Catnip (Nepeta cataria) sometimes called catmint as it is in the mint family, is probably best known as a stimulant for cats, inducing euphoria and friskiness. Interestingly, its action in humans is exactly the opposite.
While I’ll add a few flowers to a general calming tea, or an herbal bath sachet, one of my favorite uses for this plant, flowers and all is in an Herbal Bug Spray.
The herbal bug spray recipe is detailed below.
Growing Catnip in Your Garden
Easily grown in a sunny garden (if safe from free-roaming cats who will roll over it and kinda trample it into submission), catnip is a perennial in the mint family that produces a considerable harvest in just one season with flowers that attract butterflies and other important pollinators. Harvest leaves and flowers just when they begin to bloom, shade-dry thoroughly, and store away from light and heat for upcoming cold and flu seasons.
Catnip’s Herbal Properties
Lemony-minty tasting and smelling something of ‘ditch weed’ but in the best possible way… catnip is a cooling, gentle, and relaxing herbal nervine, mellow enough for children. It has been shown to soothe things like hyperactivity, colic, fever, constipation, stomachache, and insomnia.
Catnip also helps relax the smooth muscles of the intestines and is an anti-catarrhal (which dissolves and prevents formation of mucus and prevents mucus membrane inflammation).
Is Catnip an Effective Natural Mosquito Repellent?
Catnip contains a naturally occurring compound called nepetalactone. Instead of merely masking your scent, nepetalactone actively irritates insect receptors upon contact, which causes them to flee.
Researchers in Uganda, where malaria poses life threatening risks, tested lotions containing either 2% or 6% catnip oil against a commercially available lotion containing 15% DEET. During evening field trials in, volunteers applied one of the lotions to their skin before researchers counted the number of mosquitoes that landed on their legs.
The 6% catnip lotion performed as well as the DEET product, while the 2% formula offered nearly the same level of protection.
The project was designed with affordability in mind. Commercial mosquito repellents are often too expensive for many rural families in Uganda, making regular use unrealistic despite the risk of malaria.
I like that something I’ve seen work is being tested and proven effective, and that we can make this ourselves. Harvesting time can affect potency so do pay attention to some basic harvesting tips.
The Uganda research team developed a lotion that can be produced locally using catnip grown in the region.
You too can make your own HIGHLY effective bug spray with wild catnip growing in your yard or foraged nearby.
When I start noticing mosquitoes in the garden, I’ll just rip off a few leaves from the nearest catnip plant and rub some onto my exposed skin. This works great for a short time, but when I don’t have a catnip plant nearby, like when at the baseball or football field 😉 or for a longer lasting effect, I make the spray below.
How to Make Catnip Bug Spray
Step 1: Make the Catnip Tincture
Just like with making herbal salves, making this bug spray is a two-part process: making the catnip tincture, and then making the full bug spray by adding to the tincture.
Crafting herbal tinctures makes me feel a little witchy in the very best way. I learned ages ago from a wonderful neighbor (thanks Tory), and then many library books –remember when we had to go to the library to check out books to learn things!?
Funny Memory* I had to get special permission from my parents to play with Vodka as a teenager!
When I want to reference herbal concoction making today, I go to the Mountain Rose herbs or Herbal Academy websites.
Making tinctures is simple, but a specific process. And you have to wait for the alcohol to draw out the goodness from the herbs. Waiting is always the hardest part.
Step 2: Make the Natural Bug Spray
- Gather your herbs, and let them wilt overnight to avoid any possibility of extra moisture in the leaves or blooms, it also gives any tiny bugs some time to move on out 😉
- Then I remove flowers and leaves from the stems, chop and add to a glass jar.
Fill 2/3 full
Cover with 80-90 proof Vodka. You can use a different alcohol; I just find Vodka easy and consistent to work with.
Make sure the herbs are fully submerged, tightly cover and give the bottle a good shake.
- Keep it in a cool dark place and shake daily/regularly for 4-8 weeks. (But sometimes you forget that jar in the pantry for an extra month… it happens).
- Then you can strain out the now infused alcohol. You’ll want to get a cheesecloth or jelly bag set over a glass jar set with a funnel. Then pour into the cloth, let drip through and then to get all the remaining goodness out, squeeze away!
- You can then move this into a smaller glass bottle and you, my friend, have made a tincture.
I prefer to keep tinctures in amber/dark colored glass. I have found these amber glass spray bottles work great.
Homegrown Bug Spray Recipe:
Ingredients:
2 oz catnip tincture
2 oz witch hazel
You can stop there and find big relief from bug bites. But if you want wider protection, or a better smell you can add essential oils.
Adding roughly 10-20 drops of lemon eucalyptus, lemongrass, lavender, citronella or lemon essential oil is adequate for the 4 oz. of bug spray mixture.
Catnip FAQ
Does catnip come back every year?
Catnip is a perennial so yes, it does come back ever year. Most stands of Nepata will last for many years, and it does spread via seeds if you leave the seed heads to fully ripen.
Does catnip repel mosquitoes?
Some really intense research has been done in Uganda and has proven it to be as effective as Deet.
Give This Catnip Bug Spray a Try
Growing catnip is one of the easiest wins in the garden. It comes back year after year, the pollinators love it, and it does double duty as a natural mosquito repellent. Between the science backing up nepetalactone and my own experience of ripping off a leaf and rubbing it on before I head outside, I’m convinced this is one of those old-school remedies that actually holds up.
If you’ve already got catnip growing (or spot some wild patches nearby), you’ve got everything you need to make your own tincture and bug spray. And if you’re new to growing it, it’s a forgiving plant to start with. Check your yard first before buying starts, because it has a habit of showing up uninvited once it’s happy somewhere.
Catnip isn’t the only plant in my garden doing pest control duty, either. Lemongrass, lavender, and citronella all pull similar weight. There are so many other benefits to the common herbs growing all around us. Read more about my favorite plant friends in Harvesting, Preserving + Using Herbs.
Let me know if you try this DIY insect repellent or have other favorite ways to use catnip!
Peas, Michelle
I'd love to hear your thoughts!