For anyone who has been following my summer adventures –– this year I spent 6 weeks in the middle of the bush, on 200 acres –– you’ll also know how gnarly the bugs have been this winter. It’s been extra wet, then extra warm. When we had good days the doors and screens stayed shut. But on those bad days where we forget, and it got too hot, everyone in the house suffered – from the bugs!
The natural choice would be for me to go online, if I can connect to the Internet in the bush (not always possible!), and concoct some natural formula myself. With no time for experimentation or risk, thankfully EcoRaider contacted me this summer wanting to help me with my plight.
The company based in the US carries a natural bug spray against bed bugs, and it’s for that which the company may be better known. My step-son in Brooklyn has faced the annoying effects of bed bugs, once when he was away and had a border staying at his house. It’s not fun decontaminating your house with toxins you later need to live with.
But for me Ecoraider was to be used as a mosquito repellent. Made from natural materials such as citronella, I sprayed it around the door frames of the bedrooms of our old cabin. So many of the windows have broken or torn screens, or wide spaces below the doors. It’s virtually impossible to keep the bugs away. It’s challenging for me because I have two little kids and their sweet tasting blood is a first for when the bugs come to town.
Because the summer in the north this year was humid and hot, I couldn’t keep the windows closed at night. In need of repairs, our window screens suffered –– and so did we –– from the bugs getting in. So I sprayed the Ecoraider all over them too. It compensated for where we lacked.
It seemed to work well just before bed, creating what I call an aura of protection in the upper rooms, when we needed it for sleep. I can’t keep kids sleeping comfortably under a mosquito net because they toss and turn too much, so the Ecoraider was a good option when I didn’t want to put materials on their body (the kids usually say no anyhow, no matter how natural) and for when I don’t want to burn candles. The house is an old wooden homestead so the fewer flames I need to light in the middle of nowhere, the better.
I also took the product to my friend Cathy’s lodge. She has a 10,000 square foot lodge, very open concept with doors and windows open all day. There was no way to protect any room from the rapid bugs this summer… so again, at night before bed, before the bugs could “fly” the stairs and find us, I sprayed an aura of the bug spray at the top of the stairs, on the floor by the top of the stairs, and all around the frames of the bedroom doors.
The kids still had some bug bites on their cheeks in the morning, but I believe the spray helped us in those crucial first hours while falling asleep. It’s like Chinese water torture, anyone knows – if you are trying to sleep with a mosquito buzzing around your head. Apparently you can spray the stuff on mosquito breeding grounds as well. For us, this summer the whole forest was bug territory, but inside the spray saved the day.
