How to Make Safe Yet Effective Tick Repellent with Essential Oils
Tick season is officially here! And I understand it’s pretty bad this year in certain areas. This article is information about how to make your own DIY tick repellent that is safe AND effective. According to Heidi Villegas, clinical herbalist and certified professional level aromatherapist, essential oils not only work on the body and mind therapeutically due to the science behind the plant constituents, but they also have other practical applications, too—-like repelling ticks and other bugs!
Ticks transmit diseases to animals and humans, therefore it’s wise to take precautions if you’re outdoors in areas with ticks. Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, and other diseases are worth taking steps to avoid if you can. Essential oils are more and more being studied and are found to be effective natural repellents.
Most of us don’t enjoy forever chemicals (hello, DEET), and I for one would much rather use essential oils if given the choice. For those who are naturally minded like me, essential oils can be a helpful alternative.
Tick season is generally from April through September, depending on your area, and these little nasties are a bane to many of us, especially if we live on rural properties and work in fields as we do in our medicinal herb gardens, orchards, and vegetable gardens. Our dogs run in the field and forest, and we do a search for ticks on them daily. I’ll be giving some instructions for using this homemade tick spray safely for your dogs, too.
I actually wasn’t going to write this article because I figured there were many great options already online for natural sprays, but I kept coming across a great deal of potentially dangerous advice. Many people love working with essential oils. The problem is that most of the time, they don’t know what they don’t know, and therefore some of the formulations I’ve seen have left me aghast in dismay.
I came across an online DIY formulation today that used only water, and the author stated it would last for a month. Some of the essential oils are also sensitizing, so no bueno for young kids or those with sensitive skin. The quality of essential oils used (although touted as quality) were not good choices.
Again, people not trained in aromatherapy just don’t know what they don’t know. That’s all. They’re not sharing out of malice. This is a “reader beware” situation.
You can find a list of my personally vetted essential oil and aromatherapy companies HERE, about halfway down the page. I make no money from 95% of these companies, but I can tell you from my clinical experience with clients and my use of essential oils with my livestock, pets, family, and friends that these are high-quality companies. You’ll also see cautions about what to avoid so you can be discerning about the best choices to ensure you’re not getting adulterants in your essential oil.
Essential Oils as Tick Repellent
Certain essential oils have been clinically studied and proven to be highly effective against ticks, fleas, and many other “bugs.”
Different essential oils repel different insects and arachnids and other pests. Here are a few examples:
Aphids don’t enjoy peppermint, thyme, clove, or rosemary
Flies can’t stand rosemary, thyme, lemongrass, or clove (plus a few others)
Mosquitoes dislike a large number of essential oils, including peppermint, lemongrass, sage, eucalyptus, lavender, geranium, and others
Synthetic tick repellents like DEET work by creating an invisible vapor barrier on the skin that scrambles a tick’s sensory receptors. It essentially confuses the tick’s nervous system, rendering it unable to detect your body heat, carbon dioxide, or natural skin odors. Source Natural repellents made with essential oils contain chemical compounds that repel them away. Instead of just making you “invisible,” they are actively repelled.
The thing is, if you live in an area with a lot of ticks, you should really take some precautions. Using synthetics for some people occasionally is most likely fine, but to be honest, I find it repulsive. Natural options are generally safer when formulated correctly, and many have been proven to work just as or even more effectively.
The spray formulation I’ll share with you in a moment will work well for mosquitoes, ticks, flies, and wasps. The most commonly found essential oils in most natural commercial repellents include citronella, geranium (my favorite), peppermint (another great one), rosemary, lemongrass (it works amazingly well), and cedarwood (Juniperus virginiana, specifically).
I’m not into affiliate income, so I’m not going to give you a list of natural commercial options, but suffice to say that the most popular brands such as Badger and Grandpa Gus’ contain roughly 9% to 15% essential oil. Now, this is a LOT of essential oil if being sprayed on bare skin. Especially for children.
Most aromatherapists recommend a 1% dilution for whole body use, and especially for children because their systems are much smaller. What I suggest is doing a good spray on clothing, then a light spray on any bare skin because this spray I’ll be sharing is in the roughly 10% dilution amount. What we’re looking at here is the dilemma of 100% safety versus needing the spray to be effective. Therefore, I’m a fan of clothing, especially for children.
A comparison here is perfume, where the aroma is important. Most perfumes are between 10 and 20% essential oil, but are sprayed on small, localized areas—-not all over the body.
