My boyfriend has been driving me UP. A. WALL. Chasing mozzies at night, banging on the ceiling trying to kill them and leaving the nauseating bloody corpses clinging to our walls.
It was time for me to take action!
Personally I do not feel comfortable killing anything. Yeah, I do sometimes either by accident or out of frustration but in general I am convinced that we are not allowed to take the life from another living being without their permission. For that matter I am vegetarian.
So I decided to make Bug Bags for our cupboards. Somehow the mozzies have grown fond of Elford’s mess in his section of the cupboard and no matter how many times I tell him to tidy it up, he just ignores my please and carries on just dumping his clothes wherever there is space. The other day I stuck my hand in there and a SWARM of mozzies came rushing out! They really do love my boyfriend, don’t they? And when the tackle him he ends up with huge red lovebites. They’re such a romantic bunch, my boyfriend and his mozzies!
Here’s what I used:
- I gathered some insect repelling herbs gathered from around our garden. Remember to say thank you to the Elementals and Fey for gifting you with these herbs:
1. Pennyroyal: Mentha Pulegium
2. Kaki bos: tagetes minuta
3. English lavender: Lavandula angustifolia (foliage only since mine refuses to flower)
4. French Lavender: L. stoechas
5. Wild Garlic: Tulbachia violancea
6. Rosemary: Rosmarinus officinalis 'Tuscan Blue'
- Any natural cloth such as cotton as well as scissors to cut it to size if necessary. I cut up an old white tablecloth that was stained beyond repair. Pictured here is the cloth, scissors as well as some needles and yarn. Don't know WHAT I was thinking. Reelly!
- Rubber bands
- Mixing bowl (a BIG salad bowl should do the trick, depending on how much herbs you manage to gather).
Here’s what I did:
- Once you have all your herbs, grab your scissors or garden shears and snip the leaves into smaller bits. Do this into the mixing bowl.
- Mix everything thoroughly.
- Cut the material into approximately 20cm X 20cm pieces. As you can see, I was not contending for good marks or anything; I was just snipping happily and merrilly along giving no thought to any straight lines. THIS IS NOT A SCIENCE, PEOPLE!
- Being only a systematic person whenever I choose to, I started slacking here: I would cut a piece of material, fill it with the mix, tie it up and move onto the next piece. You may wish to finish cutting the material, fill ALL the pieces at once then tie them off with a rubber band... it really does not matter how you do it.
- Somewhere inbetween I got hungry so I had some tea and rusks. You should too!
- At one stage I tried to roll the ‘erbs and weeds into big, mother bongs and tied them up thusly:
But I didn’t like it because it packed the ‘erbs too tightly and you really want to allow for airspace so that the aromas can filter through the bag.
Now, if this is too much effort you can always fallback to using organza gift bags. They are equally effective and much quicker to stuff with your herbs, and can even be given as part of a gift.
There you go! Now place each one in a strategic spot. I placed one in Elford’s cupboard, one in mine, one amongst the shoes, another on the open shelves where I stack our toiletries in the walk-in closet... anywhere and everywhere you see a mozzie, cockroach or fishmoth. You can even take a piece of string and tie it to the rack where you hang your clothes!
So if you have any comments or suggestions, would like to share your experiences or have anything else to say, I would LOVE to hear from you.
I have been plagued by itchy scalp. Sometimes so severe that I end up scratching myself stukkend! The most affected parts being at the back of my head on the neck muscles... maybe because they stand out more and loose moistcha quicka?
Who knows, who cares.
IT ITCHES!
So I went off on a search for an alternative to frothy, foamy shampoos. Head and Shoulders helped a lot but the question remained "Why does this shampoo take away the itch? What is in it that I don't want my body to come into contact with?" After all, it was still foaming and as far as my knowledge goes, foamy is not really good for you.
Enter: Apple Cider Vinegar
I am not going to elaborate on how good it is for you, or the many, many uses it has. All I will say is look for a raw, organic, unfiltered, uncooked, unpasteurised, un-unpleasanted, non-chemical-ed ACV. Oh, and apparantly it has to say something to the effect of "the mother" or that it contains "the mother". It will be a murky brown liquid with a bit of a sediment at the bottom which, of course, is the mother.
Of course, the odour of ACV is not really all to pleasant but the smell dissipates after an hour or so after rinsing your hair with it, but I add some essential oils to my mix that not only smell nice but are also good in mending any issues you may have under your thick wooly rug-at-the-top. Feel free to Google them, or create your own combination.
Here's how:
Ingredients
1 part water (preferrably filtered or boiled or distilled)
1 part ACV
10 drops Ylang Ylang EO
10 drops Rosemary EO
5 - 10 drops Rose Blend EO
Any old plastic bottle (I used an old Pantene bottle. The cap comes off so you can pop it in the dishwasher after a few good rinses, to make sure it is LIKE, TOTALLY clean).
Pour water into the plastic bottle and add the ACV. You will have to work out the measurements of water, but since I was using a 375ml bottle I worked on around 180ml water and 180ml ACV. Just make sure there is enough space at the top of the bottle to add essential oils.
Add the essential oils, replace the cap of the bottle and shake, shake SHAKE it!
How to use
Wet your hair thoroughly, and press out any excess water. Shake your ACV rinse thoroughly before dribbling it over your hair, massaging it down into the roots and scalp.
TIP: Keep your head backwards while dribbling the mixture into your hair otherwise it could run into your face and eyes. It will only sting a little bit when it comes into contact with the eyes (unlike normal shampoo which burns like HELL!) but altogether not a nice one to try and rinse out.
Now leave the liquid in your hair while you take your bath or shower, carefully avoiding running water onto your head until you have finished washing the rest of your beautiful body. Rinse, and pat dry. No need for a second rinse unless your hair is really gunky or full of some chemical off-the-shelf hair product.
Nice, neh!
Right, let's kick it off with a nice lekker body scrub. This is one I experimented with, handed it out as gifts and got a "Wow!" from me Mum (Bless her dear Heart!). The scent was meant to entice the men to use it on themselves but eish! Some grease monkeys just never catch on to trends... EVER!
Ingredients
Brown sugar
Grapeseed oil
Freshly squeezed lemon juice
Lavender Essential Oil
Patchouli Essential Oil
Ginger Essential Oil
Ti Tree Essential Oil (optional)
100ml bottle with cap
Here's how:
- Fill the container (I used a flip top jar) up to its neck with sugar.
- Add the grapeseed oil slowly and stir. I used a toothpick to stir as this was the only thing small enough to go through the opening in my container. Feel free to use anything you want. Let it settle.
- Now add around two teaspoons of FRESH (not the bottled kind) lemon juice and stir again. Do not add any more than this as this will dissolve the sugar and make this mixture messy and tacky and sticky... we don't want that!
- Add around five to seven drops of the listed essential oils. Stir again.
- Should there be some space left, you can top off with just a little more sugar and oil, but do not fill past the container's neck line.
- Stir again.
- Close the lid and store "in a cool, dry place" (Some lids may be leaky so placing it under the shower will do exactly what we are trying to stop the lemon juice from doing...)
How to use:
Before you wet any areas to be scrubbed, take a finger full (around 3/4 of a teaspoon full) and rub it together in your hands. Now smear it all over the area to be scrubbed. Add more if necessary. Rub firmly and slowly, like you are massaging the area, for a few seconds. Rinse with warm water.
I usually don't wash the excess oil off since it tends to get absorbed into the skin within an hour anyway. It defies the purpose in any case, since the oil is meant to moisturise, while soap tends to break down the oil and leave your skin dry... maybe even DRIER than before!
Have a Great Dane, y'all!
