We all have a responsibility to care for the Earth, and the environment which sustains us. While we need to take many “big” steps, we can also take small ones to both care for our planet and improve our own immediate environment. Here are three small changes you can make for a more eco-friendly lifestyle at home.

Shelter A House Plant.

Besides their aesthetic value, houseplants can be good for your overall health. They naturally purify the air by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen into their immediate environment. Studies by NASA have found that houseplants can remove about 87 percent of harmful air toxins within a 24-hour cycle. Cleaner indoor air can improve your mood, and their beauty can help reduce stress, turning your home into your own personal oasis.

With such a large variety of houseplant species to choose from, it can be difficult to pick the right one. The key to choosing the perfect houseplant is to take into consideration the conditions and level of care it needs. The ing Ming Aralia plant is a great start for beginners. These plans can thrive in both indirect light and bright light and require minimal maintenance as they can go for days without water. Indigenous to the Pacific Islands, their beauty lies in the green upper sides, and purple undersides of their leaves.

Despite being a great air purifier, the Ming Aralia was traditionally hailed for its medicinal components, as early research showed it helped reduce inflammatory, fungal, and bacteria-related illness.

Consider Using CBD Products.

Cannabidiol is fast becoming a natural remedy to help in the treatment of common illnesses. Popularly referred to as CBD, it is one of the active ingredients (cannabinoids) found in the industrial hemp plant. Whilst THC is another well-known cannabinoid and has a psychoactive effect (meaning it gives the user a “high,”) CBD has no psychoactive effect, making it the preferred option for individuals seeking relief from their discomfort.

Some common CBD products include CBD oil, CBD supplements, CBD edibles, and CBD tinctures and topicals. Of these, CBD oil is the most commonly used. It is made from CBD that has been extracted from the cannabis plant, then diluted with hemp seed or coconut oil. The wellness industry is fast embracing it and has found CBD oil is commonly used to help those with insomnia, as well as reduce anxiety and depression in people with an over-active mind, and alleviate discomfort NOTE: I have rubbed CBD oil on my hands to help reduce joint pain related to arthritis).

NOTE: Never ingest anything intended for health or wellness reasons without speaking to a medical professional or doctor first!

Opt for Natural Insect Repellent.

Most people use insect repellent to prevent bug bites and the infections that they transmit. However, most consumers are not aware of the chemicals used to make insect repellents. DEET, for instance, is an active ingredient found in a majority of synthetic insect repellents. But some studies show that DEET has a toxic effect on the body’s central nervous system, with the added side effect of causing a skin rash.

Stop The Bites insect repellent is a natural repellent for ticks with none of these downsides. Hailed as having the same efficacy as synthetic tick repellents, when properly applied, it can repel ticks and mosquitos for a period of up to one week. It can be applied as a spray on shrub and vegetation, as well as on swing sets and the patio.

Instead of DEET, it consists of active ingredients like lemongrass oil, geraniol, castor oil, cedarwood oil, corn oil, and sodium lauryl sulfate, plus water, soap, oleic acid and 1-monolaurin, a byproduct of coconut fat.

NOTE: Take special care not to apply it on or near food and vegetables, or food-bearing plants. Apply late in the day or early evening and not directly on bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects. Keep children and pets off lawns that have been treated until the product dries.

About Sponsored Posts: Occasionally, we run posts sponsored by companies that offer some interesting options. The post doesn’t imply endorsement of a particular product.  

The post 3 Natural Products to Add to Your Eco-Friendly Lifestyle appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Mosquitoes are out in full force, but before you run for the big toxic guns, read this post. We’ve researched several options to help you buy non toxic mosquito repellent or make your own.

PLUS: Don’t let the buggers breed. Here’s how to reduce mosquito breeding on your property.

How to Buy Non Toxic Mosquito Repellent:

Read the Label, Look for These Ingredients,
Try These Products

Read the Label

Before you buy any repellent, read the label to find out what’s in it that makes it so offensive to skeeters.

Remember: repellents repel, they don’t actually kill.

