Use Advanced search for multiple words and phrases Please support Journey to Forever Home What people are saying about us About Handmade Projects Sitemap (text only) Projects Community development Why we're doing this Rural development Fixing what's broken City farms Edible cities Organic gardening Everyone can grow their own food Composting The Wheel of Life Small farms The way forward Biofuels Fuel for the future Solar box cookers Sun power saves lives and trees Trees, soil and water Healthcare for mountains Seeds of the world No seeds, no food Appropriate technology What works and fits Project vehicles The workhorses Handmade Organic Mosquito Repellent (HOMeR) The abandoned ricefields in our valley breed hordes of fierce mosquitoes, and at dusk they attack in force. But it's hard to tell which is worse, the mosquitoes or the commercial repellents. Two weeks earlier we cut this lemon grass to the height of Midori's hand The mosquitoes are horrific -- they're highly aggressive, you can be bitten hundreds of times without protection, it's torture, impossible to bear. But the commercial repellant sprays mostly use diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET), a nasty chemical that can cause rashes, swelling, eye irritation, and worse problems, though they're unusual -- including brain swelling in children, anaphylactic shock, low blood pressure, and one report of death. It hasn't had any of those effects on us (yet), but it's horrible stuff to have on your skin -- and with these mosquitoes you have to cover every single square inch of exposed skin. They'll even bite you right through a T-shirt or socks. The alternative is incense coils, which you burn -- they fill the air with smoke containing insecticides. And indeed the mosquitoes keep away. We think this is very wise of them -- we don't like the coils any more than they do. We tried all the herbal preparations, but they just don't work -- these mosquitoes are fierce! So what to do? It's both an immediate problem and a longer-term one for us -- Journey to Forever will be travelling through many mosquito-infested and malarial areas. We've found one good answer. We planted three stalks of Thai lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus) we got from the local supermarket, and after a few months they'd grown into a composite clump about 15" across. We used a lot of stalks for cooking, but the clump didn't seem to get any smaller. We cut the tops every couple of weeks because it shaded out the other herbs in the herb bed (lots of green stuff for the compost), but it quickly grew back. And we found it keeps the mosquitoes away. It contains citronella oil, a safe and natural insect repellent that's just as effective as the commercial chemical products, especially when it's fresh. In fact lemon grass contains more than just citronella oil and is more effective than true citronella. Rubbing the long, grassy leaves on the skin worked well, but the stalk worked even better. Take one stalk of fresh lemon grass (grip it near the ground and give it a sharp sideways tug to break it off from the clump), peel off the outer leaves, snap off the grass blades behind the swollen stem at the base. Bend the Handmade Organic Mosquito Repellent (HOMeR): Journey to Forever http://journeytoforever.org/edu_homer.html (1 of 7) [8/30/2004 6:57:13 PM] Site Search Internet Why it really matters Internet interaction Finding your way Schools projects Introduction Biofuels Solar box cookers Backpack stove PicoTurbine Low-tech radio What to do with a cardboard carton Sisters of silk Silkworms in a shoebox School gardens School composting Trees and forests The Beach House fish pond HOMeR Eco-footprint School and youth programs on the Web Education resources on the Web Children's poetry Contact us To Keith Addison