Green Diva DIY Natural Bug Repellant Recipe

Love the woods. The ticks & bugs? Not so much.

My happiest place on earth has always been in the woods. I grew up spending most of my time in the woods building forts, climbing trees, and discovering amazing things. I never owned dolls (well, my mother did give me a couple, but I never understood how to play with them). Nope. The woods I understood. 

Bugs didn’t really bother me. I had a few ticks in places they shouldn’t be and a couple of rather traumatic moments with leaches, but that’s another story. And mosquitoes LOVED me. My sister and I could stand side-by-side and I’d be swatting and swearing at them and she’d be like, “What’s wrong with you? They aren’t bothering me.” And she is almost a foot taller than me. Body chemistry baby. Ugh.

I used to love camping, hiking, and any activity that put me in the woods, but in recent years, battling bugs and their associated diseases has dampened my enthusiasm for these activities.

I miss them! 

So, I went on a search for the best, most effective, least offensive (to me, my friends and family, my dog, AND the planet) and there are some decent ones to buy, but somehow I never seem to have any when I need it, and of course, they aren’t necessarily cheap. Nope, I’m determined to create a natural bug repellent recipe that I can make at home and keep all the ingredients handy when I run out. 

There are a lot of natural bug spray recipes out there. We have a few DIY natural bug repellent recipes on the Green Divas site! But here’s one I’ve landed on that seems to work. I spray it on me, the dog, the grandkids clothing and we don’t stink!

Watch my silly 1 GD Minute video tutorial and see how easy it is to make:

Green Diva Meg’s DIY natural bug repellent recipe:

what you need

4 oz. glass spray bottle
20 drops geranium essential oil
10 drops citronella essential oil  (although I didn’t use it in my video batch, you can add for additional mosquito protection)
7 drops lemon essential oil
7 drops eucalyptus essential oil
7 drops lemongrass essential oil
1 teaspoon peppermint Castile soap
1/4 cup witch hazel
1/4 cup water

what to do

• put all the essential oils into the glass bottle
• add teaspoon of the peppermint Castile soap and mix it all up (this will help distribute the oils evenly and ultimately emulsify them in the entire mixture)
• add the water and witch hazel to the bottle
• mix vigorously before using!