One other thing to be aware of is that everyone’s body chemistry is different, and what works for one person may not work as well for another one. We can actually see this with people we know. For example, mosquitoes love my husband…. but they rarely bother me at all, even with no repellent. Wasps, on the other hand? They go after me like gang busters! So, I’ve got my special spray for those nasties.
Yet another consideration is hedonistic. This refers to how well a person “enjoys” the scent. If a person doesn’t like the way the spray smells, they probably won’t want to be spraying a lot on themselves. So keep this in mind when making your spray.
One last thing to consider is sensitivity. Some people are more sensitive to certain essential oils than others. Since this spray is in the higher range of dilution, you may find that someone in your family may have a reaction. I suggest spot testing for a day before spraying it everywhere, especially for those with sensitive skin. If you discover an allergic reaction on the skin, simply take a good soapy bath or shower and don’t use it again.
Essential Oils That Repel Ticks
Geranium (Pelargonium graveolens)
This is my favorite choice and is the best bet to be the top essential oil in your formulation. A USDA-linked study on geranium oils found one geranium essential oil sample repelled over 90% of ticks at the tested concentration, and they also identified active constituents including 10-epi-y-eudesmol. Source.
Oregano (Oreganum vulgare)
Oregano essential oil contains high levels of carvacrol, a powerful chemical that ticks don’t like. The main issue with oregano essential oil, though, as a tick repellent is that it’s very hard on the skin, and can even “burn” if used in too high amount. Although it’s ranked as one of the top essential oils as a tick repellent, as an aromatherapist, I don’t recommend you putting it on your skin unless you are using it under 1% in the total formula. One study even showed that in one test it was comparable to 15% DEET. Source.
Clove (Syzygium aromaticum)
Clove essential oil contains high levels of a chemical constituent called eugenol, which is a powerful antimicrobial and has a presence that repels a LOT of bugs, including ticks. In fact, a 2023 study testing 20 essential oils found that 10% lotion emulsions with clove oil or cinnamon oil gave the longest protection from mosquitoes and ticks. Source.
BUT…please do NOT use a 10% dilution of clove essential oil. This is way too much, and the accepted topical maximum percent touted by experienced aromatherapists like myself is ONLY 0.5%. That’s less than 1%. It can be extremely irritating to the skin. But in a blend, at 0.5% of the total formula, it’s likely fine.
Cinnamon (Cinnamomum spp)
Please do NOT use cinnamon essential oil in a tick formulation. Like clove, it has fantastic results in lab testing, but it’s highly irritating and is a sensitization risk. On clothing only, it would be fine….but not the skin.
Thyme (Thymus vulgaris)
Thyme contains carvacrol, as does oregano; and it also contains thymol. Both of these compounds are very potent, and both are considered “hot,” which means it needs to be used with a great deal of respect on the skin. In a blend or formulation, don’t use more than 1.3% dilution. Source
Cedarwood (Juniperus virginiana)
Cedarwood is generally an essential oil that plays well with others, and it has mild tick repellent properties. In a blend, it would be good to add, but all by itself, it would likely do very little. Some species of cedarwood contain a compound called nootkatone in small amounts, and this compound has been found to be very effective in tick repellents. But again, cedarwood doesn’t contain very much. You could use a good amount in formulation for clothing items. Source for nootkatone.
Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus)
Lemongrass essential oil is one of my favorites to work with for insect and tick repellents, although to be honest, there doesn’t seem to be much scientific research on it. This doesn’t mean it’s ineffective. It just means it hasn’t been evaluated well. The topical maximum in formulations for topical use is 0.7% according to Tisserand and Young. The reason it has such a low dilution amount is because it is incredibly high in citral, and this is a well-documented skin sensitizer and irritant. This is a great essential oil in sprays for clothing, but for skin, you’ll be working with less than 1% dilution.
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis syn. Salvia rosmarinus)
Like lemongrass, rosemary has little research done as a tick repellent, although you’ll see it in many natural tick repellents, and I personally love using it myself. Rosemary has various chemotypes (different chemistry) among species, though, so I suggest working with the chemotype cineole. NOTE: If the chemotype for rosemary isn’t listed on the essential oil bottle, you are working with a sub-par brand. Avoid at all costs. (This is my opinion as an aromatherapist.)
