Repelling properties of some plant materials on the tick Ixodes ricinus L.
University of Stockholm, Department of Zoology, Stockholm, Sweden.
The repellent effects on nymphal stages of Ixodes ricinus L. of some plant materials have been studied in the laboratory.
The plant material consisted of an ethanolic extract from Achillea millefolium L., and
volatile oils of birch and/or pine tar, citronella, cloves, eucalyptus, geranium, lavender, lily of the valley and peppermint.
The most pronounced effects were observed for the oils of citronella, cloves and lily of the valley .
They possessed repelling activities of the same magnitude as the reference repellent DEET (N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide).
Some major constituents of these oils, e.g. citronellol and geraniol (oil of citronella and lily of the valley) and eugenol (oil of cloves) showed pronounced repelling effects.
This was also the case for phenethyl alcohol, a minor component in the oil from lily of the valley. PMID: 16360943
Vermont Country Store also sells good old Lily of The Valley perfume ;-)
Also...good old pine tar oil soap and shampoo apparently work too! Can get peppermint scented if you so desire.
Ounce of prevention...
[ 28. May 2007, 08:46 AM: Message edited by: Marnie ]
Posted by sizzled (Member # 1357) on :
Up for bug season!
Posted by MariaA (Member # 9128) on :
Lily of the valley is a nice-smelling plant when in flower but when concentrated that smell makes a cloying perfume in my book. It's a bit like roses- nice in a flower form, can be seriously abused as a concentrated scent. I LOVE smelling the actual flowers though.
I just spent the weekend tramping around the Sierras while slathered in citronella-based bug repellent (for the mosquitoes, not for ticks). That's a pretty nice smell all on it's own, too.
Achillea millefolium that they mentioned is yarrow. I wonder what role that played in this? Is yarrow normally a bug repellent (it's a medicinal herb used for a number of other things)?
Posted by Vanilla (Member # 11155) on :
Wow I was already using pine tar soap just because it makes my skin nice and soft and now I will have to buy the shampoo too.
Posted by MariaA (Member # 9128) on :
I think pine tar shampoo is a dandruff remedy for mild cases of dandruff or very mild psoriasis?
Posted by Vanilla (Member # 11155) on :
I wonder which plant they uses for their citronella research because it appears people use the term citronella losely for different plants.
The Balinese use citronella for mosquitoes, wrinkles and a host of things.
My friend who lives down under says they use lemon euc there for tick bite prevention, they also apply it after a bite as well as to attached ticks so that they will dry up and fall off - do not try this last part at home. They call the ticks there "Paralysis Ticks".
My friend told me yesterday that last time she had one bite her she had a headache for 2 days and a welt. I wanted to talk to her more about what my thoughts were on this - that it could be lyme disease but she was at a friend's in LA and had to get off the phone to go some where. I plan on talking to her soon about the subject but I doubt she will hear me. Her sister lives on the East Coast of the USA and already had a bad case of LD.
Posted by Marnie (Member # 773) on :