Over the 4th of July weekend we spent quite a bit of time outdoors at night.

I don’t need to mention what happens outside at night in the summer. If you go out without protection, you are eaten alive. I don’t care how close you sit next to the citronella torches and candles, you still become mosquito bait.

Mosquito Repellents

Over the years we had tried several mosquito repellents. We tried the traditional products that are available in stores that contain deet and we tried home made remedies such as Avon’s Skin So Soft and natural plant oils. I’m particularly fond of Neem, but we can’t always find it at our local health store.

Enter Bite Blocker Insect Repellent

My hubby found a product called  Bite Blocker while surfing the Magellan site. He ordered a 4.7 ounce spray bottle of the stuff and we got to try it out this weekend.

Bite Blocker imosquito repellent has the following ingredients:

Soybean oil
Purified water
Coconut oil
Glycerin
Lecithin
Citric acid
Geranium oil
Sodium bicarbonates
And
Vanillin

These ingredients are much less harmful than spraying a can of deet all over the body. In addition to the lack of deet, it has a subtle non overwhelming fragrance. To me it has a light lavender smell. It actually smells pretty good.

One application lasts for 8 hours and its waterproof and sweatproof.

Bite Free July 4th Bar-B-Q

We pulled out the bottle of Bite Blocker at the 4th of July Bar-B-Q and I was pleased to find that the next morning I didn’t have any new mosquito bites to scratch. I’m particularly ecstatic about this because in every gathering there is one person the mosquitoes usually prefer. Yours truly is that person. Now I’ve got a deet free solution to the common mosquito bite problem.

Now that we know it works, we’re stocking up. BTW, if you don’t like sprays, Bite Blocker also comes in a lotion.

Okay, this is more of a request than a post.

Does anyone know of natural ways to get rid of Japanese beetles?

This request is for a friend of mine whose plants are being eaten by the annoying insects. My plants, for some reason have not been affected. Maybe it’s because they don’t like the pepper I sprinkled on the flowers earlier in the year to deter the squirrels. Who knows?

I found one article that offers an environmentally friendly way to get rid of them. It had something to do with killing a few of them early in the season and placing them in a bucket of soapy water.

You’re supposed to leave the bucket in a prominent area so that when the other Japanese beetles catch a whiff of the scent of their dead brethren they’ll fly away thinking that the area is unsafe (no, I didn’t write the article, I’m only paraphrasing what it said). You can read the article here.

Has anyone tried it?

I knew a woman who suffered miserably in the Spring when the ants would come out of the woodwork and roam around her house. She was allergic to all bug sprays and pesticides. It was driving her crazy. She couldn’t spray for fear of ending up in the emergency room of the local hospital.

I’m happy to say in searching the internet, I found a natural alternative to toxic bug sprays. It’s a natural occurring ingredient and can be purchased from your local home improvement store. It’s called diatomaceous earth. It costs less than $10 and is great for killing all kinds of bugs.

Check out Killing Spiders, Ants and Other Bugs Naturally With Diatomaceous Earth.

While you’re looking to get rid of pesky bugs, try this natural mosquito repellent (it’s deet free).