Bug Spray Update

A while ago I wrote a post about homemade bug spray.  Since that time I had a chance to test my original formula against noseeums and found that it wasn't as effective as I had hoped.  So, I continued playing with concentrations and ingredients and researching what others have tried or claimed would work.

It has taken some time, but I think I have an improved formula. The last several days at the boatyard I've been working well into the evening. And the area has plenty of mosquitoes, noseeums, and some species of horse-fly that are quite annoying. So, the past few days should have been a very good experiment. Although not 100% bite free, probably due to my application, I have to say I'm pretty impressed with its effectiveness.

My issue with application is the spray bottle I'm using. Somewhere in the move out to the boat, the old hairspray bottle I was using in Colorado was lost.  I had a small plastic spray bottle lying around the boat (I think it came with the installation kit for the boat name graphic), so I have been using it.  The problem is that it puts out a very fine mist and even in light winds I find it difficult to apply without most of it blowing away.  Since my wife isn't going through much hairspray these days, I haven't had a free replacement so I've been waiting for this bottle to die before I get another one.  Although the spray head leaks a bit (just like every bug spray bottle I've ever had), it has lasted over 6 months. Essential oils are known for eating plastics, so I didn't think the bottle would have lasted this long. I guess one of these days I'll have to just break down and buy some hairspray at the dollar store and use that bottle, hoping it has a coarse spray pattern.

Anyway, here are the changes I've made to the old formula. For the carrier, I've swapped out the witch hazel for a generic version of Listerine (original flavor). I heard someone used it in a noseeum spray. It makes a cheaper carrier than the witch hazel and is easier to find.  I've also added tea tree oil at about 1/2 the concentration of the other two oils.

So, the current recipe, using the 4oz bottle I am using is:

• 35 drops of Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus
• 35 drops of Citronella Essential Oil
• 15 drops of Tea Tree Oil
• 2 ounces of Original Listerine (or store brand equivalent)
• 2 ounces of water

Place the mix in a dark opaque container (or use something like duct tape wrapped around the bottle to "darken" it.. Shake well before applying as the water will separate.  I prefer a sprayer (just not my current one) but you can also just rub it on. I find I have to apply it every couple of hours or so when I'm working in the yard (or at least just a little before dusk if I haven't been sweating). Obviously if you go swimming it will probably wash off, so you would need to reapply.

The best part of this stuff is that it is rather pleasant smelling, unlike most bug sprays.  My wife jokes that I "smell lemony-fresh". Well, that and it is less expensive and I don't have a reaction to it like I do with the high concentration DEET stuff.

Obviously I cannot guarantee it will work for you, all I can say is a version of it has worked for me in Colorado as well as several places along the eastern U.S. coast. If you do give this a try, drop me a note and let me know if it works for you.  If it doesn't seem as effective, try higher concentrations of the oils.  All I can say is that it seems to work well for the bugs in Virginia.

Keeping Bugs at Bay

I seem to be apologizing a lot lately for the lack of posts.  When I haven't been sick, I've been busy, but it hasn't been much that is sailing related.  We've been working hard on our downsizing, but it is amazing how much stuff you can collect being in one home for almost 18 years.  I should have more updates in the coming weeks, so please stand by.

Meanwhile, I was reading a blog post yesterday over on Zero To Cruising about a mosquito borne illness called Chikungunya that is being a bit of a problem in the Virgin Islands right now.  In the notice that the ZTC folks put on their web site it mentioned the use of insect repellents containing DEET or Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus (OLE) as an effective means of combating the spread of this illness.  It just so happens that my wife and I have been trying a homemade insect repellent that contains OLE since the West Nile virus has made it's way this far north.

If you are like us and have lived in the U.S. most of your life, you may be under the impression that only DEET is an effective bug repellent...probably because of all the advertising of the bug spray manufacturers. So, when I ran across an article a month or two ago from The Savings Experiment that talked about a natural, homemade repellent I decided to do a bit of research.  I found a number of sources that indicated that OLE is as effective as DEET, and a couple of the big bug spray makers now offer "natural" products that use OLE, so decided to give it a try.

In my research, I found a few sites, such as this one, that listed different essential oils to repel different bugs.  The folks over at The Boat Galley even had a recipe.  I have yet to find anything that is all that good dealing with noseeums, so I wanted to create an option that will hopefully do that as well.  So, in addition to OLE, I decided to give citronella essential oil a try as it is supposed to help with those pesky bugs as well.

They say essential oils can degrade in strong light, so my first step was to find a spray bottle that won't allow the oils to degrade.  But I also didn't want to spend a fortune on a bottle or have glass on the boat, so I ended up using a reasonably opaque old 10oz hairspray bottle my wife had (I should probably wrap it in duct tape to block out more light...but thus far it seems to be working OK).  After cleaning the bottle out really well, I used a permanent marker to make graduations at 4 and 8 ounces (~118 and 236 ml.).  Since oil and water don't mix and essential oils are very concentrated, a carrier substance that will mix with oil is needed to dilute it.  I used witch hazel since it is pretty cheap, but I understand you can use a variety of skin-safe oils or alcohols (someone recommended vodka, but that seems like a waste to me...unless you can find some really bad vodka for a couple bucks a liter). I filled the spray bottle to the first mark with witch hazel, added 25 drops of each oil, shook it up to mix it, then filled the bottle to the second mark with water.

