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**This post has been entered in Monday Mania at The Healthy Home Economist!**
As the weather warms up (well — here it’s been in the 80s and 90s already!), we start seeing a lot more bugs. Bugs are good, for the most part: they help pollinate our gardens, eat other bugs, and so on. Plus my son absolutely loves them! (I can’t count how many times a day he finds some bug or other, usually an ant, and brings it to me, yelling “BUG!”)
What’s not so fun, however, is all those potential bug bites and stings that sometimes come along with summer! Is there anything we can do about this, naturally? And why are bugs so much more attracted to some people than others?
Why are Bugs Attracted To Me?!
It may not seem fair: you’re getting bitten by mosquitos left and right, while your friend across the table isn’t getting eaten at all. Why are the bugs attracted to you?
Scent has a lot to do with it. Certain scents seem to attract bugs, and it may have to do with what you’re eating.
Here are some things that may attract bugs:
- Sweating a lot
- Lactic acid (produced by your body during exercise/exertion, or after eating salty or potassium-rich foods)
- Using sweet-scented soaps or lotions
- Consuming a lot of vegetable oils (‘lipid concentration’ in the skin affects some)
- O blood type
- High skin temperatures
- Vitamin E deficiency
It seems that there are a lot of factors — most controllable! — that attract bugs to particular individuals. Skip any scented soaps or creams (choose castile soap that’s unscented or which contains one of the essential oils known to repel bugs below). Stay cool, and eat well!
Lactic acid production in humans appears to be the results of a high-carbohydrate diet. It happens during exercise when the body burns glucose, from carbs, for energy. Getting energy from fat instead should reduce this (ketosis is what happens when the body burns fat for energy instead).
Natural Bug Repellants
Luckily, there are a lot of natural options to help repel bugs. There is no reason at all to resort to chemical means!
First, if you can eliminate likely breeding spots for bugs — remove bee or wasp nests (carefully!), get rid of any standing water (where mosquitos breed), etc. This will go a long way to helping get bugs out of your yards.
Second, put plants in your yard that naturally repel insects, like basil, thyme, lemon verbena, rosemary, peppermint, spearmint, lemongrass, marigolds, and geranium. Most of these plants are also edible herbs, so you can “kill two birds with one stone,” so to speak! Planting the herbs in pots may work out nicely, because you could move the pots to be near where you are sitting to help repel insects. So many of those herbs are perenial, as well, that pots can be moved indoors and continue to grow during the winter months.
Third, create a bug repellant at home! Here is a recipe idea:
- 1/2 c. coconut oil
- 4 – 5 drops geranium essential oil
- 4 – 5 drops lemongrass essential oil
Mix all of this together (melting the coconut oil if needed; if it’s above 76 degrees it will be melted anyway) and rub a little on your skin. Eucalyptus, peppermint, basil, thyme, and rosemary oils could be used instead, depending on what you have on hand and what scent you prefer. Always make sure that the oils you have chosen are appropriate for your particular situation — safe for pregnancy or breastfeeding, not likely to increase photosensitivity if you’ll be out in the sun a lot, etc.
Fourth, light natural candles around yourself. Make or buy candles made from soy wax that are scented with natural essential oils. Citronella is most popular, but any other the others listed above would also work. Small candles could also travel with you in little tins if you will be camping. Please follow safety precautions whenever you light candles outside!
Fifth, avoid bright lights. These attract mosquitos, flies, fruit flies, and other pests. Recently we had a power outtage during a storm, and a few flies followed my husband around — because he was holding a flashlight! Keeping lights low, away from people, and using yellow or blue lights instead of white can help keep bugs at bay.
Helping Bites and Stings
Supposing you’ve done what you can and still ended up with a bite or sting, there are ways to help.
1) Baking soda paste — make a paste of baking soda and water and rub it onto a bee sting.
2) Raw onion — A reader recently told me this one. Rubbing a raw, cut onion on a bee sting will help to remove the poison, and the resulting pain!