The reason I mention chemotypes is because these different chemical makeups have widely differing maximum dilution amounts for topical use. The chemotype cineole doesn’t have a specific dermal maximum according to AromaWeb. Tisserand mentions that a dilution of up to 5% is preferred for localized areas for this chemotype cineole.
NOTE: Avoid the face and eyes (commonsense), especially in young children because cineole may disrupt breathing in some children under age 10.
Peppermint (Mentha x piperita)
Like rosemary and lemongrass, peppermint is in the same category: Anecdotally effective to varying degrees, but very little research has been conducted on it. Peppermint should also be avoided near the face of children under the age of 10 due to the high menthol content.
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Natural Tick Repellent Spray Formulation
A quick note about solubilizing and preservation, both very important topics when making a homemade spray with essential oils.
What is Solubilization?
Essential oils and water don’t mix.
Essential oils are lipophilic (oil-loving), while water is well, water, and therefore doesn’t like oil. Compounds that are hydrophilic love water, and essential oils are not hydrophilic. This means they will separate in the container. If you’re using an opaque container, such as aluminum or even dark glass like amber, you may not even notice this.
The danger here is that the essential oils have a VERY good chance of landing on the skin without any or at least not proper dilution in the carrier (in this case the water), unless you remember to shake the container REALLY well.
Aromatherapists keep this in mind, and we do our best to use an agent that helps the essential oils disperse as evenly as possible in the water. This isn’t always possible, though, especially with higher amounts of essential oil. So, another direction we will give is to “Shake WELL before application,” even if you’re using a solubilizer, which you should, at least to some extent. When I say “well,” I mean very vigorously, then apply quickly before separation occurs.
For this dilution of essential oils I suggest a 95% alcohol, such as high proof everclear or 190 proof vodka. You’ll still have to shake the solution to be very safe, but if you forget you will most likely be ok.
I realize this is a LOT of alcohol, and many people don’t want it on their skin because it’s drying. Again, this is a choice. The amount of alcohol I’ll be using will help with solubilization, but likely won’t completely disperse all the essential oils all the time because of the polarity of the individual essential oil ingredients.
What is Preservation?
Preservation is about making sure bacteria and fungi can’t grow in the solution. Water is the playground of bacteria and fungus/yeasts. And they multiply amazingly quickly. So a whole month of sitting water is, in my opinion, not a good idea. If you use up your water-based spray within a couple of days, you’re most likely fine. Or, if you refrigerate it, you can probably get up to 5 days from a topical spray. But I wouldn’t use it past those time frames, especially for people who are fragile such as elders, those with immune situations, or children.
For a spray to be considered preserved, the formulation must contain at least 25% alcohol, and personally I prefer at least 30% pure alcohol. For it to have sanitizing properties (such as hand sanitizer), then you’ll need 60% alcohol in the formulation.
If you are using only 195 proof alcohol for solubilization, then you have preservation covered automatically.
Other Ingredients
Besides something to solubilize (disperse) the essential oils, I will often add an addition like aloe vera, especially if a person has dry skin. However, keep in mind that aloe vera is in the same category as water, and unless you use a commercial source, it won’t contain any preservative and tends to degrade quickly.
Another base carrier some people like to use is apple cider vinegar. Many insects don’t care for the acidic nature of it. Again, though, you’re not tackling solubilization and there is minimal preservation.
OK…Now on to the formula for a Tick Repellent that Works….
I always get asked if using isopropyl alcohol is ok, and sure, it is. However, keep in mind it is more harsh than regular ethanol alcohol. I personally don’t like using it on the skin unless for a liniment.
You’ll need a small, one-ounce bottle for this spray. I know this is a small amount, but if you’re going to be carrying it with you to reapply as needed, then it’s just more handy. You can make up a batch of the essential oil blend separately, so it’s all ready to go when you want to make more. I always do this with my sprays that I use often. This is called a “stock blend.”
You can use plastic spray bottles, but the essential oils tend to degrade the plastic spray part fairly quickly. Glass is heavy. Aluminum is very light, but you can’t see if there’s separation if you use it. I usually just opt for the glass or plastic because I like checking the liquid. If you see cloudiness after a few days, that’s a red flag.
NOTES: I love lemongrass in my insect repellents, but it has a very small safe topical dilution of just 0.7%. So anything above about 4 drops per ounce is too much and can cause sensitization if used on skin. Citronella is another helpful essential oil, BUT it has an even lower safe topical dilution, and when added together with lemongrass, they potentiate each other. So, I’m not adding citronella, lemon eucalyptus, or others that contain citral.
