How do I find a safe, chemical bug spray for kids?  And what's wrong with Deet? Can Neem be used to repel insects?  We had so many questions as first time parents.

Before we had kids, we rarely worried about the foods we put in our bodies and the products we used on our skin. But once we had our first baby we started questioning things from breastfeeding, vaccines, organic vs regular, scented vs unscented, deet vs no deet and much more. What we came away with was what we believe was a great compromise on what we could afford, what we could work into our daily routine and what we felt worked best for our lifestyle and beliefs.

Living in the South, one of our biggest concerns has been the bugs that summer brings and in particular, mosquitoes. I mean, we ‘grew up with no bug spray’ and we ‘are fine’ but now that we have kids and the media talks so much about mosquito-borne diseases we took a serious look at what our options were. What are they talking about? West Nile virus disease, Eastern equine encephalitis, St. Louis encephalitis chikungunya fever, dengue fever, malaria, yellow fever, and Rift Valley fever and the latest, Zika virus. Scary stuff right?

What we found after much research was to stay away from Deet and that as some say ‘Deet insect sprays are just as hazardous as the mosquitoes.’ We also read that ‘DEET should be used with caution due to its possible damaging effects on brain cells. Studies have shown that DEET causes brain cell death and behavioral changes in rats after frequent and prolonged use. This was not something we wanted to be using on our children so what were our options?

We are a family that is outside all the time! When summer comes we are up with the sun and come in when the sunsets. We spend most of our free time in the yard, at the farm, on the boat or hiking.  

Well, Neem oil has been used for thousands of years as a natural bug repellent and figured that we could create an all natural, chemical free, neem bug spray that not only worked, but was safe and smelled good. After much trial and error, we came up with the ultimate neem oil bug spray that is safe for babies, kids, adults and pets. Bugs don’t bite us and we aren’t concerned with having the extra unnecessary chemicals sprayed all over our skin, clothes and in the air we breathe. That’s just one less thing we need to worry about and we can enjoy the outdoors safely.

On a side note, since this worked for us we also used this on our dog, cats and sprayed down the chicken coop to keep the pesky bugs away! Or we have the supplies you need to make your own outdoor spray to use on larger areas or animals like sheep, goats, chickens, cows or horses. Check out how you can make your neem oil bug and animal spray here.

Walk in Good Health.

Got a question for the Neem Queen? Please ask!

Want to buy or learn more about our Neem Buzz Off Bug Repellent, click here.

More videos about how neem repels mosquitoes.

Neem Teams Says 'Buzz Off' mosquitoes!  How Neem Repels Bugs

Neem Queen Uses Neem Bug Spray in Yellowstone

Neem Team is at the UF Bat houses, prepared with Neem Buzz Off Neem Mosquito spray