Essential Oil Bug Spray Recipe

There is much research on the insecticidal and repelling activities of many different essential oils.  A variety of plant essential oils have natural repelling properties, offering an alternative to toxic chemical repellents.  Typically, essential oil bug sprays require more frequent application than deet bug sprays.

Species and subspecies of bugs across geographic areas will respond differently to specific essential oils, so it is good to create a blend with multiple essential oils shown to be effective in studies.

Always dilute essential oils with topical use.  Investigate the contraindications of each essential oil before using on you or your loved ones.  Some essential oils are not appropriate for children, pregnant or breastfeeding women, and those with certain medical conditions.

Essential Oil Bug Spray Recipe

• 1 tsp of vegetable glycerin or dish soap
• 10 drops of lavender essential oil OR 10 drops of clary sage essential oil
• 10 drops of cajuput essential oil OR 10 drops of niaouli essential oil
• 10 drops of Texas cedarwood essential oil OR juniper berry essential oil
• 10 drops of eucalyptus essential oil OR 10 drops of citronella essential oil
• 3 ounces of strong vodka or everclear
• 4 ounces of distilled water
• ½ tsp of sea salt

Essential Oil Bug Spray Instructions

First, mix the vegetable glycerin or dish soap, essential oils, and alcohol  together in an 8 oz spray bottle.  Separately, bring the water and salt to a boil and then simmer until the salt dissolves.  Add the cooled salt water to the bottle; shake well.

Adults: Shake and spray.  Re-apply as needed, and shake before each use. Avoid eyes and mucous membranes.  

Discontinue use if irritation occurs.  Certain essential oils are contra-indicated with small children, pregnant women, and with certain medical conditions.  Not for prolonged use.

Further, some essential oils are not appropriate for dogs and other pets.  Do not use essential oils on cats.

