course you can smell it - although it depends on everyone, but I don’t care, as long as they don’t bite. Let's try to increase the saturation of the solution - cut 1 head of garlic at once, but that will happen next weekend.
P.S. Further development folk remedy will receive a triple concentration of garlic and the smell of cloves, and maybe cardamom.