Make anti-mosquito candles yourself

To keep mosquitoes at bay, you better make sure you enter the dusk fresh. Because mosquitoes love our sweaty bodies and sweet perfume smells drive them crazy too! So clean and neutral smelling is the starting point.

But some people are unlucky (read: me) to be spotted by these annoying buzzing prickly beasts anyway. That is why I always have my nettle ointment nearby to fight the evil if it has already happened.

You can distract them by placing strongly scented plants around your patio. Plants like Lavender, Lemon Balm, Lemon Geranium, Sage and Rosemary. The scent must be activated, so rub your fingers over the leaves or flowers and rub your skin with them. This is how the essential oils get onto your skin and they like to fly around the block. If you also want to secure the ether, you will have to come with the big gun: citronella candles. Preferably more than one, on every corner of your terrace. Provide a wall of citronella… a tough mosquito that still dares to penetrate.

So get started! There are a number of options for this. I'll detail them from most basic to pro below.

Option 1

Buy a bottle of bio lamp oil with citronella and put this in your oil lamp.

Option 2

Add a few drops of citronella essential oil to your oil lamp. If you like the smell a bit intense, then red cedar is a good essential oil to add to it. Both keep mosquitoes at bay.

A disadvantage of an oil lamp is that you do not easily take it with you when you go on a picnic or on vacation. Then option 3 ... may be an option.

Option 3

Make a candle yourself based on beeswax or possibly old candles that you melt into a new one. That sounds more difficult than it is. I assume a beeswax candle here because it is also healthy (contains no paraffin) and burns beautifully and for a long time.

The beeswax will melt you au-bain-marie. You need about 1.5 times the amount of the jar in which you are going to make the candle.

When the wax has melted, add a few drops of the citronella and / or red cedar essential oil while stirring. For a 120 ml jar (and it will soon be) you need about 80 drops, which is about 4 ml of essential oil.

Prepare the jars in which you want to make the candles in advance. This can be a glass (jam) jar, a tin or a terracotta flower pot. What you like especially. Make sure to clean them properly. If you heat them in the oven for a while, you will not get any air bubbles when pouring the wax. Then place the wick. You can stick this to the bottom so that it stays in place. With a flower pot you have to make sure that the hole is closed. This is also possible with adhesive tape. Keep the wick straight while pouring using skewers or something similar. The wick must remain straight until the wax is hard, so a little help (from the sticks) is useful.

When the beeswax has completely melted and the essential oil has been added, you can slowly pour the wax into the jars. After about 8 hours the candle has solidified well (depending on the size of the jar). Cut the wick at half a cm for a nice flame.

No mosquito that dares to come close now!

Have fun creating and if you have any questions about it please let me know! Cindy