Gardening by Cathy

I’m not sure if I have ever heard of this before, but other than the first bites of the summer season, mosquito bites don’t last longer than a hour with me. Why? I believe I got bit up so much as a young child from the age of 5 or 6 upwards that I gave myself allergy shots from the mosquitos themselves. In any case, I hate the buzzing in my ears and even my eyes, even if I don’t mind the bites.

I find that the Off-like insect repellents literally leave me out of breath, so I have been searching for something natural that repels mosquitos. I want to have an enjoyable time picking wild berries. I do believe I have found something.

Mosquitos seem to like berry plants. Is is it for the shade the wide and long berry leaves provide them from the sweltering sun, or is it that they can actually drink some of the berry juice themselves? Come to think of it I don’t recall seeing any mosquito sucking a berry, but they do seem to come out of no where the minute I pick my first berry off of the vine. They attack buzzing the ears or even coming straight for the eyes.

I have heard of a lady, while in Mexico, who used only an oil made of equal parts of rosemary, rue and wormwood and slept without mosquito nets and rarely was bitten. Don’t have any of that, at the moment. However, I have read about mints or even using catnip as a repellent.

I invariably sprayed myself with a catnip mixture as I was spraying my Wild Evening Primrose to keep the Japanese beetles off. (BTW what works great is any mixture including a few drops of oil of oregano. The Japanese beetles won’t be back until it washes off in the next rain!) So I ventured into the woods and the mosquitos did not even blink, they just attacked. Time to read up some more–or back to the drawing board.

Two days later, I made myself some chamomile tea, without the sugar. I let it cool down and then dabbed on everywhere I would be exposed-my neck, my arms, my face, and my legs. I even poured some into a 1.5 oz plastic container.

I went to pick the berries and… nothing. Were the mosquitos on vacation? I can honestly say I had my first enjoyable berry picking time ever. No mosquitos!
After about 15 minutes into my hiking in the woods, I started to sweat-it was probably 84 degrees outside. Then some mosquitos came. So I got my spare bottle out and dabbed the chamomile tea on the areas around my face and neck where I had been sweating. Again, no mosquitos.

I know at Valli Produce, a local grocers, I should be able to buy dried chamomile flowers. I plan to put those into a oil base and let sit in the sun. Perhaps then I can make a chamomile oil, impervious to sweat droplets and I will have solved the problem of those annoying mosquitos!! Time will be the answer to that question.

Popularity: 7% [?]