Bug Spray Recipe

The combination of rain in June and the extreme heat in July led to an influx of BUGS! Poor Tessa with her fear of bugs spent many a lesson throwing her head, tail, and legs around trying to get them away from her. Cantering was not fun since every so often she kicked out a leg throwing me off balance.

One day after a ride, a big black furry bug landed on her back. She immediately started to panic and ended up dropping and rolling around in the grass to get rid of it. In the process, she nearly knocked me over since I was dumb enough to sit behind her while she was grazing.

On a hack in the woods near the barn with a couple of riders, I mentioned Tessa's fear and the ladies suggested I use bug spray. After the ride, I went to a local tack shop to buy it. They had a few bug sprays in stock. Some even boasted long lasting bug relief for up to 5 days. Spraying Tessa with a bunch of chemicals didn't make sense to me so I opted for an all natural spray. It was $21.95. I used it up in a couple of weeks.

Spending another $21.95 on bug spray seemed silly so instead I looked up all natural bug spray recipes online. After searching through a number of websites, I found a recipe that made sense to me. I found it at About.com Natural Insect Repellant.

The recipe that I put together is as follows:

15ml of Lemon Eucalyptus Essential Oil (mosquitoes, ticks, and lice)
10ml of Citronella Essential Oil (mosquitoes and biting flies)
10ml of Cinnamon Essential Oil (mosquitoes)
450ml of Vodka (good base since it isn't oily and you don't want an oily coat)

Overall, the results have been good. I like the smell of the spray. The girls at the barn say it smells like Cheerios. I'm not sure I agree but it seems to do a good job of keeping the bugs away for most of the ride. Also, I tested the spray by putting the bottle on the desk where a bunch of flies hangout and the flies moved away from the desk. Like any other spray though as the smell wears off and the horse's natural scent comes through, the bugs return.

In terms of cost, I might have been better off to buy the $21.95 all natural bug spray because essential oils and vodka are not cheap. On the other hand, the spray I made has lasted longer than 2 weeks but that may be more due to the spray bottle I am using. It sprays in a mist, which covers more of the horses body than a direct spray does and so I do not end up wasting as much of the bug spray.