Few things can be as frustrating as listening to mosquitos when trying to drift off to sleep or being bitten by one of these, not to mention the danger that some mosquito bites pose as well.
Fortunately there are plenty of natural mosquito repellents that you can use to ward off these creatures, get a peaceful night’s sleep and protect yourself from their bites.
1. Eucalyptus Oil
A study was done in India on the repellent activity of Eucalyptus oil and Azadirachta indica seed oil against the filarial mosquito (Culex quinquefasciatus). Their results showed excellent repellent action from these oils “The A. Indica seed oil provided 90.26% and 88.83% protection, and the Eucalyptus oil 93.37% and 92.04%, at concentrations 50% and 100% (v/v), respectively, with the protection time up to 240 min [1].
There was no bite within 120min and 180min respectively, due to the action of Eucalyptus and A. Indica seed oil, and thus 100% protection from the bite of Cx quinquefasciatus mosquito was achieved.”
2. Catnip and Osage Orange Essential Oil
A study was done to determine the repellent effect of these two substances compared with the commercial standard DEET against the northern house mosquito.
It was found that although catnip had a high repellent effect initially, this tended to decrease significantly over the test period. The Osage Orange essential oil on the other hand had a lower potency initially but had more significant results over the entire period [2].