Cedar-based insect repellent anyone?

[Bill in Oregon]

I recently ran into a discussion of this class of repellent that I had been unaware of after seeing a reference to cedar and other essential oils in Horace Kephart's 1916 classic "Book of Camping and Woodcraft," Chapter Fourteen, Pests of the Woods. Apparently cedar's anti-insect properites were known to the ancients; the Egyptians used oil of Deodar Cedar to help prevent insect damage to their carefully crafted mummies.

And now here it is commercially, promising healthful, natural relief from ticks, skeeters, chiggers and other undesirables. I have not yet made the chigger's close acquaintance, thank gosh, but the skeeters in this part of Texas are big, bold and plentiful. I am going to give this a try, as I hate slathering myself with DEET.



https://cedarcide.com/collections/bug-sprays/products/cedarcide-original-biting-insect-spray



Here's the digital Kephart, well worth bookmarking.

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112023506063&seq=13&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0Y2y3TXC1QCdDylMt7kfg_jfS6YWo_Wa7FsLWnKVhRo5EJpqqjI7jY_n4_aem_ZmFrZWR1bW15MTZieXRlcw

[GunnyMack]

I picked up a spray bottle of a natural flea & tick repellent to use on the dogs. As far as I can tell it worked but the odor was so strong their noses were constantly offended. One of the guys in the club also tried it and it turned his English setter orange!

[gamekeeper]

I'd like to give it a go if it's available in the UK...

[Bill in Oregon]

Ordered some for my sweetie in Las Cruces. She's really allergic to mosquito and no-see-um bites. Hope it works!

[GunnyMack]

Funny observation I made years ago-
I started going to Quebec in 1986. That first trip was in August and no bugs. The next year we went in June and the skeeters were so thick and I was eaten alive. Less and less as time went by. When we would con new blood donors er I mean fishermen to come up they would get hit harder than us . It was almost to the point where I didn't even use bug juice. Sure I got bit but it wasn't terrible.
I haven't gone in 8 or 10 years now and if I were to go back I wonder if I would get eaten alive or not.

[Bill in Oregon]

Will, we used to fish a creek with beaver dams in the southern Oregon Cascades south of Crater Lake. The first few times, the bites were so awful that I was thinking 10-inch brookies weren't worth the price of admission. But after four or five visits, I found myself scarcely reacting to the bites. One does become immune to the saliva of mosquitoes in a particular area after repeated exposure.

[GunnyMack]

Is it immunity or do the skeeter bites cause us to develop a pheromone that keeps them from biting us? I don't know... Any brook trout IS worth the effort!!

[Ray]

Deleted.

[Bill in Oregon]

Ray, I hadn't thought of calamine lotion in years. Used to use it when a lad for Oregon poison oak, which is some nasty stuff.

[GunnyMack]

What works better than calamine is acetone!
Poison ivy/oak suck, but once it blisters just pop em with a needle and wipe or pour acetone on. The acetone cuts the oil and evaporates it. Sure it burns a bit but the results are no more itching !
As we know the best thing for both is to avoid it by seeing it before you get into it.

[Bill in Oregon]

Rubbing alcohol works almost as well as acetone. Several years ago, the Tecnu product line hit the market, targeting the urushiol compound that causes all the trouble. The stuff works, and it became very popular among the wildland firefighters on the West Coast toiling in poison oak. I used it myself, with good result.

[1894cfan]

My brother ran through a BIG patch of poison oak once and ended up covered head to foot with the stuff, ended up bathing with Fell's Naptha soap constantly. Me? rubbed some poison oak leaves on my arm and barely got hit!
Don't know if that soap is still around, haven't looked for it for 60 years.

[GunnyMack]

Yes, naphtha soap is still around.

[Grizz]

could someone comment about acetone? I don't know that our skin is a barrier to any of the solvents, is it? I remember when mechanics had their hands in gasoline and solvents every day. But now on the tube it's rare to see someone remove a bolt or lug nut without gloves on . . .

even water penetrates our skin somewhat, and water is a great solvent for tight pliers, etc. We are compatible with water, but are we likewise compatible with acetone?

