Camping Genius: Homemade Mosquito Repellant

You've got 30 kids headed for the mosquito-infested wilderness. How do you protect them?  The old Boy Scout remedy "Avon Skin-So-Soft" works pretty well, but it's kind of expensive. If you're like me and a little nervous about spraying the kids with something with toxic chemicals in it, here's a little natural alternative that works pretty well and can be made in quantity.

It's a homemade concoction made of cloves (the leaves, not the powder), alcohol and some kind of natural oil or baby oil.  Almond oil, fennel or whatever you can find in the ingredient list that's inexpensive works just find as a base.  It's the cloves that do the trick.

You have to start 4 days ahead because the clove leaves need to be marinated.  Multiply the amounts of the ingredients as needed.  You can administer it with an eye-dropper, or to save time, make enough to put in a spray bottle or squirt gun and spritz a few drops on the kids arms and have them rub it into their skin.  The smell keeps the skeeters away quite effectively.  Just be sure to  marinate the clove leaves for a full four days.  You may want to drop a leaf or two in the bottle to increase potency. 

The recipe is here -  Check out this link.

Have a safe campout.

© 2013 by Tom King