If the container says “kills on contact” or something similar, it is definitely too potent to put on your skin. Don’t spray “Off” or “Raid” to kill mosquitoes, especially in an enclosed area, where you could end up inhaling those potent chemicals.

Look for These Ingredients

Essential Oils – Lavender, Lemon Eucalyptus, Geranium, Peppermint, Castor, and Lemongrass are commonly used as the “active” ingredients in DEET-free, commercially available mosquito repellents.

They may be combined with purified water, coconut oil, glycerin, lecithin, and various kinds of salts to reduce the potency of the oils and so they can be easily sprayed on your skin.

Please NOTE: Essential oils are very concentrated. Even though they’re “natural,” some people are allergic to them.

No one should put an essential oil directly on her skin without diluting it first. You can dilute it in water, in fragrance-free lotion, in coconut oil, in shea butter, or in other natural carriers.

As with any product, find the one that works best for you. You may want to try a couple of different brands (see below) before you settle on the one that does the best job of keeping you pest-free.

Picaridin – Pronounced pih-CARE-a-den, this is a synthetic compound that was developed by the Bayer company from a plant extract related to table pepper. You may see it also sold as KBR 3023, Bayrepel, or icaridin.

Appalachian Mountain Club, which compared DEET to picaridin, reports “studies have shown picaridin to be as effective as DEET in repelling mosquitoes. Unlike DEET, however, picaridin is odorless, non-greasy, and does not dissolve plastics or other synthetics.”

If you cannot find a DEET-free spray that uses essential oils, look for one with picaridin as the active ingrdient.

What About DEET?

DEET is one of the most effective chemicals used to repel mosquitoes and ticks. It is not classified as a human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; EPA believes that when DEET is used in moderation, it is safe.

However, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control note that DEET can cause severe psychological effects and serious skin reactions when applied too frequently and in high temperatures. There have also been cases of DEET being found in the umbilical cord blood of newborn babies, which means that it passed through the placenta after the mother applied insect repellent containing DEET to her arms and legs.

That is enough to motivate me to use non-DEET alternatives!

Try These Products

Here are some commercial products that I have tried that work well for me. You may be able to find them locally where you shop, but we also carry them in our Amazon store.

The post How to Buy Non Toxic Mosquito Repellent or Make Your Own appeared first on Big Green Purse.

There are two ways to protect yourself from mosquitoes: reduce the number of mosquitoes in your area, and reduce your chances of being bitten.

REDUCE BREEDING

Mosquitoes breed anywhere there is standing water. The key to reducing mosquito populations is to limit the places where they can reproduce.

* Empty standing pools of water. Especially after it rains, keep an eye out for standing pools of water that provide perfect breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Those include baby pools, watering cans, old tires, gutters and drains, buckets, and pretty much anything else that can trap water long enough for a mosquito to lay its eggs.

* Keep water moving in ponds and fountains. Use a small pump to keep water circulating, or put some fish or frogs in the pond to eat up mosquito larvae. Here’s a picture of the pond in my front yard, with the pump sitting right in the middle. (We used to keep fish in the pond, but the neighbor’s dog kept jumping in and stirring things up; the poor fish had a hard time surviving among four paws and a tail!).

* Fill in ditches, trenches and ruts. Like pools and ponds, ditches and ruts also collect water and turn into breeding swamps. Fill them in with gravel or dirt, or drain them into a larger pond where the water can circulate.

* Set traps. Traps lure mosquitoes into an inescapable container, where they lay their eggs and then die when they can’t escape. My neighbors and I use these Oak Stump Traps by Springstar to good effect. If you can get several neighbors to use the traps, you get more control throughout the neighborhood. Traps are more effective than electric bug zappers, and use less energy, too.

* Attract animals and other insects that eat mosquitoes. Bats and birds are famous for eating millions of mosquitos, but so do dragonflies. Put up bat bird houses to provide more nesting areas for these friendly creatures, and plant flower gardens to attract dragonflies.