I see people using epoxy with bare hands too, mind-boggling.

grizz

[GunnyMack]

No our skin is not a barrier but it's not like you are doing it everyday for 8 hours. Plus it evaporates just as fast as it could get into the skin.
I'd rather have the almost instant relief than it spreading and itching for days or weeks.

Yes used motor oil has been shown as a carcinogen.

[Bill in Oregon]

Reading Kephart's pest chapter more closely, I decided to order camphor, citronella and cedarwood oil to mix up into the "insect dope" he said worked very well -- 108 years ago. Will report.
Speaking of old remedies, when I was working at Oliver Lee State Park in southern New Mexico, one of the archaeological features was the remains of the cabin of one Francois "Frenchy" Rochas at the mouth of Dog Canyon, where water still flows. Among other things, Frenchy is believed to have been the mysterious master carpenter who, without nails or screws, built the "Miracle Staircase" at the Chapel of Loretto in Santa Fe. Frenchy was gunned down at the door of his cabin the day after Christmas 1894 by unknown assailants. One of my great uncles was on the coroner's jury.
Frenchy had long suffered from stomach and other pains, and when the cabin was excavated in the 1970s, the archaeologists found all sorts of old patent medicine bottles. Abundant among the artifacts were bottles of Dr. J. H. McLean's Volcanic Oil and pain liniment, the main active ingredient being turpentine, along with camphor, sassafras and pine extracts. This product, dating to 1841, is still available 183 years later. In the spirit of "experimental archaeology," I bought a bottle and actually applied some of the stuff to my surgically modified lower back, and it did give some pain relief, though kind of messy.
Sort of wandered off topic, but the "old ways" are interesting and not totally devoid of therapeutic value.

[GunnyMack]

Bill I can go even farther back for pain relief!
Remember the Three Wiseman? What did they bring to Bethlehem?
Frankensense has been rediscovered as a topical pain reliever. Amazon has Three Wiseman Frankenscense balm and it works. Arthritic hands? Yup mine feel better. Wrecked knees? Yup mine too. Sore muscles? Sure thing.
It's a coconut oil base.
Only downside is the dogs try to lick it off !

[Bill in Oregon]

Will, I have a jar as well. It does help, but my go to for this is Pain Wizard, which includes the OTC favorites capsaicin, camphor, menthol and MSM.
It's nice, though, to smell the scent of frankincense and myrrh and wonder if these scents were truly familiar and welcome in the time of the Messiah.

[AJMD429]

.
“…chiggers and other undesirables…”

I know folks from Chicago can be annoying, but the proper term is ‘Chigro-Americans’….!

[Bill in Oregon]

Well, the oils of camphor, citronella and cedarwood arrived today along with some polysorbate 20. I am starting out with Mr. C.A. Marsh's 1916 "dope" recipe of two parts camphor, two parts citronella and one part cedarwood oil. I used a tablespoon and the the mix fits nicely in a 2-ounce spray bottle. Spilled a little and now I smell like a candle/soap factory.
I will also mix up some cedarwood oil/polysorbate 20 to try.
Here's a screen shot of Page 248 of Kephart's book. The Doctor Howard cited as calling the Marsh dope the best he has tried was at the time the chief of the USDA's Bureau of Entomology, in other words a chap whose opinion no doubt carried some weight.

[Woodsloafer2]

We use cedar oil and garlic oil here in Maine where the mosquito is the state bird. I use it mostly to keep the ticks off. Cedar oil for the dog as they do not do well on garlic. Seems to work as good as anything.

[GunnyMack]

Up in Quebec fishing we would keep a small fire going, just using white birch bark as fuel. It was labor intensive but we would only do it when cleaning fish and telling the day's stories.

[Grizz]

We use cedar oil and garlic oil here in Maine where the mosquito is the state bird. I use it mostly to keep the ticks off. Cedar oil for the dog as they do not do well on garlic. Seems to work as good as anything.

Hey, I thought it was Alaska's state bird. Usually they just say that mosquitos are about the size of a Cessna floatplane.

But down here in the Pacific North Wet, which is neither pacific nor very north nor very wet, this flew by today . . . don't know what to think, but it's loud.