Ingredients: The Carrier
0.45 ounces of 150 proof alcohol
0.5 ounces of distilled water
NOTE: If you desire solubilization, you can use 190 proof alcohol for both of the measures above. You’ll still need to shake it up because of the amount of essential oil, but like I said, if you forget, you’ll still get the benefits.
Ingredients: The Essential Oils
26 drops geranium (Pelargonium graveolens) essential oil (Roughly 4.5% dilution)
10 drops rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis syn. Salvia rosmarinus) essential oil (a little over 1% dilution)
10 drops peppermint (Mentha x piperita) essential oil (a little over 1% dilution)
10 drops cedarwood (Juniperus virginiana) essential oil (a little over 1% dilution)
4 drops of lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) essential oil (0.7% dilution)
This is roughly a 10% dilution. You can go upwards a tiny bit (don’t go past 15% dilution) with the essential oils except for the lemongrass. You need to keep that to approximately 0.7%, the number of drops in the ingredients.
Directions:
Add the essential oils to the bottle. Then add the alcohol. Shake really well to distribute the essential oils into the alcohol. There will still be some separation, but this will reduce it.
Now add your water, unless you choose to use all alcohol as your carrier. All the ingredients should come to the shoulder or just above, leaving enough room to shake the solution well before use.
To Use:
Spray liberally on clothing. It’s fine to spray lightly on exposed skin, but do be sure to shake the bottle well first.
Avoid spraying near the eyes.
Safety Note:
This spray is safe for children (on clothing) over age three.
Other Ideas (and Safety Information) to Repel Ticks
Dogs
Geranium (Pelargonium graveolens) essential oil is a favorite of mine for use in this regard. For my dogs, I’ll take one or two drops in my palms, rub them together, and then stroke from the neck to the base of the tail. This seems to be quite helpful in reducing the number of ticks we find. It’s honestly the only thing I usually do.
My favorite way to use this blend for dogs is to make up a stock blend and add it to a carrier oil (like olive oil) at a 15% dilution. Then just apply a bit to a leather collar. Don’t let the blend touch the dog’s skin.
Using Higher Levels of Citronella or Lemongrass
I didn’t mention citronella in the list above because it didn’t come up in my research. But like lemongrass, it is high in citral.
If you desire to use one of these, then you would use on clothing only. I make a big batch of tick and wasp spray up throughout the summer months, using only water as the carrier for my husband. He goes through so much of it, the alcohol would be ridiculously expensive. But… he uses it only on his clothing—no skin. Working outside in the sun, he’s usually pretty covered up, anyway.
And…all the bugs stay away!
Leather bracelets as a passive diffuser: I love using these, and they’re great for children. Leather absorbs the essential oil and keeps the straight oil away from the skin. In this way, you can add citronella, more lemongrass, etc. as a protective helper. Just be sure to apply the essential oils and allow them to soak in well before putting the bracelet on the child.
Best Tip of All
Wear white or light colored clothing because it’s much easier to spot these little ticks. Wrap rubber bands around the bottom of your pants. Wear lightweight cotton long-sleeve tops. Spray your clothing, including your shoes.
Reapply often.
More Safety Thoughts
Not to beat a dead horse so to speak, but the best idea is to just cover up well so you can use the spray liberally. Hats, tops, pants, socks, shoes….those ticks won’t like how you smell!
Final Thoughts on a Safe DIY Tick Spray That Works!
Please be careful out there this summer!
First of all, for any online formulation that contains essential oils, I implore you to check the author’s background to ensure they’ve actually been trained in safe aromatherapy. I’ve seen some terribly dangerous “recipes” online, and I’d hate to see anyone get hurt. Essential oils work well because they are very powerful.
I’ve also seen some formulations that are VERY safe, with 3% to 5% total dilution, but in my experience, they aren’t strong enough to work. We want to make a formula that’s as safe as possible that will also be effective.
Keep in mind, we’re in an area with tall grasses on pasture lands and lots and lots of deer. Ticks are rampant here, and our dogs do bring them into the house. The experience I’m speaking of is personal.
The formulation I’ve shared here is in line with natural commercial formulations, which are usually between 10% dilution and 25% dilution (which is really high). The thing is, you want your product to be effective, or why bother?
I hope the ticks stay away from you and yours! Be smart, and be safe!
Hugs, Health, and Herbs,
Heidi