Main Discussion Area > Primitive Skills
Natural mosquito repellent?
richardzane:
we don't have mosquito problems here (maybe because we have busy purple martins?) BUT One powerful toxic substance I've found that kills ticks is a dab of white milk from a dogbane leaf. I've experimented with it a little. break off a leaf, dab the crawler and they either die on the spot
or walk around in circles till they die. Ticks also seem almost absent among large stands of dogbane plants.
NOW if someone can come up with a way to create a dog-bane spray as a repellant.... pass it on!
Ryan_Gill_HuntPrimitive:
Richard. wish we had some dogbane here... just have dog fennel, similar but not the same. sounds like a promising idea tho!
Parnell, I have actually been thinking of trying some soap making believe it or not!
TatankaOhitika:
You can use crushed dogbane leaves to poison fish for safe eating . I tried this on a small run off creek pool with hundreds of minows . They just float to the surface ! Took about 5 handful of leaves though . I reckon a 4 times that amount will stun larger fish .
tipi stuff:
Behenders and Twistedlimbs, the lemon bee balm is related to mint. Next time you have a chance to collect it, notice the square stem. It is in the genus Monarda. One member of the genus is citriodora; commonly called horse mint or lemon bee balm. It contains the same citronella (citronellal) that is found in those citronella bug candles. I have used it many times, with only marginal results. The deet definitely works much better!
YosemiteBen:
Here in Yosemite I use fresh bay laurel leaves. crushed and rubbed on or stuck in my hair tie.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version