How To Make Juniper Tick Repellent

Learn how to make your own tick repellent from Juniper leaves and berries. Junipers include, but are not limited to these two species. One is the Eastern Redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) and the other is the Common Juniper (Juniperus communis). I mention these two species only because together they are the most common and widely available species in North America. And yes, despite the name Eastern Redcedar this one is NOT a cedar tree. The name is properly spelled Redcedar and not red cedar, although you will see it miss-spelled online frequently.

The first step in the entire process is going to be your ability to identify a Juniper. Here are a couple of photos of both the Common Juniper and Eastern Redcedar.





Now that you have found your Juniper tree you will need to collect some raw materials of berries and or the green leaves. Both contain the oil so either will do.

Prepare the collected raw materials by chopping them into as small of pieces as is practical. This can get quite sticky.

After this is done you need to distill the material. Here is how!

The key components of a still are a fire, a pressure cooker, a cooling agent such as ice or running water, a glass pipe or copper tubing and a collection container. Don't get overwhelmed, your distiller can actually be made of nothing more than clay. NO METAL OR GLASS!!! The cooling tube may need to be longer and efficiency will be lower, but who cares. Juniper leaves are free!

Here is how a generic distiller works. Place the raw material and water into a pressure cooker with water. If sealed your distiller will be much more efficient than a pot that leaks. Much more efficient! The water is heated, but don't bring to a boil. The vapors will rise and pass out of the pot/pressure cooker into the coil. As it cools the essential oils will drop out first. The water will mostly continue on out as a vapor. The condensate that drops out will gravity flow into a collecting container. That is it! BAM!

You can improvise by placing your tube between the lid and a pot. Then, use clay to seal the opening of the lid. It is absolutely necessary for the pipe or tubing to be angled downward so that the condensate does not flow back into the pressure cooker after it condenses.

Use your tick repellent by spraying or dabbing on your pants, socks.