Mosquitoes are just another part of summer. Though it’s not likely you’ll ever get completely rid of them, there are some ways you can cut down on mosquito numbers so your outdoor gatherings can be more pleasant. Many of these tips also work at getting rid of ticks, so consider it a bonus, as ticks can carry Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

Lawn Maintenance

Mosquitoes and ticks tend to live in grass that is tall, partly because of the length, and partly because if grass is tall that means it hasn’t been disturbed by walking/mowing humans. Keeping bushes and hedges trimmed will discourage ticks.

Standing Water

These pests also settle wherever water collects, so eliminating all standing water is important. Most of us think of this step, but be sure to consider even the smallest areas of standing water, such as clogged gutters, plant saucers, garbage cans and lids and birdbaths.

If you have a decorative pond you can stock it with mosquito-eating fish like Gambusia. Or you can use mosquito dunks which slowly release bacteria that kill bugs when they drink the water. These are considered safe to use near birdbaths and drinking water for animals, but should not be used directly on human drinking water. Though supposedly these are safe to place near areas where animals drink, just to be safe, I probably wouldn’t put these anywhere that your dog or cat might drink from.

Mosquito Repelling Granules

There are a few companies that sell all natural mosquito repelling granules, such as Dr. T’s Mosquito Repelling Granules. These are made of natural garlic and seem to be very effecttive for most people. You sprinkle them all around the yard where people tend to gather. They’re safe to use in or near water and last well even after a few rainstorms.

Green Mosquito Repellent and Larvae-Killing Yard Spray

If you want a simple, broad spectrum solution, then something like MQ7 GreenScience’s Mosquito Outdoor Control is perfect for attaching to the garden hose and spraying a perimeter around your yard where people tend to hang out. It’s made from all natural ingredients and is safe to use around animals and children. The repellent barrier and larvae-killing properties will last about 3 months.

Topical Bug-Repellent that’s 100% Natural

I’d been hearing some good things about Badger Balm Anti-Bug Balm, so I thought I’d give it a test run with the mosquito swarms here in Texas. I love this stuff. It works and doesn’t smell or feel like conventional bug spray. It comes in little tins and also a handy roll-on.

I have a weakness for Black Cashmere by Donna Karan. I’ve always been a little sensitive to synthetic fragrances -I sometimes experience mild asthmatic reactions when someone with a particular perfume or cologne walks or sits near me. This has taught me to be wary of synthetic fragrances, for my own sake, as well as others. That said, the delicious warm aroma (sandalwood, patchouli, pepper…) of my Black Cashmere was overlooked because I was just happy to have found a nice smelling perfume that wasn’t as harsh and perfume-y smelling… or so I thought.

I decided to try and find out what the ingredients in my favorite commercial perfume, and found this nifty site: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/ where you can type the name of a perfume or other cosmetic and if it’s listed in the directory, you can find a list of the main potentially dangerous ingredients. I found the ingredients for Black Cashmere:

Truth be told, I only use a tiny little spritz of this perfume, but especially considering that it’s right near my face and I probably breathe in a small amount, it makes sense to try and create a similar aroma using essential oils and other natural ingredients.

How to Make Natural Perfume

Really the simplest natural perfume or cologne can be as simple as adding essential oils to a very light carrier oil like sweet almond oil, or lighter yet, jojoba oil (which is really a wax that is liquid at room temperature). If you want to create a more traditional perfume, all it takes is the addition of some alcohol to help the oils evaporate, and a bit of glycerine can help the fragrance last longer.

Blending Essential Oil Fragrances

Just like with music, a balanced fragrance will have low, middle and high notes. Often you smell the middle notes first, the basenote comes in a little later and adds a warmth. The high note is for adding secondary tweaks to the overall scent. The high notes tend to dissipate more quickly.

