Despite their small size, mosquitoes are one of the deadliest creatures on Earth, and keeping them away from you is one of the best ways to stay safe. DEET has been the mainstay of insect repellents for decades, but what if there was a repellent you could grow yourself?
Researchers at Cardiff University found that the essential oil from catnip plants (Nepeta cataria) could be as effective as DEET at repelling mosquitoes when applied as a 6% lotion. The oil has been shown to be effective against many species of mosquitoes, ticks, and mites in previous research. You can look at the paper for details, but the catnip oil was obtained through steam distillation followed by some processing with hexane. The essential oil was then mixed with “water, glycerin, emulsifying wax, cetyl alcohol, cetyl stearyl alcohol, shea butter, glycerol monostearate, olive oil, coconut oil, sunflower oil, methyl paraben, propyl paraben and silicone oil.” We suspect that list will look familiar to anyone who’s read an ingredient label of most any store bought lotion, unless it was paraben free.
The Guardian’s coverage quotes one of the researchers, [Dr. Simon Scofield]: “We did not conduct any experiments to see if it is attractive to cats, but given that the active ingredient [nepetalactone] has well-known cat-attractive properties, I would expect they would quite like it,” he said. Depending on how your cats react, you may want to consider applying the lotion shortly before departing home.
If you want some more options in your mosquito defense, how about becoming a bug zapper, using drones and sonar, or genetically modifying mosquitoes to curb their numbers.
You can thank GreenPeace for that. If it wasn’t for their yapping about DDT, mosquitoes would probably be a thing of the past by now.
DDT would have been the nuclear option that takes pretty much everything else with it, leaving no pollinating insects around where it has been sprayed.
Not to mention birds of prey, which help keep other vermin under control.
Interesting idea. If it both attracts cats and keeps the mosquitos away then it serves two purposes.
I made my own mosquito repellant based on waypoint survival’s recipe that he based on the recipe from horace kephart, a legendary man from the beginning of the previous centruy. It contains pine tar, castor oil, pennyroyal oil, camphor, citronella oil, cedarwood oil, lavender oil and eucalyptus oil. You only use a tiny tiny bit and it works amazingly well.
I’m the type of person that when I sit among a group of people, no one is attacked by mosquitos except me. They swarm around me. With this stuff they find a new target. It’s amazing. I might want to add nepeta cataria to the mix. If it works then I’m a happy camper.
So, if I apply this I’ll not get bitten by mozzies, but will be instantly buried under a mound of ecstatic, blissed-out cats? Sounds like a winner.
Reminds me of the time I had a rodent problem in my parked cars, so I asked a friend to grab some coyote urine from the hunting store next time he was there. What he bought – and I didn’t spot this until I’d sprayed it liberally around the driveway & the cars – was coyote attractant.
I didn’t see any mice after that, but did see a coyote sitting on the hood of the car. Whether that was an improvement, I can’t say.
Absolute upgrade. So cool. (As long as you don’t have any pets or children, I guess.)
I’m no expert, but my understanding is that undiluted essential oils of pretty much anything — including catnip — are quite toxic to cats. I don’t know whether the recommended recipe dilutes the stuff enough, but I would strongly recommend checking with your vet first.
If you have cats, you should avoid essential oil diffusers and candles for the same reason.
I hope I’m not raining too much on the parade. Mosquitos suck and I’d give a lot to get rid of them — just not little Fluffy. :-)
I see what you did there :)
We had 3 cats with 3 conpletely different reactions to catnip. From totally ignoring it to going full blown mental agressive attack mode. Not sure you would want that last one being triggered by your skin…