45_got mosquitos.jpeg

grizz

[Grizz]

Reading Kephart's pest chapter more closely, I decided to order camphor, citronella and cedarwood oil to mix up into the "insect dope" he said worked very well -- 108 years ago. Will report.

How did this work out for you Bill? And what are your sources for the oils?

I bought a container of Cedarcide and used it in TX to ward off those huge red flying stinging gangsters that made assault dives at me. A squirt in their direction caused an Immediate Retreat to their prior flight plan. It turned them Before they got to the particle cloud. Every time. It also deters and cripples the blue tail flies that decided to congregate in my shop. So all good but the price. UGH!

There was the biggest scorpion that I've seen there, but I used the handy dandy shovel to modify it.

Hope you are keeping well in NM

[Bill in Oregon]

Grizz, it seems to work reasonably well. I just haven’t tested it in a mosquito-infested swamp.
I ordered the oils from Amazon.

[GunnyMack]

Grizz that looks like the Antonov 124, it's a true giant cargo plane. Russian/Ukrainian design.
Gonna need a whole lot more than DEET to keep that away!

I'm trying a new all natural flea/tick collar for the girls, supposed to last a year. I've been using Seresto collars but geeze they are pricey at $51 each!

[Grizz]

Grizz that looks like the Antonov 124, it's a true giant cargo plane. Russian/Ukrainian design.
Gonna need a whole lot more than DEET to keep that away!

I'm trying a new all natural flea/tick collar for the girls, supposed to last a year. I've been using Seresto collars but geeze they are pricey at $51 each!

Thanks! We've been using drops, or oils for our dogs. (down to 1) Seems to work, no ticks on them ever. There are spots around here that are lousy with ticks, but we aren't there now.

I'm done with deet, except maybe on my boots. the cedarcide is effective. i had an outbreak of newly hatched bugs in the dory bottom and the cedar spray killed them and if there were survivors they've evacuated the zone. same with the blue tail flies, the incoming ones come to grief still on the shop floor where the spray went. so good report, but not budget friendly, so im going to try Bill's mix.

For the really BIG spider webs I favor a can of orange spray paint - - - most photogenic

[RodinAK]

Sorry, that is not an Antonov. It’s a Boeing C-17.

[4t5]

Is that missing an engine?

[jeepnik]

could someone comment about acetone? I don't know that our skin is a barrier to any of the solvents, is it? I remember when mechanics had their hands in gasoline and solvents every day. But now on the tube it's rare to see someone remove a bolt or lug nut without gloves on . . .

even water penetrates our skin somewhat, and water is a great solvent for tight pliers, etc. We are compatible with water, but are we likewise compatible with acetone?

I see people using epoxy with bare hands too, mind-boggling.

grizz

Acetone is a toxic, flammable solvent that is easily absorbed by the skin. Intentionally applying it to ones skin isn't really a good idea.

[GunnyMack]

Yes it is indeed a C17, I missed the winglets!

No the missing engine is behind the port side of the fuselage.

[Bill in Oregon]

My former father-in-law helped design the design the avionics on the C-17 in his years at Wright-Patterson.
We had an Antonov land at Rogue Vally International Airport in Medford one afternoon. It was there to pick up a load of the giant S-64 helicopters from Erickson Air-Crane to haul them to Europe to fight wildfires. It was even bigger that a C-5A, which didn't seem possible.

[GunnyMack]

I heard that the C5 can hold 6 million golf balls in it's enormous hold but it can only take off with 5 million ping-pong balls. Whether true or not I dunno!
Yes the Antonov is a true giant.

[Grizz]

My former father-in-law helped design the design the avionics on the C-17 in his years at Wright-Patterson.
We had an Antonov land at Rogue Vally International Airport in Medford one afternoon. It was there to pick up a load of the giant S-64 helicopters from Erickson Air-Crane to haul them to Europe to fight wildfires. It was even bigger that a C-5A, which didn't seem possible.

this popped up a remote memory. Dad took us to someplace that had lots of aircraft on the ground to explore what at that time was the largest airplane in the world. Could have been '49 or '50-ish. The view of the ground from the cockpit was dizzying. I think there was vehicle access. Someone probably knows what aircraft this might have been.