If you find a combination you like, keep a mixture of it in a larger dropper bottle so that you can add the same fragrance to shampoo, lotion, etc. For example, my husband really likes the mixture of balsam peru, cedarwood, black pepper, juniper and grapefruit that I made for his castille shampoo, so I have a bottle of just the essential oils for making up new batches of shampoo. He also uses it in a lotion base in the wintertime.

Some of my favorite basenotes are:

sandalwood, cedarwood, frankincense, patchouli, and balsam peru (great for masculine colognes). These all have deliciously warm, comforting (cedarwood) or mysterious (patchouli, balsam peru) aromas.

Good middle notes include:

black pepper (good stuff for adding depth), lavender (also top note, classic scent works well with everything), and rose geranium (same as lavender -works with everything, nice rosy scent).

Top notes  I like are:

grapefruit, eucalyptus, sage, spearmint, bergamot and peppermint.

Blending Tips

Typically you’ll want to add more of your top notes because those tend to be more volatile (they dissipate more quickly than middle and base notes). You will quickly get a feel for the ‘note’ that each essential oil has, so you don’t have to use perfume guides or anything like that, just trust your nose. that said, if you’re looking for a handy chart of essential oil fragrance notes, see this article.

Natural Fragrance Supplies

There are lots of great online shops that carry essential oils, natural cosmetic bases and even the bottling/packaging supplies, so by all means, shop around. I tend to bring up Liberty Natural (US-based) because they carry all these things (plus dried flowers, herbs, butters, oils, flower waters, you name it). They have the hugest selection of essential oils in all sizes and have the very lowest prices (minimum order of $50). My reasoning is that I can stock up on essential oils, natural bases for castille soap, lotion, hair conditioner, etc, and also get some bottles to store my creations inside, all at one place, so I’ve been a loyal customer for a while now. I’ve also enjoyed the products from Mountain Rose Herbs.

If you’ve found another great supplier, by all means, let us know by leaving a comment below.

Cosmetic Bases

If you visit Liberty Natural, be sure to check out their cosmetic bases and soap bases under the ‘botanical ingredients‘ section of their products. Several other natural ingredients stores provide similar bases. These provide an easy means for using your essential oils to also create natural home bathing items, such as scented lotion, shampoo, liquid soap, hair conditioner, the list goes on…

Bottling / Packaging

This gets a little trickier because there are several different types of plastic bottles as well as glass. Liberty Natural and Mountain Rose Herbs carry only PVC and HDPE bottles for plastic bottles, neither of which are great choices for eco containers, but they can be recycled in many areas. If you’re making lotion or shampoo, you probably want a plastic squeeze bottle, so perhaps you can use old shampoo bottles. Liberty Natural also sells amber and beautiful cobalt blue glass bottles. I tend to use these because they are great looking and can be reused. At any store where you can purchase bottles, you can also choose from a variety of tops: droppers, sprays and pumps. Spray tops are good for perfumes and air  fresheners. Pump tops are great for lotion, and can even be used for shampoo.

If you decide to really dive into making your own natural bath and beauty preparations, be sure to check out the resources below. You can also get containers for lip balm, lotion bars/sticks, and all kinds of jars, bottles and tubs from Liberty Natural or

More Natural Recipes

I’ll be adding some natural beauty recipes to this site, but in the meantime you can check out the sites below, or try one of the two better books I’ve found on on natural beauty recipes.

Sites

http://www.makeyourcosmetics.com/

http://www.a1-natural-beauty.com/

Books

Natural Beauty At Home: 250 recipes to beautify your face, hair, and entire body that you can whip up at home for practically pennies!
This one can also be used by beginners. Must have -tons of different recipes!

Skin Deep: Natural Recipes for Healthy Skin and Hair
This one is a good basic book for beginners. It’s rather thin, but covers basics and has nice images.

Very young children

Children from toddler age to preschool are fascinated with the objects and beings in their environment, and take easily to ideas about general conservation. With lights this might mean talking about how we should only make the light we need and so we turn off lights that are not in use. Point out to children that only a slight stream of water is necessary to wash hands, rather than a fully open faucet.

