How To Make Natural Mosquito Repellant in Your Kitchen

The Citronella plant itself is not highly effective for keeping mosquitoes away, however the oil and the smoke can be used against mosquitoes. Here are 2 simple home made methods to put your citronella plants to use as mosquito repellaant to make Citronella oil in your kitchen:

Collect the Citronella leafs, but cutting at the base of the plant. Tie one end of the stalks in small bundles about 2 inches in diameter and hang inside the house to dry.

You will know the leafs are dry when they become crispy. Then chop or crush the leafs and compress them in a glass jar. Fill the the jar with a cooking oil that does not have a lot of fragrance, like cottonseed, canola or sunflower.

Close the jar lid, but be not tightly or the jar can explode in the process.

Place the jar in a pan with water and boil in an uncovered pot for 4 hours – keep adding water. You are actually, cooking the leaves in an oil base at 100 degrees. When finished, strain it in a cotton cloth. Oil can be used to make candles, on the skin as a natural repellant.

Using Citronella smoke as repellant:

Take a freshly cut bundle of Citronella, braid and hang the leafs. When the bundle is dry, you can light one end and smudge an area with the smoke to keep mosquitoes away.