It feels like summer is finally here with a few days reaching 30C, thundershowers, and mosquitoes. People have been coming in looking for planet, body, and health friendly Mosquito Repellents and Sun Care products.

We got you covered…. literally.

This past spring was a little wetter than the past few years and the pest management people have been predicting an irritating mosquito season. So far, it has not been too bad but then again I have not been out romping in the river valley yet this year. Several people have come into the store after a walk Mill Creek with bites.

Insect repellent

So far this year we have insect/mosquito repellents from three different companies. We have Druid, CitroBug, and a local spray product. We also have some bulk product that we can refill people’s containers (Summer Survivor XS with Catnip Oil).

What to do when a mosquito bites you and it starts to itch – don’t scratch it. I have usually failed at this advice 🙁

The use of items like tea tree oil will quickly reduce the itch. My new favourite way to reduce the itch is to apply colloidal silver. I have found this works effectively on just about every insect bite that I have had over the past several years. One of the advantages of colloidal silver is that it is easy to apply to children – extra bonus!

It also works well on animals.

From my experience, the number one way to stop the itch is to expose the bite site to intense heat since the toxin is very heat sensitive. When I used to smoke cigarettes, I would use this as the heat source. There are some heat pens on the market but you can use candle wax, a hot hard boiled egg, a magnifying glass,  borrow a cigarette from a smoker, or pick up one of the Therapik(R) devices from Lee Valley Tools (I would assume places like Camper’s Village would carry these as well) . Please use caution if you do this.

Here is a video of a heat pen being used:

Bring on the dragonflies! I love seeing dragonflies since they do such an effective job of eating mosquitoes. I think it would seriously help reduce the number of mosquitoes in our city if the governments spent more time developing strategies to increase the numbers of these effective hunters to naturally control mosquitoes. The same is true of bats and certain birds.

Just a quick video to give you some fantastic information about how well-designed mosquitoes are to extract blood from animals like humans and how they are the deadliest animal, next to humans, in the world…

As they mention in the video, each of us has the opportunity to help reduce the number of mosquitoes in the environment. We can ensure there are not any breeding grounds for mosquitoes in our yards. This includes rain barrels, tall grass, or any container that can hold water after a rain where the females can lay their eggs.

On my rain barrels, I make a physical barrier to the barrel. I also add some dishwashing liquid. You could add neem oil as well. Each of these would reduce or eliminate the water as a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

Here is another short video animation about the mosquito and raises the question about eradicating them.

Sun Care

Earth’s General Store has a good offering of sun care products – Badger, Green Beaver, and Matter (we don’t carry everything from this company).

I suggest that people check out the Environmental Working Group for information about sun care and skin care products in general. They do an excellent job of reviewing the ingredients of the personal care products like sunscreen. Please note that this site deals mostly with products made in the USA so some Canadian products may not show up. They also do lots of other excellent work so please consider sending some donations towards them if you value the information you received.

Here is a short video with a local pharmacist talking about some mosquito repellents and sun care natural products from Global News. We carry the Badger (and Green Beaver) since they are both mineral based. We carry the tea tree oil, baking soda (in bulk), insect repellent, and the Aloe Vera Gelly that were on the counter but they never got a chance to talk about.

If you are going to drink bottled water please do not support companies like Nestle. They are a poor global corporate citizen. We recommend drinking water out of a reusable bottle but if you are going to drink bottled water we suggest drinking Earth Water from local social enterprise company, Earth Corp. Drinking from a reusable bottle eliminates the production, transportation and waste generation.

http://globalnews.ca/video/3526727/summer-sunscreen-safety-with-holistic-pharmacist-sherry-torkos