Make homemade, DIY natural, pet-friendly mosquito and flea repellents using these simple and often pantry-staple ingredients including Baking Soda, Vinegar, Dawn Dishwashing liquid, Listerine or essential oils insects hate such as lavender, peppermint and cinnamon oil. Here are 10 recipes:
1. Baking Soda and Vinegar Flea Spray
It seems like any DIY recipe at home requires baking soda and apple cider vinegar, right? But don’t question why these ingredients are so good just yet. For now, all you need to know is it’s an excellent flea spray for dogs. The vinegar repels the fleas, and the baking soda makes sure it sticks to your dog’s fur for longer. Here’s the recipe:
- – 8 oz apple cider vinegar
- 4 oz warm water
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Mix well and put in a spray bottle. This is safe to use on your dog. Just be careful not to spray them in the eye and face area directly.
2. Lavender Essential Oil Flea Spray
Lavender smells amazing so your dog will smell great, but better yet, fleas don’t like the smell of lavender, so they’ll practically be running away from your dog. It’s a simple spray to make, just make sure you measure out the ingredients correctly to avoid it becoming too strong. Essential oils always need to be diluted to the correct level to stop them from being irritating to skin. Here’s what you need:
- 1 oz lavender essential oil
- 4 oz distilled water
Put in a spray bottle and spritz your dog daily to keep fleas away. But be aware that some dogs are allergic to lavender, so test this one first before using all over!
3. Listerine Flea Shampoo
Unfortunately, with the best will in the world sometimes fleas are unavoidable, but that doesn’t mean you should sit there and take it. Don’t spend ridiculous amounts of money on flea bath treatments to fix the problem either, there’s something you can do at home. As the name suggests, Listerine mouthwash works wonders.
- Mix a little Cool Mint Listerine or other Mouthwash with your Dog’s shampoo
- Bathe as normal
The ingredients in Listerine aren’t harmful to dogs, but they are to fleas. They also hate the smell of minty freshness, apparently. Who knew?
4. Lemon and Peppermint Essential Oils Mosquito Spray
On to our first mosquito spray now! This lemon and peppermint essential oils spray works wonders at keeping mosquitos away from your dog, so you no longer have to deal with those nasty bites all along your dog’s back! It’s simple to make too, and here’s how:
- 1/2 oz of lemon essential oil
- 1/2 oz of peppermint essential oil
- 4 oz water
This light covering ought to be enough to keep mosquitos away, but if you decide to make more of the mixture, make sure you balance the quantities as they are here to protect your dog.
5. Cinnamon Oil Mosquito Spray
Another great mosquito and insect repellent is cinnamon oil. In fact, better than just repelling mosquitos, this oil is also capable of killing mosquito larvae, something that can very often be found nestled in your dog’s fur. This will keep mosquitos away and kill any of the larvae that’s snuck on board your dog. Here’s what you need:
- 1 oz cinnamon oil
- 4 oz distilled water
- Mix the two and spritz your Dog daily.
6. Baking Soda and Salt Flea Powder
This is another hack for those who have been unlucky enough to get fleas in the house, despite your best efforts. Once fleas are in your home, you need to do more than just treat your dog.
Fleas breed everywhere, and they just love soft furnishings and your pet’s bed. But did you know that a baking soda and salt powder mix will take care of those persistent fleas for you? This is all you need:
- Equal parts salt and baking soda
- A vacuum
Simply mix large quantities of salt and baking powder and sprinkle all over the places your dog rests the most. Once done, leave for ten minutes and then vacuum up the powder.
You may need to do this a few times to make sure every last flea is gone!
7. Dawn Dish Soap Flea Spray
Nobody really knows why this concoction works so well at keeping fleas away from our dogs, but if it works, it works! It’s another simple one to make and you can use this on your pets and around your home too if you desire. This is everything you need:
- 1 part Dawn dish soap
- 1 part apple cider vinegar with mother enzyme (if you’re spraying on your dog, you can leave this out if you only plan to treat your home)
- 2 parts warm water
Mix well and spray liberally. If you’re using on your dog, make sure you wash them after 30 minutes with dog shampoo and warm water.
8. Garlic Mosquito Repellent
Now this doesn’t require you to make any spray or powder, you just simply need to feed your dog some raw garlic. Sounds strange, doesn’t it?
But giving your dog a small amount of garlic each day before mosquito season kicks in really keeps those nasty little things away from your dog.
You should never give more than 2 cloves of garlic to your dog in a single day, and it’s advised that you only give 1/4 clove of garlic for every 10 pounds that your dog weighs – up to a maximum of two cloves.
Simply chop up the required amount and add it to your pet’s food once a day to keep mosquitos away.
9. Brewer’s Yeast Dog Treat Flea Biscuits
Stay with us here, because these dog treats don’t take long for you to make yourself, and the odor of the brewer’s yeast and coconut oil really puts fleas off! Here’s how to make them:
- 1 and 1/8 cups of melted coconut oil
- 1/2 cup of brewer’s yeast
Simply combine the two and pour into dog treat silicone molds. Place in the freezer to solidify and then allow your dog to eat these treats to keep the fleas at bay! You can store them in the refrigerator for up to 6 months – but they won’t last that long!
10. Lemon Lavender and Witch Hazel Flea Treatment
Witch hazel soothes flea bites and keeps them away too, so this spray works well against fleas on two counts.
Fleas also hate the smell of strong citrus scents such as lemon and they avoid the powerful scent of lavender too, so this is a bit of an overachiever when it comes to keeping fleas away from your dog. Here’s what you need:
- Lemon juice
- 1 tbsp dried Lavender
- 2 tbsp Witch Hazel
- 2 cups of Water
Mix all of them well and leave them to sit for a while before spritzing your dog with it and Voila, flea free dogs!
You already spend money on so many of these ingredients, there is little reason to spend more on fancy packaging and branding with preservatives and chemicals. They are so easy to mix up and store in bottles you have around the house. You can make a small batch and have no worries about shelf-life.
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