Some Essential Oil Bub Spray Research

• Essential oils can be efficient, and safer repellents for humans and the environment.  In this mega analysis on insect repelling essential oils, Cymbopogon (lemongrass) spp., Ocimum (basil) spp. and Eucalyptus (eucalyptus) spp. are the most cited.  Key constituents cited include α-pinene, limonene, citronellol, citronellal, camphor and thymol.  From:  Nerio, L. S., Olivero-Verbel, J., & Stashenko, E. (2010). Repellent activity of essential oils: a review. Bioresource technology, 101(1), 372-378.
• Essential oils offer a variety of insect repelling and controlling actions with less toxicity.  From: Regnault-Roger, C., Vincent, C., & Arnason, J. T. (2012). Essential oils in insect control: low-risk products in a high-stakes world. Annual review of entomology, 57.
• Essential oils for pest control was reviewed.  From: Regnault-Roger, C. (1997). The potential of botanical essential oils for insect pest control. Integrated Pest Management Reviews, 2(1), 25-34.
• Curcuma longa (tumeric), Citrus hystrix (lime), Cymbopogon winterianus (citronella), and Ocimum americanum (basil) were assessed for their repellency against three mosquito vectors, Aedes aegypti, Anopheles dirus and Culex quinquefasciatus.  Turmeric, citronella grass and hairy basil formulated with vanillin demonstrated mosquito repellency similar to deet.  From:  Tawatsin, A., Wratten, S. D., Scott, R. R., Thavara, U., & Techadamrongsin, Y. (2001). Repellency of volatile oils from plants against three mosquito vectors. Journal of Vector Ecology, 26, 76-82.
• Apium graveolens (celery), Citrus sinensis (orange), Eucalyptus globulus (eucalyptus), Juniperus oxycedrus (juniper), Laurus nobilis (bay), Lavandula hybrida (lavender) , Mentha microphylla (mint), Mentha viridis (spearmint), Ocimum basilicum (basil), Origanum vulgare (oregano), Pistacia terebinthus (turpentine tree), Rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary), and Thuja orientalis (thuja) were effective insect repellents against Acanthoscelides obtectus.  From:  Papachristos, D. P., & Stamopoulos, D. C. (2002). Repellent, toxic and reproduction inhibitory effects of essential oil vapours on Acanthoscelides obtectus (Say)(Coleoptera: Bruchidae). Journal of Stored Products Research, 38(2), 117-128.
• Against the yellow fever mosquito, pulegone, thymol, eugenol, trans-anithole, rosemary oil and citronellal showed high larvicidal activity.  Eugenol, citronellal, thymol, pulegone, rosemary oil and cymene showed oviposition deterrent and/or repellent activities.  From:  Waliwitiya, R., Kennedy, C. J., & Lowenberger, C. A. (2009). Larvicidal and oviposition‐altering activity of monoterpenoids, trans‐anithole and rosemary oil to the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae). Pest management science, 65(3), 241-248.
• Essential oils of Cymbopogan martinii (palmarosa), Cymbopogan citratus (lemon grass) and Cymbopogan nardus (citronella) were as effective as the chemical mylol in repelling mosquitoes. From:  Ansari, M. A., & Razdan, R. K. (1995). Relative efficacy of various oils in repelling mosquitoes. Indian journal of malariology, 32(3), 104-111.
• Field trials indicate that an aqueous cream containing 15% of the leaf oils of Litsea elliptica, Cinnamomum mollissimum, and Cymbopogon nardus provided 96.6% protection against mosquito bites.  From:  Jantan, I., & Zaki, Z. M. (1998). Development of environment-friendly insect repellents from the leaf oils of selected Malaysian plants. ASEAN Rev Biodivers Environ Conserv, 1-7.
• Peppermint oil on human skin was effective against three mosquito species.  From:  Ansari, M. A., Vasudevan, P., Tandon, M., & Razdan, R. K. (2000). Larvicidal and mosquito repellent action of peppermint (Mentha piperita) oil. Bioresource Technology, 71(3), 267-271.
• Essential oils of Eucalyptus globulus, Lavender officinalis, Rosemarinus officinalis, and Thymus vulgaris showed repellent activities against the mosquito: Culex pipiens pallens.  Thyme was the strongest and constituents that were effective included alpha-terpinene, thymol, p-cymene, carvacrol, and linalool.  From:  Choi, W. S., Park, B. S., Ku, S. K., & Lee, S. E. (2002). Repellent activities of essential oils and monoterpenes against Culex pipiens pallens. Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association, 18(4), 348-351. 
• Angelica archangelica root showed mosquito deterrent activities.  From:  Wedge, D. E., Klun, J. A., Tabanca, N., Demirci, B., Ozek, T., Baser, K. H. C., … & Zhang, J. (2008). Bioactivity-guided fractionation and GC/MS fingerprinting of Angelica sinensis and Angelica archangelica root components for antifungal and mosquito deterrent activity. Journal of agricultural and food chemistry, 57(2), 464-470.
• The following plant oils showed repellent activity against the mosquito Aedes aegypti:  Acantholippia seriphioides, Achyrocline satureioides, Aloysia citriodora (lemon verbena), Anemia tomentosa, Baccharis spartioides, Chenopodium ambrosioides, Eucalyptus saligna, Hyptis mutabilis, Minthostachys mollis (mint), Rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary), Tagetes minuta and Tagetes pusilla (marigold). From:  Gillij, Y. G., Gleiser, R. M., & Zygadlo, J. A. (2008). Mosquito repellent activity of essential oils of aromatic plants growing in Argentina. Bioresource technology, 99(7), 2507-2515.  
• Pulegone, thymol, eugenol, trans-anithole, rosemary oil, citronellal, and cymene showed high larvicidal, oviposition deterrent, and/or repellent activities against the denge fever mosquito.  From:  Waliwitiya, R., Kennedy, C. J., & Lowenberger, C. A. (2009). Larvicidal and oviposition‐altering activity of monoterpenoids, trans‐anithole and rosemary oil to the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae). Pest management science, 65(3), 241-248. 
• Vitex agnus castus (monk’s pepper) was used as an effective six hour spray to keep away ticks, mosquitoes, biting flies and fleas.  From:  Mehlhorn, H., Schmahl, G., & Schmidt, J. (2005). Extract of the seeds of the plant Vitex agnus castus proven to be highly efficacious with  repellent against ticks, fleas, mosquitoes and biting flies. Parasitology research, 95(5), 363-365. 
• A two percent neem oil mixed in coconut oil  applied to the skin of humans gave complete protection for 12 hours against the anopheline species of mosquito associated with malaria.  From:  Sharma, V. P., Ansari, M. A., & Razdan, R. K. (1993). Mosquito repellent action of neem (Azadirachta indica) oil. Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association, 9(3), 359.
• A 2% neem oil mixed in coconut or mustard oil provided 100% protection against the sand fly: Phlebotomus argentipes.  From:  Sharma, V. P., & Dhiman, R. C. (1993). Neem oil as a sand fly (Diptera: Psychodidae) repellent. Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association, 9(3), 364-366.
• Eucalyptus, geranium, lavender, and mint showed varying degrees of repellency against the bloodsucking bug Rhodnius prolixus Stahl.  The knockdown time of nymphs in minutes by constituents was 117.2 (eucalyptol), 408.7 (linalool), 474.0 (menthone), and 484.2 (limonene). While the repellent effect was quite lesser than that of deet, eucalyptol was 3.5 times less toxic.  From:  Sfara, V., Zerba, E. N., & Alzogaray, R. A. (2009). Fumigant insecticidal activity and repellent effect of five essential oils and seven monoterpenes on first-instar nymphs of Rhodnius prolixus. Journal of medical entomology, 46(3), 511-515.
• Pulegone, thymol, eugenol, trans-anithole, rosemary oil, citronellal, and cymene showed high larvicidal, oviposition deterrent, and/or repellent activities against the denge fever mosquito.  From:  Waliwitiya, R., Kennedy, C. J., & Lowenberger, C. A. (2009). Larvicidal and oviposition‐altering activity of monoterpenoids, trans‐anithole and rosemary oil to the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae). Pest management science, 65(3), 241-248.
• Cymbopogon citratus  (lemongrass) was effective against Anopheles arabiensis.  From:  Karunamoorthi, K., Ilango, K., & Murugan, K. (2010). Laboratory evaluation of traditionally used plant-based insect repellent against the malaria vector Anopheles arabiensis Patton (Diptera: Culicidae). Parasitology research, 106(5), 1217-1223. 
• Piperitenone oxide from spearmint was found to be highly toxic and repellent toward the malarial vector A. stephensi.  From:  Tripathi, A. K., Prajapati, V., Ahmad, A., Aggarwal, K. K., & Khanuja, S. P. (2004). Piperitenone oxide as toxic, repellent, and reproduction retardant toward malarial vector Anopheles stephensi (Diptera: Anophelinae). Journal of medical entomology, 41(4), 691-698. 

By: Kathy Sadowski, MS in Aromatherapy, RA (ARC), Professional NAHA and AIA Member, LMT

4/2/18

This categorized compilation of research articles does not necessarily imply that there are adequate results to demonstrate safe and/or effective human use. These statements are not meant to diagnose, treat, or cure any diseases. The information at this page has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Consult a Doctor before using herbs and essential oils if you have medical conditions, are taking medications, or have questions.