REDUCE BITING

1) First, cover up. The less skin you expose, the less likely you are to get bitten. If you’re working in your garden, mowing your lawn, watering your bushes, or hiking in the woods, wear shoes, socks, lightweight pants, a lightweight, long-sleeved shirt with a collar, and a hat. If you’re sitting on the porch or at an outdoor event and don’t want to wear long pants or long sleeves, drape a light-weight shawl or scarf over your legs or arms. As much as possible, spray your clothes, not your skin (and launder when you get in the house).

2) Light citronella candles or run a small fan when you’re sitting outside. You may still need to squirt bug spray on your ankles and legs, but the candles will emit an aroma that helps keep mosquitoes away from your arms and face. The more candles, the better. A small rotating fan will create enough of a breeze to blow mosquitos away while you’re on your porch or patio.

3) If you’re the do-it-yourself type, pick up a bottle of an essential oil like eucalyptus, lavender, citronella, or geraniol, or try some combination. Get a 4- or 6-ounce pump bottle; add somewhere between 10 and 20 drops of each oil to a couple of ounces of water or rubbing alcohol and shake well. Spray on exposed skin, always avoiding your face. (Pay attention: some herbal oils may irritate the skin. Find one that works for you. I found lavender oil and vanilla worked well for me, which I wrote about here.)

4) Try one of the herbal repellents available in most grocery, hardware, and gardening stores, or order online. They generally cost about the same as conventional, pesticide-based sprays. Consumer Reports analyzed the effectiveness of various bug sprays, and found that Repel, which relies on lemon and eucalyptus to deter bites, is just as effective as brands that contain more toxic chemicals. (We sell Repel in our Amazon store here.)

5) If you feel you must use something stronger than essential oils, choose a product containing Picaridin, which does not seem to irritate the skin the same way DEET does. Always use the lowest concentration that will work for you. Here’s why you should never use DEET or other pesticides on infants or children. If you need a sunscreen as well as a repellent, apply them separately, rather than use one product that contains both, as the sunscreen may contain a more potent repellent than what you might normally use. Wash your hands immediately after applying.

You can find more non-toxic mosquito repellents and traps in our Amazon store here. And please, let us know what works for you!

(Disclosure: We earn a tiny commission on our Amazon store sales, which helps us continue to maintain our blog at no cost to you.)

The post Simple, Non-Toxic Ways to Protect Yourself from West Nile Virus appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Most conventional mosquito repellents contain DEET, a chemical that is toxic to a variety of flying and biting insects and has raised questions about its safety for people. The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) analysed human health consequences from DEET exposure and found that the most problems occurred when DEET was applied in high concentrations and left on the skin rather than washed off.

However, the Environmental Health Association of Nova Scotia recommends consumers choose botanically-based repellents rather than DEET unless they face serious health threats from something like West Nile Virus. Reports the agency, DEET is “a member of the toluene chemical family. Toluene is an organic solvent used in rubber and plastic cements and paint removers. DEET is absorbed through the skin and passes into the blood. The Medical Sciences Bulletin, published by Pharmaceutical Information Associates Ltd. reports, “Up to 56% of DEET applied topically penetrates intact human skin and 17% is absorbed into the bloodstream.” Blood concentrations of about 3 mg per litre have been reported several hours after DEET repellent was applied to skin in the prescribed fashion. DEET is also absorbed by the gut.”

DEET may also negatively impact the central nervous system and cause serious skin rashes, says the association. For all of these reasons, Health Canada has banned products containing a 30% or higher concentration of DEET. Also banned are 2-in-1 products, like sunscreen that includes DEET.

DEET-Free Alternatives

The safer alternatives contain some combination of essential oils and another liquid, like rubbing alcohol, to make it easy to spread or spray on. The most common essential oils used in repellents seem to be citronella, lavender, geraniol (a derivative of the geranium plant), eucalyptus, lemongrass, mint, rosemary and thyme. There are many prepared options available in stores and online. Or you can make your own.

I decided to try Burt’s Bees, essential lavender oil, vanilla extract out of my pantry, and DEET-based Cutter. I’ve used Buzz Away in the past, and found that it worked for about a half an hour at a time, so didn’t re-test it this time around.

