DIY Bug Repellent for the Natural Home

 

 

A not-so-secret-fact about me: I do not like bugs in my house.

 

Outside in nature? Butterflies and moths are beautiful.  Worms are helpful.  Dragonflies are intriguing.

 

But I loathe…and I mean LOATHE spiders. Especially in my home. In all honesty, I have arachnophobia.

 

I really have it.

 

No, we’re not going to go into stories here.  But I have them.  And they are bad.  I have BAD spider stories that we aren’t going to talk about.

 

What we are going to talk about is this DIY Bug Repellent. It’s a blend of essential oils, which is the perfect alternative to chemical bug sprays. If you like keeping your natural home bug free (particularly spider free) keep reading!

 

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. This means I will make a commission if you click through and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.

 

What You’ll Need:

• Distilled water (unless you’ll use the bottle up within 2 weeks in which case tap is fine).
• Peppermint essential oil (I prefer organic and I like the brand ‘Plant Therapy’ but any will do!)
• Cypress essential oil
• A glass bottle with a spray cap

 

The recipe blend is pretty simple.  For every 1 ounce of water, you need about 2 drops of essential oil.

 

The Method:

1.  Pour 8oz. of water into a glass bottle.  Be sure that it is a glass bottle and not a plastic one, because the essential oil will eat through a plastic bottle.  A plastic hose/nozzle is fine, but the bottle part that the oils will be resting in needs to be glass.

2. Add 10 drops of Peppermint essential oil.

3. Add 8-10 drops of Cypress essential oil.

4. Tighten cap, and shake vigorously.

5.  Spray your door frames, window sills, floor cracks, and any other possible points of entry.

 

This spray is not intended to kill said bugs.  This is just supposed to deter them from entering your house. It is not effective against cockroaches (aka waterbugs, aka palmetto bugs, aka permanent residence of antique military housing). But it is extremely effective against spiders.  They cannot stand the smell of peppermint.  At all.  And so if you apply this liberally to your doors and windows, you will save yourself the sheer terror of having any unwanted 8-leg visitors as well as other unwanted guests.

 

As a final note, to all my fellow phobics out there, I never ever spend a day without this amazing “bug beeper” plugged in.  It is an noninvasive, chemical-free way to keep your house bugless.  It sends out sound waves at a frequency that drives bugs away and I absolutely hands-down can testify that this has stopped bugs in their tracks and kept my living space safe, inhabitable (by me), and spider-free.

 

Okay, so that is all.  Now go out and make DIY bug repellent sprays and protect your home!  And get that bug beeper and plug it in! 🙂

 

Read more home posts: 10 Cheap and Quick Ways to Make Military Housing Home