Homemade Gnat Repellent

Or What I Like To Call Gnat Your Problem Spray!

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Last Wednesday, during the height of our 4-H beef show and BBQ, one of the beefling's mothers came up to me while I was flipping hamburgers and exclaimed,

"I sure wish we had something to use on these gnats!"

You see, at least one three week period every summer a plague of gnats hatches out and drives local livestock bananas. The little blood suckers are especially fond of flying into the animal's ears and partaking in a scab making, blood buffet. I hate them so.

Our horses have fly masks with ears, which prevents ear carnage, but the cloud of insect horridness still lights upon them and nibbles with abandon. Most commercial fly sprays are mildly terrifying when one actually takes the time to read the warnings and active ingredients. Not only are they costly, but I kind of feel like I am embalming my creatures if I use them, and forget about using most commercial repellents on livestock animals, that is a big no no.

There are some acceptable insect control sprays available commercially that can be applied to livestock, but in all honesty, I am much too cheap to pay for them as the so-called organic alternatives tend to cost A LOT more than their petrochemical counterparts. A cursory glance at many of the natural or organic insect repellent ingredient lists reveal a lot of ingredients that are lying around many a homestead. Don't think I am denigrating enterprising folks for offering an alternative, nay, I just suffer from a pretty advanced case of frugalitus

That said, I also tend to need things right in the moment, as the nearest farm store is a good 30 minutes from my farm, and we needed some gnat relief fast. I handed my hamburger spatula to my husband and uttered,

"I'm on it!"

Into my bathroom I went, for in my linen closet is a shelf full of random ingredients that I use in my homemade cosmetic composition. I grabbed some castor oil, apple cider vinegar, orange essential oil, and lavender essential oil. I probably would have used some citronella had I had some handy, but it all got used on something else. Typical Kat-life.

Upon assembling my on the fly, fly spray ingredients on the counter, I grabbed a bottle of blue dish soap too. As there were hamburgers and hot dogs needing my attention, I started adding ingredients to an old water bottle in a haphazard manner.

Here's what I came up with:

I poured a cup of Apple cider vinegar into the bottle.

Next I poured a cup of castor oil. As this concoction was going to be used on cattle, I surmised that castor oil was a good addition as some people use the oil to stimulate hair growth in show animals.

I then added about a half of a teaspoon of each of the essential oils to the bottle.

And as a final bit of concocting, put a Tablespoon of blue dish soap into the mix.

After a bit of shaking I ran outside and gave the mix to the mom to test out.

To my surprise she came back a short while later, slathering the mix all over her arms, proclaiming that it,

"Worked really well!"

After turning over my cooking duties once again to my husband, I walked over to Moo Bear and proceeded to wipe a bit of the concoction as I called it, onto that harrassed creatures ears. My first impression was that the mixture looked like something that one would see on an 1890's apothecary shelf. It smelled like the soap that a grandma would threaten to wash your foul-mouthed brother's mouth out with, but what was even more intriguing is that the gnats, while still swarming, were not landing on Moo Bear's ears, or anywhere else I smeared the concoction for that matter.

All in all, for an on the fly moment of home-crafting, pest-repelling inspiration, I will have to say that this little mixture was a win. I am probably going to tweak the formula a bit more, just for fun, but am pretty pleased with the initial results!

Here's the recipe for anyone that wants to take the concoction and run with it:

Kat's Gnat Your Problem Insect Repellent

1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup castor oil
1/2 teaspoon orange essential oil
1/2 teaspoon lavender essential oil
1 Tablespoon blue dish soap

Add all ingredients to a vessel that you can secure a lid onto and shake vigorously to combine. Apply to insect harassed animals and smile over the fact that you provided something relief.

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And as sometimes, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's non-repellent Canon digital camera.

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