Spring has started and so did tick season .. Ticks can be a real problem for horses. Creating skin infections and ticks can carry bacteria and diseases. The invasions seem to get worse each year. And we live in a place with lot of deers and other wildlife who all carry ticks. Even on the pasture, where the grass is short my horses get them. So it is a myth that ticks live in trees.
Ticks irritate the skin and can harbour diseases. I myself was infected with Lyme once.
A friend attended me about coconut oil as a tick repellent, coconut oil is safe to use because it is something you can eat. coconut oil is 100% safe on the skin it is known for antiseptic and anti inflammation characteristics. And so does geranium essential oil, the geranium oil only is available and affordable in small amounts and you cannot use it pure it has to be deluded anyway in some kind of carrier. So I decided to make a mix of coconut oil with geranium oil. It nourishes the skin for sure, and now I will use it on my horses to see if it really works as tick repellent. First see then believe, my motto.
I have mixed 20 ml of geranium oil with 500gram coconut oil.
Ticks always creep up along the face and legs of the horses finding a nice warm spot where they can bite and suck blood of our beloved animals. Mostly under the yaw, in the mane. In between the upper legs and under the belly between the hind legs. That are the spots I will treat with the geranium coconut oil.
Empty supplement box is perfect for storage of the anti tick repellent.
It smells lovely, and lets see if it does what they say. Treatment starts today!
I will keep you informed, and update on this experiment. It is a 100% natural harmless solution so the risk is zero.
Let the horse be with you!
Esther
Let the horse be with you 
Oh please do let us know. I seem to have finally gotten rid of the ticks on my horse but this sounds like such a good idea.
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I will update on this for sure.
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awaiting the result…please post 😊
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I will! Thank you for your attention. 😚
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At your service!
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Yuck! I had horses in the Maine woods and in Hawaii. And yes, they live in the grass, short or long. I am so grateful I never had to worry about them with our horses, and wish you well! Gosh!
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The treatment I made smells wonderfull. And I rubbed it on the sensitive places of my horses skin. Now I watch closely if it gives some relief. The ticks always look for damaged skin they seem to be drawn to allready infected places. Helping the skin with this lovely smelling oil feels good. I will keep you guys updated how it evolves. My bio muskito spray I make in summer also helps my horses getting bitten less. I have good feeling about the coconut geranium mixture.
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Yes, citronella for mosquitos is a kind of geranium – I’ve got it planted several places in our yard here in Hawaii. Smells wonderful, too 😉
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Thank you. The coconut oil seems to hold the scent of the geranium oil longer. And the infected skin is feeling better. So far no new ticks. This looks hopeful 😁
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Yes, coconut oil is quite popular here in Hawaii, for everything from cooking to softening skin to preventing infection. So even though it might be a carrier oil, it’s bound to have some healing effects as well. Good luck with it!
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That is why I love the combination of both oils. It nourishes and heals and protects. Lovely nature. In fact I myself also only put on my skin what I can eat. If I cannot eat it, my skin does not want to absorb it..
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Same here.
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Great Esther 🙂 would this work for dogs too? 🙂
❤
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Funny you ask, because I just rubbed Bobo her skin with the oils. She is alergic to flees and the chemical solutiuons seem to loose its function. I do not want to use more aggresive poisons. Keeping the eviroment clean, and regular washing with anti flee shampoo also helps. Permetrine is one of the less harmfull solutions when it comes to flee treatments, the active ingredient of anti flee shampoo. Biological ‘afbreekbaar’ while other chemicals stay around in the enviroment forever. I will let you know.
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Mix a little Neem oil in-make sure it is the cold pressed stuff. Ticks and horse/bull flies HATE the stuff.
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Hi, well thank you for your tip. I accually have neem oil at home. I use it in my anti fly spray 😀 And neem is also good for skin!
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This is really interesting and extremely informative. Does there have to be a certain amount of geranium to coconut oil mixed together to make sure this works? Thank you!
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Hi there, I used 10 ml geranium oil with about half a liter coconut oil. I warmed the coconutoil slightly. Just enough that it melted. And mixed the geranium in. I can report that it works great. I have not seen many more ticks on the horses and the infected skin healed bautifully. I plan a blog about the results. Thanks for your interest!
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