Tick Slayer Spray

I recently partnered with Aroma Foundry to bring you a review of their essential oil product line. After looking over the essential oils to choose from, I settled on the following oils: Citronella, Cedarwood, Mandarin, Tangerine and Fir. When I chose these oils, I wasn't thinking of anything in particular that I would use them for with the exception of the Citronella. I thought that one would be great to use in a beeswax candle or in my bug spray. The rest I chose because they were all scents that I hadn't used before.

However, a few weeks after I received my oils we found out that ticks were in our area. This was something that we NEVER had to deal with before and I've lived in the same area my entire life. 

*Affiliate links, including those from Amazon.com,  may be present in any of my posts. You can read my policy in more detail at the bottom of this post.

My friend is an urban organic farmer and she recommended an essential oil blend that she uses to repel ticks. One of the oils she recommended I had just received from Aroma Foundry. I took her recipe one step further and added Apple Cider Vinegar to my spray to help the oils mix better but I also realized it helped to repel mosquitoes better as well.

At the end of May, we celebrated our oldest son's birthday and he chose to go play Frisbee golf as a family for our activity that night. We had been to this place dozens of times before but I was a little on edge about going because, although it's in a mowed area, there are patches of woods surrounding the course. So, I sprayed everyone with my homemade spray and I also had a store bought natural tick repellent (it doesn't kill them) that I used around their ankles. I figured the more plans of defense the better! 

And has now become our practice after playing outside or going in or near wooded areas, we do a body check when we get home or come in from playing. When we got home that night, everyone got ready for bed and checked their bodies. No ticks! Great!

Except...the next morning my 7 year old woke me up and told me he thought his older brother might have found a tick on the carpet in their room. (Not exactly what I like waking up to). That morning, our oldest son noticed a "dead bug" on the floor and thankfully picked it up with some toilet paper and set it on the sink for me to look at. My 7 year old thought it looked like a tick but wasn't sure since we had never seen one before so he asked his 9 year old sister how many legs they have. She told him eight (ticks are in the arachnid family) so he went back to inspect "the dead bug" and counted eight legs.  That's when he came and got me. (I like the team work that they used!)

I immediately thought, "Uh oh, that looks odd" but I was still in denial so I used Google Images to look up "insects that look like ticks". I was so hopeful that it was just a look alike and as soon as the images pulled up I immediately spotted the one we found. It wasn't labeled in the picture so I was still hopeful that it was just a bug but had this underlying feeling that it wasn't a look alike unfortunately. After clicking on the picture...sure enough, a tick. I texted a picture of our specimen to a couple of my nature friends and they quickly responded that sure enough, it was a tick!!

All that to say, I don't know what killed the tick but considering we hadn't been anywhere else where we could have picked it up, it's reasonable to assume we picked it up the night before while playing Frisbee golf. I didn't realize this at the time, but when we played, my son's Frisbee disc went into a wooded area so he went to retrieve it and was only in there for a matter of seconds. All I know is, the tick was dead when we found it and that's the only kind of tick I ever want to find. I spray my homemade Tick Slayer Spray every time we are near a wooded area now and I'm grateful that the oils I chose to review from Aroma Foundry were great choices for my spray and that they seem to be doing their job!

Here is the recipe I used

• I filled about 1/2-3/4 of my Amber Spray Bottle with Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar
• 20 drops each of ...
• Cedarwood 
• Geranium
• Eucalyptus 
• Lemongrass 
• Lavender 
• Citronella 
• I also added Fir (smells amazing!), Mandarin and Tangarine to cover the smell of the ACV. 

A Little About Aroma Foundry

As essential oil consumers for many years, those at Aroma Foundry were concerned by a few trends in the industry. So, they put together a collection of oils with quality, purity, transparency, and consistency at their foundation. Check out their Purity Promise. 

Aroma Foundry's essential oil selections were sourced from native locales around the globe for their purity and are hand bottled in California. They have a consistent quality guarantee as each batch is hand numbered. To learn more about essential oils, check out Aroma Foundry's blog for further EO education. 

And, for extra savings on your essential oils, head to aromafoundry.com and sign up to receive 10% off your order.

Be sure to check out my "Bee Kind" nature based character development unit and my ebooks as well: A Wife's Guide to Studying Proverbs, Topical Devotions for Pregnancy and Early Potty Teaching. Or, if you're looking for a way to get 30 raw fruits and vegetables in your diet every day, contact me here. 

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This post may involve product that was received in exchange for a review or contain affiliate links, including those from Amazon.com, for which I will earn compensation should you choose to make a purchase. I am disclosing this information in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR Part 255, Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. Thank you for your support of Purposeful Homemaking.