Even though I lived abroad during high school and was blessed to work in an algae lab in Thailand, I always return to Tucson, close to the UA campus my Dad raised me on. For graduate school I attended Norwich University in Vermont, stayed and bought land, was married, had my younger two kids born at home, designed the house that was built from the ground up and learned to make intensive herbal medicines from the plants around our mountain home that filled our needs. My youngest was epi-pen allergic to mosquito stings and I needed an alternative. Thinking back to my time in Thailand and how people would burn citronella candles and coils, yet need to constantly smack themselves because they continued to get stung, I realized that the mosquitoes are not smelling the air, they are smelling our blood through our skin. Teaching a unit on insects taught me that they can smell who they want from a mile away! I realized that whatever I created, needed to have just the right chemistry and needed to go on our skin. 

All plants (in herbalism) are classified according to the attributes of their unique chemistry and which human body system that chemistry best serves. For example, there are plants whose chemistry classifies them as insect repelling because, in nature, they will not be eaten by any reptile, animal, bee or insect. They do not just smell unappealing to the animals, bees or insects; the chemistry deters them being eaten as a defense mechanism similar to how the patterns on a brightly colored toad warns others that it has venom. 

In NO MORE BUGS I use an organic steam-distilled essential oil strain of citronella, grown in Asia, which is more powerful and effective than the strain grown in USA most likely because along the equator the insects are much larger, and the plants’ chemistry grew as a defense mechanism in unison with the size and severity of the insects’ abilities to make use of its environment for survival. I combined that strain with an organic steam-distilled strain of Pennyroyal grown in the USA. I used to grow and experiment with Pennyroyal back in Vermont. Somewhere along the line I learned (through research) that Roman soldiers used the Pennyroyal to keep fleas off them when they had to sleep outside. I often have customers who have read that same research; I love when customers have already discovered such information (about any of my products) for themselves! 

Combining the two essential oils allowed me to find a solution to my son’s needs without challenging or damaging his immune system. The first time we used this formula I believe he was just about a year old. Now NO MORE BUGS has been used for almost 30 years by hundreds (probably more as I have lost track) from the woods of Vermont to Thailand and India, Central and South America, Mexico, beaches of California (mosquito and flea problems), Africa and places closer to home such as Sedona, Flagstaff, Phoenix and Prescott for the No See Ums and mosquitoes.

HOW TO USE: Put a small amount in your palm and spread over exposed skin. Repeat until all exposed skin has been covered. I am not a magnet, so I just cover my face, shoulders and lightly cover ankles. If you are a mosquito magnet, cover every bit of exposed skin. I have no problem covering the skin around my eyes but be gentle as we all are different. Keep out of eyes. If very buggy, apply two coats and put on your skin under clothes before you go out for the day. I also like to put some in my palms and lightly dust my hair so that I emanate and broadcast the scent.