Homemade Tick Repellent?????What about other bugs! not just ticks

[Beekissed]

Funny you should ask that as I just read an article where someone said drinking a quart of buttermilk a day will repel ticks!!!

Supposedly eating garlic will make them not want you, also. Now the only conclusion I can make is that chubby folks with bad breath won't get tick bites....

Seriously, some herbs and essential oils are supposed to repel insects, like lavender, citronella, lemon, etc. I don't know the efficiency of that. We always wore rubber bands at the cuffs of long pants, sprayed OFF around the edges of our clothing and checked each other real well after a day in the woods. That's all I've got to say about that... <my Gump impression>

 

[ticks]

I also wonder what deer will smell.

 

[Beekissed]

OH, you mean for hunting!!!! The ticks are pretty much gone around here in deer season, so we don't have to fool with that! I meant for wood cutting and wild crafting and such. Sorry!

 

[ticks]

No, for that too. I go down to my swamp a lot but the only way to get there is to cross a 3 acre field with gras to your neck.

 

[miss_thenorth]

When we lived up north, we invested in bug shirts and pants. the only things exposed are you hands and feet, which, of course, you covered. i wonder if you could get them in camouflage....

http://www.bugshirt.com/diagrams.htm

 

[ticks]

That's great thanks!

 

[BrookValley]

I've had good luck with solutions containing Neem essential oil. I've also heard good things about products containing some component of geranium oil. But when I really need something to work, I ditch my crunchiness and use deet. I wear long pants and spray it on my pants and boots. From the waist down. I do avoid spraying it on my skin. It's the only thing that I really trust to keep them off of me, and, honestly, when it comes to ticks and the diseases that they carry I feel that the deet is the lesser of two evils.

I'll break down and use the deet if I'm going to be working around the farm in tall grass/weeds, if I'm going to be in the woods, or if I'm going to be hiking somewhere in the woods/tall grass. And when I was in Costa Rica I probably used a gallon of the stuff. Rainforest bugs scare me. I ain't interested in hatching any bot flies, thanks!!

 

[ticks]

I might use deet when I go bird hunting. They do not smell. For them it is see and flee. I have had so many ticks on me I am not afraid of Lyme disease or the other diseases. I still do look for the bullseye where I pulled the tick off. I read that Lyme disease is not as common in the north as it is the south.

 

[the simple life]

I don't know if this helps but when we send care packages overseas for the soldiers some of the things they request are flea and tick collars. The kind you buy for your dogs.
They wear them around their wrists and ankles. I have never heard of that before until I got the wish list.
If you think they are getting in through your shirt collar, you could wear one around your neck if you could find one large enough. I know that sounds like I am joking, but who will see it anyway, your collar should cover it.
Since you get them so bad, I would be wearing 5 of them at a time. The wrists, ankles and neck.

 

[ticks]

I read the package on the collar (my dogs have them) They say not to use on humans. They are poisonous. Thanks for the idea though.