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BACKPACKING ARTICLES
2 ounces vegetable oil 1/4 teaspoon each citronella and eucalyptus essential oils 1/8 teaspoon each pennyroyal, cedar and rose geranium essential oils
Combine ingredients and apply mixture directly to all exposed skin. Keep oil away from eyes and mouth take care not to rub your eyes right after applying the repellent with your fingers. This repellent will keep for at least a year.
Herbal repellents have a more pleasant fragrance than their drugstore counterparts, and using them is certainly preferable to rubbing toxic chemical repellents into your skin.
Because insects have an amazing sense of smell, odor is used as the basic element in most repellents. Mosquitoes, ticks and many other crawling and flying pests hate the smell of herbs like eucalyptus, pennyroyal and citronella; unfortunately, so do quite a few people. Combine these herbs and you end up with a great insect repellent that also fends off your friends. I have found that the pungent smell of eucalyptus and citronella becomes more pleasant with the addition of rose geranium but only for humans, not for insects. Despite its sweet smell, rose geranium is great for keeping bugs away.
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