3) Calendula salve — Though not safe in pregnancy, this gentle salve can help soothe bites or stings.
4) Banana peel — Some swear that rubbing a banana peel (inside against the skin) will help to soothe mosquito bites.
What are your favorite remedies for bites or stings?
What do you think? Are you or someone you know especially sensitive to bugs? What repellants have you tried?
This is a very useful article, but I'm not sure why you say that calendula salve isn't safe during pregnancy. I am aware that taking it internally is thought to affect the reproductive system, but topical use seems to be quite common during pregnancy. I am getting ready to make a "belly butter" to help with the itching from skin stretching and I planned on infusing the oil with calendula. I'm certainly not an expert in herbs, so if you have some info that I just haven't read yet, I'd really appreciate it!
Thanks!
Justyn,
It seems that calendula absorbs through the skin and could still effect the pregnancy negatively. It *may* be safe, but I personally wouldn't take a chance. Which is a bummer because a lot of the herbs typically used in salves aren't really safe in pregnancy. I think in salve it's going to depend on how much you're using too, and how often you use the salve. There is a tiny bit of calendula in a cream that I use on rare occasions, usually just on my hands. I don't know how much of the 'no calendula' that I read is just trying to be very cautious 'just in case' and how much is really valid. It's hard to tell with any herbs, honestly, unless you can talk to a qualified herbalist (which I am not!).
If you get a chance- of the oils you mentioned, do you know off hand what are and aren't safe while pregnant/breastfeeding? I'm both, and it's rather difficult to find information out there on what is and isn't safe! I know peppermint is, and I'm specifically interested in eucalyptus and thyme, since those are another two I have on hand. Thank you!
Brianna,
I have heard peppermint isn't safe, though not sure why. Lavender and TTO should be safe, based on what I've researched (lavender in small amounts). Eucalyptus is safe. Thyme is a toss up, a lot of sources say no, but that as long as it's external it may be okay. Probably better to stick to eucalyptus and TTO though.
As someone who routinely gets bitten by mosquitoes (I attract them, whereas my husband and mother both are never bothered, grr) this is very helpful for me! I've seen a few other things for mosquitoes that you didn't mention:
1. Mosquitoes are supposed to hate the smell of actual soap. Not the scented soaps, but regular soap. Some people have used bubble machines when they're outside to repel mosquitoes, and I've found that if I wash a part of my body with plain soap (even if it means washing up my arm with it) they'll generally leave that part alone. Now to just remember to do that to the rest of my body…
2. If you have severe mosquito problems in your area that you can't control (i.e. by draining standing water, or putting fish and other predators in it), try making yourself a mosquito trap. Cut the top part (from the top of the straight sides of a bottle) of a 2 liter bottle off so that the curved part and above are off. Save this. Mix yeast, water, and sugar in the bottle (various instructions have differing amounts). Put the top back on, upside-down so that it funnels into the 2-liter, and cover the sides with dark paper. The carbon dioxide put off by the yeast consuming your sugar attracts the mosquitoes, who think it's prey and will go in, just to find out that they can't get out. I'll be putting several of these around my house this summer to try to help not get bitten.
3. If you get bitten while you're in bed and don't want to use a mosquito net, position a fan so that it blows directly on your body (from the head down or the feet up, it's your choice). Try to get as much of your body covered by the air currents as possible. This will help keep mosquitoes off of you as the air movement from a regular box fan is usually too much for them to navigate.
The baking soda/water paste really takes the itch out of mosquito bites too, not just bee stings. I'll have to try the banana peel one!
Last summer I noticed a dramatic difference in bug bites that I attributed to using Dr Bronner's eucalyptus and lavender castile soaps. I plan on doing the same this summer. I had no idea about the O blood though. In our family, my husband and olive skinned children aren't as susceptible as me and my lighter skinned daughter.
I needed this! I’m sitting here itching like crazy from some bug bites! We have no standing water in our yard but they are thick out there. We’re going to get some citronella candles. I hate putting on actual bug spray but sometimes it gets so bad I have no other choice! I totally attract bugs.