It’s getting to be that time of year. It’s beautiful outside, but the outdoors are full of hazards. Skunks, ticks, fleas, and more abound. Plus, there are all the things, living and nonliving, that you don’t want your pet to bring into your home on their skin or fur. Bug spray, skunk spray, and smell-be-gone spray are necessities.

Store-bought products for warding off insects and eliminating odor can contain hosts of chemicals that can be dangerous for pets or children in your home. If you want to try your hand at DIY, here are a few safe, homemade recipes for bug spray, skunk spray, and smell-be-gone spray to get you and your pet ready for summer:

Safe Homemade Bug Spray

This recipe for bug spray only requires a few ingredients:

• 2 ounces of distilled water
• 5 ounces witch hazel or vodka
• Infuse the distilled water with rosemary, lemongrass, catnip, rose geranium, and peppermint
• Spray bottle
• Optional – one small squirt of castile soap to help distribute the oil better (about ¼ teaspoon)

Instructions: Fill the spray bottle with the water, then add witch hazel or vodka, leaving enough room at the top of the bottle to shake it up.

Shake the mixture and spray on your pet, avoiding mucus membranes. And, it’s safe for humans, too!

For mosquitoes, good infusions to use are citronella, lemon eucalyptus, peppermint, lemon, eucalyptus, catnip, basil, clove, thyme, lemongrass, geranium, and lavender.

For fleas, use cedarwood, citronella, eucalyptus, tea tree oil, lemongrass, lavender, orange, and pine. For ticks, use rose geranium, juniper, rosewood, thyme, grapefruit, and oregano.

Safe Homemade Skunk Soak

De-skunking your dog is serious business, and there are a lot of recommendations that don’t help. Still, there are some things that can mask and help get rid of it sooner; here are some tips to get rid of the smell of skunk, from New England Today.

Vanilla

You can fight bad odor with good! Try mixing a gallon of water with a cup of vanilla extract. Let your dog soak in this for about ten minutes before shampooing.

Vinegar

Then, there’s the vinegar cure. Mix one part apple cider vinegar with two parts water. How much you need depends on how big your dog is. Once you have enough mixed together, douse your dog in the mixture while avoiding the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Work the vinegar mixture through the pup’s fur and let soak for five minutes before rinsing.

Safe Homemade Smell-Be-Gone Spray

No one wants to live with a smelly living room, or a smelly anything, after the dog or cat has had an accident. But, some cleaning products can be toxic! Here is a recipe for a safe, homemade pet odor remover from Everydayroots.com. It’s very simple, but is a classic recipe for a reason.

You will need:

• 2 cups white distilled vinegar
• 2 cups lukewarm water
• 4 heaping tablespoons of baking soda
• A spray bottle

Mix these ingredients together. When a smelly accident strikes, clean it up and then spray a good amount of the stuff on the affected area. Let it sit for a few minutes to let the baking soda and vinegar work their magic. Then, blot thoroughly. You might even want to use a heavy book or something else to press down on the smelly region.

With these recipes, you can DIY your own sprays for keeping bugs and smells safely away from your dog, yourself, and your home.