Young children will especially enjoy sorting of items for recycling. Sorting various plastics or paper products can be made into a fun going green game that young children will enjoy and even look forward to.

You can involve even the youngest children in picking out ripe fruit and vegetables, as well as how left over food items are not waste, but useful items that can be put back into the earth via composting.

Elementary school age children

Children this age are generally ready for some more thoughtful discussion and exploration of environmental issues. Encourage them to explore environmental issues by creating fun challenges and discussion. You can talk about creative ways to reuse items around the house. Take a look at these creative recycling ideas for some inspiration.

You can continue to encourage children to consider ways of reducing their consumption and waste by adding little tips that save water and electricity. For example, try to help your kids get in the habit of turning all electronics when they’re not using them. For water conservation this might mean reminding them not to leave the faucet running while they’re brushing their teeth, or showing them that it takes less water to wash fruits and veggies in a bowl of water rather than running water the whole time.

Give children going green chores, such as sorting all the junk mail or plastic containers into separate recycle bins. Take them into the garden -or start a garden together. Composting and gardening are great ways to connect with nature and develop deeper understanding about harmony between self, others and the environment. For younger children and grade school aged kids, the simple act of putting food waste into the compost container can be a fun and unique experience. You may find it easiest (and least smelly) to use a smaller compost container for collecting food waste in the kitchen, and then have children take turns emptying the container into the larger compost bin/area.

Older Kids

Reusing items can be one of the more challenging topics for kids this age, but it can be made into fun decisions and brainstorming. Rather than buy new items when something breaks or starts to wear out, fix it or patch it. You might make a fun experiment out of tracking all the items that were reused instead of bought new again, and to consider the money saved and the lighter impact that these decisions make over a month or a year.

Kids this age are ready for more responsibility when it comes to sharing household duties, so making green living a part of these activities is easy to do. Teach kids that when washing dishes the best way to conserve water is to use one basin of soapy water and one basin of rinse water rather than running water the entire time. If you only have one sink basin, consider using a large container for the rinse basin, or set soapy dishes in the drain rack while they wait for the rinse cycle. If your kids are responsible for mowing the lawn, teach them to leave the grass clippings to nourish the lawn.

More about composting and gardening –Even if you don’t have a garden there are benefits to composting and it doesn’t take all that much space either. Join or start a community composting program so that people with too much compost can give it away to people with too little compost. This can also lead to even greater cooperation and networking for trading goods and services with community members. Get your kids to participate in community composting, or work together to start one on in your neighborhood.

Kids of any age like unique outings. Take them with you to do clean up activities at the local park, river, beach, etc. Whether you participate in larger organized clean-ups a few times a year, or pick up trash on your street, help encourage older kids to keep their environment clean.

Older kids can be given chores to go shopping for local produce. If you have a farmer’s market nearby, this can be a great and creative opportunity for kids to learn about native plant species, local seasonal fruits and vegetables, as well as community cooperation. Taking kids to the farmer’s market and giving them shopping duties is a way of encouraging green living habits as well as delegating some of the shopping responsibility to help encourage thoughtful decision making and money management.

As with children of all ages, encourage them to consider alternate means of transportation. This can be especially challenging for teenagers that want to drive everywhere or don’t want to take the bus to school, but again, you can make a challenge out of this. A lot of going green means to find balance. You can find compromises and make these opportunities to learn about which types of transportation use the least amount of energy, and the various pros and cons of each mode of transportation, such as the health benefits of walking or riding a bike.

The main thing about going green is to open our minds to alternative options. Wherver there’s one way of doing something, there are bound to be several other, better, ways of doing the same thing if only we remain open to additional information. By engaging in going green activities with kids you are encouraging them to develop critical thinking skills as well as creative problem solving that will come in handy throughout life. Encouraging awareness of sustainability in terms of physical resources is also good practice for finding balance within ourselves and our relationships.