1. Plant Flowers
Flowers and plants such as marigolds, lavender, lemongrass, thyme, geraniums, citronella, garlic, and peppermint are some of the best out there. These plants all contain active compounds that bad bugs hate. For example, marigolds contain a natural compound called pyrethrum (not the synthetic version called pyrethroid) that is given off by the plant and because of them expelling this compound bugs won't fly near them! How cool is that?
2. Treat Your Yard
Applying natural yard spray is such a fantastic way to keep mosquitoes, ticks, and other harmful bugs from biting you and your pets. You can buy sprays with cedarwood, garlic, rosemary, geraniol, and peppermint. Cedarwood spray is one of the most effective! Wondercide and Cedarcide are some of our favorites that we've tried. The sprays repel and also kill adults, eggs, and larvae. Cedarcide sells cedar insect repelling granules too that you can use in flower beds, flower pots, or grass. There are other natural yard products like Mosquito Dunks and Mosquito Bits. They kill mosquitoes before they're old enough to bite. They do this by killing the eggs/larvae that mosquitoes lay in water. Mosquito Dunks are designed to be put into water, ponds, etc. Mosquito bits are designed to be put on top of the soil of potted plants. A really easy way to use Mosquito Dunks is to break off a small piece of the dunk, put it in a bucket with water, and put it somewhere on your property. It's really helpful to have more than one bucket around your property. The mosquitoes will lay their eggs in the standing water in the buckets, the dunk will kill them, and you will eventually break the mosquito cycle!
3. Mosquito Catchers
Products like a DynaTrap release CO2 (just like animals) and put off UV light. Doing this attracts mosquitoes to the trap instead of to your skin!
4. Apply Natural Bug Sprays
Natural bug sprays that are formulated with things like soybean oil, citronella, lemongrass, cedarwood, geranium, vanilla, and apple cider vinegar really pack a punch! The University of Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory says that products with 2 percent soybean oil could provide long lasting relief from bites. Citronella and lemon eucalyptus have been shown to be just as effective as DEET! We recommend using our Vegan Bug & Mosquito Repellent Spray for yourself and our Vegan Flea & Tick Repellent Spray for your fur babies.
5. Fight From The Inside
Eating things like brewers yeast, garlic, and other foods with B vitamins seem to help repel mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas. They create an unattractive odor to bugs, thus stopping biting insects from attacking you and your pets. Our assistant, Autumn, has been adding brewer's yeast to her dogs' food to help repel bugs for many years, and it does help significantly. There are a number of natural brewer's yeast products (tablets, powder mixes, etc) for dogs that you can purchase or you can just opt for straight brewer's yeast powder/flakes.
6. Attract Animals
Animals such as dragonflies, bats, purple martins, hummingbirds, and other birds are all significant mosquito eaters. One small brown bat can eat around 600 mosquitoes in just 1 hour! That's quite a lot! Go add some bird houses (purple martins & bats like specific houses), plant some flowers that will attract hummingbirds, and maybe add a water feature to your yard to attract dragonflies and get rid of the mosquitoes for good!
