Natural Repellent: Safe for You and Your Pets

Blog / Health and Wellness / Natural Repellent: Safe for You and Your Pets

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love having the beautiful Sheyenne River run through my backyard. Yet, due to our flooding history and being linked with a water diversion we have days with zero current, which leads to mass amounts of bugs, gnats and mosquitoes hanging around. With a five month old puppy, who obviously loves to be outdoors, and a garden to keep tabs on, we are swatting nonstop!

One of our natural health choices was to be smarter about the products we use and the ingredients in them. It's a tad tough to keep up with good skin health when you are covered in bites. We currently use the Jason Natural Quit Bugging Me spray but thought, why not make our own?

What do you need?

2 large lemons
4 sprigs of Fresh Rosemary (you can purchase these in your local grocery organic section, as for us, we snipped it out of our herb garden)
2 quarts of water

Now how do you make it? Trust me, this is really easy!

1.Slice lemons as thin as possible.

2.Cut fresh rosemary (if purchased, skip this step.)

3.Boil 2 quarts of water on the stove. Once boiling, remove from stove and put your lemons and rosemary into it.

4.Cover it with a towel and let it steep overnight.

5.Strain and pour into spray bottles! You can spray it liberally onto yourself or your pets. For your pets, rub the hair in both directions or for pets who are sensitive/afraid of spray bottles, you can soak a washcloth and rub it on that way. This works for fleas, gnats, mosquito's and flies.

Keep this refrigerated.

Health and Wellness

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