I sprayed one leg with Burt’s Bees and the other leg with Cutter, which contains 21.85% DEET. I rubbed about a half-teaspoon of vanilla extract on my left arm, and dotted my right arm with the lavender essential oil. Then I went down to my garden to test the effectiveness of each of these four repellents.

Amazingly, the mosquitoes swarmed to the leg that was sprayed with Burt’s Bees (see left – somewhat blurry picture of mosquito biting my leg).

Nothing at all alit anywhere else (see protected arm, left). So, on the herbal side, at least for me, vanilla extract and essential oil of lavender worked as well at keeping biting bugs at bay as did the Cutter, and far better than Burt’s Bees.

To get more recommendations, I polled members of the Green Moms Carnival.

Jenn of The Green Parent said, “I use California Baby Citronella Summer Lotion.  My youngest gets really bad bug bites but just a little dab of this lotion and she remains bite-free all nite.”

Lisa of Condo Blues said “I use EcoSmart insect repellent and it works great! During our family reunion, one family used Off and obviously mine used EcoSmart. The active ingredients are wintergreen oil and rosemary oil. It kept the bugs away and everyone who used my insect repellent liked it better because it smells better than Off.” Lisa also recommends Happy Critters Farm Natural Bug Spray if you don’t mind the smell of citronella.

The last time Beth of Fake Plastic Fish went camping, she used All Terrain Herbal Armor, another DEET-free solution consisting of various essential oils like citronella, geranium and lemongrass. (NOTE: This solution did not spray out of the several bottles I tried in the store. If you don’t mind spreading it on rather than spraying it, it could work for you.)

Anna of Green Talk usesShoo Fly by Bioganic.

Karen of Best of Mother Earth is also trying out vanilla extract.

Thistle Farms is another company selling an herbal-based insect repellent. Added bonus: the farm is being managed by women who have survived drug use and prostitution and are making a new life for themselves working to develop and market natural products.

NOTE: YOU CAN BUY MOST OF THESE PRODUCTS ON OUR AMAZON STORE.

My recommendations?

1) First, cover up. The less skin you expose, the less likely you are to get bitten. If you’re working in your garden or hiking in the woods, wear shoes, socks, lightweight pants, a lightweight, long-sleeved shirt with a collar, and a hat. If you’re sitting on the porch or at an outdoor event and don’t want to wear long pants or long sleeves, drape a light-weight shawl or scarf over your legs or arms. If the bugs are really vicious, spray your clothes, not your skin (and launder when you get in the house). Another advantage of protecting your skin? You won’t need to apply sun screen.

2) Light citronella candles when you’re sitting outside. You will probably still need to squirt bug spray on your ankles and legs, but the candles will emit an aroma that helps keep mosquitoes away from your arms and face. The more candles, the better.

3) If you’re the do-it-yourself type, pick up a bottle of an essential oil like eucalyptus, lavender, citronella, or geraniol, or try some combination. Get a 4- or 6-ounce pump bottle; add somewhere between 10 and 20 drops of oil to several ounces of water and shake well. Spray on exposed skin, always avoiding your face. Alternatively, mix a vegetable oil like coconut oil with essential oil, using no more than 2% essential oil; then rub on exposed skin. (NOTE: DO NOT USE ESSENTIAL OILS WITHOUT DILUTING THEM FIRST, AS THEY CAN IRRITATE THE SKIN. Always dilute in a fragrance-free lotion, a vegetable oil like coconut oil, or even water.)

4) Try one of the herbal repellents available in most grocery, hardware, and gardening stores, or order online. They generally cost about the same as conventional, pesticide-based sprays. If you don’t see a botanically-based option, ask for one.

5) If you feel you must use something stronger than essential oils, choose a product containing Picaridin, which does not seem to irritate the skin the same way DEET does. Always use the lowest concentration that will work for you. Never use DEET or other pesticides on infants or children; especially avoid sunscreens that also contain insect repellents. Wash your hands immediately after applying.

Buy DEET-free insect repellents here.

The post DEET-Free Mosquito Repellents That Work appeared first on Big Green Purse.