Bug Geroff Repellant

Natural Insect Repellent

I have always been keen on really efficient insect repellents and, although I know them to be very effective, have an aversion to using harsh chemical repellents such as DEET. It was with this in mind that I was pleased to find “Bug-Geroff” (OK, the name caught my eye!) and I have been putting it through its paces as recent warm, damp weather has really brought out the biting insects in West Wales. This product has been developed in the wildlife reserves of South Africa’s low veldt where, as I know from personal experience, you need a really good repellent to stay bite-free.

Bug-Geroff is an “all natural” product using essential oils including the effective insect-repellent citronella, geranium and lemongrass, but also includes as its active ingredient the less wellknown tagetes oil. This exotic oil is extracted from the Kahki Bush Plant, which is often planted by organic farmers to keep harmful insects off their crops.

Produced in South Africa, the oils and shea butter formulation make Bug-Geroff safe on even sensitive skin – even babies – and is available in many different forms from wipes to shower gel. I’ve been trying out the body spray, soap and wrist/ankle strap

The Soap
This comes as a pale green, translucent, standard-looking bar which has a pleasant citrus-type odour and lathers well, even in hard water. It leaves the insect repellent oils on your skin to keep on working after you wash. There is a creamy lather, easy rinsing and pleasant scent without any “greasy” feel that you get from some repellents and it is effective for several hours after washing. I have even washed clothing in this soap and find it equally good as it seems to impregnate the clothing with the repellent oils. The soap costs around £4.49 for a 100gms bar.

The wrist/ankle strap
This is a suede leather strap with decorative stitchwork and two sets of press-stud closures for adjustment of the strap length. The strap is soaked in the Bug-Geroff oils and body heat allows them to vaporise and do their job in repelling insets.

Worn at ankle or wrist with long sleeves and long trousers, these bands really help with stopping insects getting a meal off your body, and a few drops of the oil should give repellency with minimal skin contact. Again the scent is pleasantly lemony. Each wrist/ ankle strap costs around £6.25 and comes with a 5ml refill bottle, giving around 120 hours of effective repellency. Refill bottles of the oils are available at around £5.50 for 5ml.

The Body Spray
This spray comes in a 100ml bottle with a pump dispenser and the repellent oils are held in a propolyne glycol base. Easy to spray onto body, clothing and even bedding to give up to 10 hours of protection, the spray again has a pleasant scent and no unpleasantly oily feel. A 100ml bottle of body spray costs around £6.49.

The Bug-Geroff formulation seems effective against Welsh midgies as well as African mozzies, and I have been pleasantly surprised by how effective the formulation is!

A couple of drops of oil on the strap and I was moving through an insectfree zone; equally, a blast from the body spray kept insects away from my skin, hat and clothing, while the soap kept me (and my socks) clean - and repellent only to insects…