Insect Repellent and treatment

[crashdive123]

I posted some pictures of wax myrtle a while back. I'll dig em up.

[Rick]

You don't have to do that!!!! Just find the pictures.

[crashdive123]

You're right - too much work right now. Here are a few pics.

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[pocomoonskyeyes]

Yep That's the one!! Good ole Wax Myrtle. It has a northern relative (Sorry I don't recall exactly what it is Bayberry I think) That has the same uses!!
I grew up in YCC's & Matt86's area. So I am most familiar with plants in that Region. Crash - Because he is so close to the Coast has a few that I'm not so familiar with but still many of the "inland" plants can be found there as well.

[your_comforting_company]

Thanks gang! I've heard of and seen this plant, but seems like the old folks calls it something else. I'll ask around more. Seems there is a lot of knowledge lost in this part of the world. When I was researching the chinese tallowtree / popcorn tree I read something about it. Many of the old folks don't know about things like yucca soap or candle wax. I only know of 1 old lady that still makes her own soap. Much of the info I get about things like this comes off the net and then I'm the teacher and the old folks are the students. I hear stories of how they used to get by with hardly anything and didnt go into town for weeks at a time, but things like this have just been lost. Funny the way it is.
Thats some really good info and I'll be doing some searching for this shrub/tree.

This should probably be in a different thread, but has anyone had any degree of success in getting wax from the tallowtree or wax myrtle? My 2 attempts at getting wax were failures, and maybe I'm missing something. Apparently you just toss the seeds in boiling water for a few minutes and start skimming the wax off the top... I boiled them for about 45 minutes and didn't get even a spoon full. Am I supposed to scrape the coating off the seeds by hand? I'll leave this question here for the sake of keeping the discussion together based on the plant we're talking about.

Thanks Mel and Crash. You guys are very knowledgable and good friends to have. Thanks for everything you help us with, especially me! I love this forum!!

[your_comforting_company]

Tried the smoke method twice with some degree of success. Last weekend, while outside grilling and enjoying a nice glass of iced tea, I decided to set up a smoke-screen. I took the lawn clippings and started several smoldering piles in a semi-circle around us. The smoke from the grass was not intolerable and it did a good job keeping the bugs away.
Last night while cleaning fish I did the same, but this time I used some dried eucalyptus leaves in with the grass in a few piles, and in another pile I tossed in some dried sassafras leaves that I had harvested late last year. I can't say for sure that either of the leaf combinations worked better than the other, nor the dry grass alone, but the smoke-screen worked well and I got the fish clean with only a hundred or so mosquito bites, as opposed to the normal quart of blood you'd lose on a normal night here in the valley... like, ya know? totally.

[HeritageFarm]

If you have jewel weed growing in your area, it makes a wonderful anti-itch soap or salve or just a "tea" rinse. The entire plant is useful. It won't keep critter away but really does work on bites or poison ivy. I know you want natural but if you tuck a Bounce (fabric softener) sheet in your collar or hat, it will keep biting bugs away. Listerine (original) in a spray bottle works great and most of all, a flock of guineas will keep insects under control. Hope that helps.
LindyLu

I just imagined a huge herd of guineas running around the top 40 to eat all the annoying bugs just so I could walk around without ticks. I wonder if I could just leash them to me, they could walk in front and eat the ticks in my path. Then when I get hungry..........

[Rick]

That might just work if you can put up with the racket.

[HeritageFarm]

I hate guineas' noises - very annoying. Occasionally I take our 1andonly guinea up to the top 40 and abandon it. It always comes back down, though.

[Rick]

Try blindfolding it and spinning it around. That should do it.

[HeritageFarm]

Maybe. But maybe, I should just eat it. If we bring a new rooster home, the guinea chases the rooster around for hours on end. Then we cage it up, as if for a time out, and then it's OK for while. I wonder what 4 year old guinea tastes like?

[maker_of_fire]

Pennyroyal weed common in eastern USA works great for fleas maybe ticks,spiders skeeters.Grandpa allways put some in the dogs bed. donot take inturnally it can killyou
make time for the things you love time will run out without warning

[Rick]

MofF - Pennyroyal is in the mint family. It's an herb must like oregano. Pennyroyal oil is toxic, however and teas from the leaves should be taken in moderation. Pennyroyal oil is an insect repellent but I don't think I'd put it on me.

[BENESSE]

Pennyroyal weed common in eastern USA works great for fleas maybe ticks,spiders skeeters.Grandpa allways put some in the dogs bed. donot take inturnally it can killyou
make time for the things you love time will run out without warning

You are so right.
I feel it running out already. Sometimes it makes me want to do as much as possible and sometimes I just feel tempted to sit back and watch it slip away.

[crashdive123]

You are so right.
I feel it running out already. Sometimes it makes me want to do as much as possible and sometimes I just feel tempted to sit back and watch it slip away.

Never give in. Never give up. Never surrender. I know you won't.

[COWBOYSURVIVAL]

You are so right.
I feel it running out already. Sometimes it makes me want to do as much as possible and sometimes I just feel tempted to sit back and watch it slip away.

Benesse, you have been a great one to pick me up from time to time! Were in your corner!

[BENESSE]

Never give in. Never give up. Never surrender. I know you won't.

Churchill?
No, I've never given up (so far) but I do get my moments when I decide to watch things dispassionately from a far.

[crashdive123]

Churchill?
No, I've never given up (so far) but I do get my moments when I decide to watch things dispassionately from a far.

It's OK to sit back with a glass of wine every now and then.

[BENESSE]

Benesse, you have been a great one to pick me up from time to time! Were in your corner!

I've been watching "AMERICA-The Story Of Us" (taped) and it was touching. A lot of it I didn't really know. When they taught it in school, I was passing out notes or daydreaming. Some of it was never thought at all. But "we" were so amazing! I don't know what happened to us, how we got here, talking and feeling the way we do, but it makes me sad. How could we have changed so much in such a relatively short period of time?

[crashdive123]

I've been watching "AMERICA-The Story Of Us" (taped) and it was touching. A lot of it I didn't really know. When they taught it in school, I was passing out notes or daydreaming. Some of it was never thought at all. But "we" were so amazing! I don't know what happened to us, how we got here, talking and feeling the way we do, but it makes me sad. How could we have changed so much in such a relatively short period of time?

Do some reading about Woodrow Wilson. That may show you where much of what we see today started.