Since the mixture is 50% oil mixture and 50% water, the two don't remain mixed, so you need to shake it well before each application.  We shook well and sprayed ourselves and gave it a try one evening.  OK, actually I was just coming down with what would later be pneumonia, so my wife was the one who gave it a try. She was doing some yard work and apparently it did not work very well.  Since the recipe I was basing my concoction on said 50 drops (or more) of oil, I had tried 25 of each. Once I was feeling a bit better, it donned on me that if each oil only dealt with specific bugs, that a minimum strength half-and-half approach probably wasn't the best idea. So, I added an additional 50 of each oil to give it a better chance of working (don't want to subject my wife to more bites and I do want to give the concoction a better chance at success).

We tried the improved mixture and that seemed to do the trick...at least against mosquitoes.  We have used it when outside the past couple months including a number times at dusk or when we would expect to encounter a fair amount of mosquitoes and neither of has experienced a single bite.  The mixture has a reasonably pleasant lemon smell that I know my wife prefers to the deep woods chemical-pine smell. I also have to admit I feel better when using it than I sometimes do when I use DEET based products.

We haven't had a chance to see how it works against noseeums as they don't exist in Colorado.  I'll give it a try against those pests once I get back to an area where they are encountered, but so far I do have some hope it will work for them too.

Here is the "recipe" and cost of the spray we are using that seems to work.

• 4 oz ( 118 ml) Witch Hazel - about $0.50 
• 75 drops Essential Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus (OLE) - about $0.80
• 75 drops Citronella Essential Oil - about $0.50
• 4 oz water - price negligible.

Place the Witch Hazel in a spray bottle that protects the solution from light.  Add the drops of essential oil, cap and shake the bottle to mix.  Add water and cap bottle.  Prior to each application and periodically during application, shake bottle to ensure contents are mixed. It seems that at these concentrations, a 1 oz. bottle of essential oil will make between 8~10 bottles of spray.

So, for about $1.80 (current price here in Colorado at the time of writing), you get 8 fl. oz. of repellent.  Compare that to a can of Deep Woods Off whose current MSRP is $8 for a 6 oz. can.  Pretty good value for something that seems a bit less toxic than the average can of bug spray.

Since mosquito species vary and other bugs don't respond to the same oils, you may want to give different recipes a try or even try whipping up one of your own.  And, if you do try one and it works, I (and I bet other readers too) would love to hear what you used and how well it worked.

And now...since everything requires a disclaimer these days...

This particular solution seemed to work against mosquitoes for my wife and me.  I cannot guarantee that it, or any solution, may work for you.  If you try this, you do so at your own risk.  I am not a chemist, herbologist, or any other -ologist nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.  Do not drink, use as a cake topping, breath freshener, or as a replacement for your engine oil.

The Grill and Easy Thai Style Peanut Sauce

Since I returned to the boat I have to admit I haven't been doing much fancy cooking.  Being by myself it is hard to get inspired to make nice meals for one and by the time I get done working my day job and try to get some work done on the boat, I just don't have the time or energy to cook much. Spaghetti, hamburgers, and even peanut butter and jelly have been on the menu here when I haven't just grabbed something while out running errands.

A couple of days ago I spent some time cleaning and repairing the Magma Grill that came with the boat and I wanted to give it a try.  I had some hamburgers, but I was getting pretty tired of them so I picked up some chicken breasts to throw on the grill.  I bought the smallest package, marinaded them in a pepper and soy sauce mix and cut them up in strips and now I have pre-cooked chicken strips I can use for a variety of dinner options.  And if anyone is interested in the grill, it seems to to run a bit hot...even on it's lowest setting the lid thermometer registered in the medium heat range (like most grills, the lid thermometer isn't very good and this one didn't even have a temperature scale...just blue, yellow, and red for low, medium, and high).

Magma Rail Mounted Grill

But what to do with them.  Back when we were experimenting with recipes that might be suitable for the boat (inspired by The Boat Galley site), I came across a recipe for a simple Thai style Satay peanut sauce (sorry, I don't remember where I found it). While it is not the absolute best peanut sauce I've ever had, it is pretty good and the best part is that it doesn't require a bunch of fancy ingredients like curry pastes and coconut milk that many of the sauces do.  Instead, it is made up of ingredients that you might actually find on your boat.  I altered the original recipe a little bit and here it is:

Simple Thai Style Peanut Sauce

• 2 Tablespoons of creamy peanut butter (I prefer the natural stuff, but any should work)
• 2 Tablespoons of Soy Sauce.
• 2 Tablespoons of Brown Sugar.
• 1.5 Tablespoons of White Vinegar.
• 1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
• 1/8 Teaspoon Ground Ginger
• Cayenne Pepper to desired spiciness.

Mix the ingredients until they are an even consistency, adding the peanut butter after the liquids and spices are mixed together.  That's it.  Obviously you can alter to your individual taste, I tend to go a bit light on the vinegar and heavy on the peanut butter.  It looks a bit darker than the typical peanut sauce, but the flavor is pretty good for something with common ingredients that can be made in just a couple minutes.

Tonight I took some of the chicken, added some heated frozen broccoli, put it over rice and drizzled on the peanut sauce.  Made for a pretty flavorful and simple dinner.

If you have any simple recipes that you think would work on a boat, please feel free to share in the comments.