Natural Bug Spray Review: Rainwater Farm Bug Spray

Details:

Price: $15 for 4 oz. or $10 for 2 oz. ($3.75/oz for 4 oz.)

Where to Purchase: Rainwater Farm

Active Ingredients: Listed on the bottle as only “essential herbal oils.” The site description lists rose geranium, eucalyptus, and Litsea Cubeba. I heard from the founder! The oils are Lemongrass, rose geranium, litsea cubeba and cedarwood. All kid-safe!

Safety Notes: Eucalyptus is not safe for children under 10, plus I don’t like when a company doesn’t list every single oil. I wouldn’t let my kids use this one this summer since I wasn’t sure. Some people say that borax isn’t a good idea for kids either, and I’d lean toward that side as well.

Other Ingredients: distilled water, glycerine, saponified coconut, olive and castor oils, avocado oil, potassium hydroxide, borax. Note: my bottle doesn’t have potassium hydroxide or borax on the outside so the formula has changed a bit.

Easy to use? Sure. It’s a simple spray bottle.

Sticky? A little bit.

How does it smell? It’s so flowery in comparison to the slightly sharp scent of so many of the others. The “rose” really comes through as a major player.

Did it prevent mosquito bites? We think so! My husband used it while out camping, and while quite a few mosquitoes literally hovered around him, none landed on his skin for at least 10 minutes. A few pesky ones landed on his unsprayed shirt. After 10 minutes one did land on his leg a few times but never bit – admittedly, we finally lost patience and smacked it! So much for experimenting in the name of science! 😉 We just needed to finish dinner and quit playing with mosquitoes.

KS recommends? Unsure. Although the product seems to be effective and smells great, because I don’t know the ingredients fully, I can’t give it a hearty recommendation. So glad to be able to give this one a high recommendation now that I know the ingredients. Yay!

Additional Notes: Rainwater Farm also has an insect repellent stick that looks pretty cool and includes extra soothing herbs, plus a REALLY fascinating item: Camper Soap. It has the same essential oils in it as the bug spray and is used as a daily shower soap. From the owner: “As you know, everything we use gets absorbed into our skin, and this acts like a permanent bug repellent. It has helped my customers avoid mosquitoes and ticks. Another way this bar is used is slightly wetting the bar and rubbing on exposed skin (or in areas chiggers tend to bite).”