Our mosquitos right now are horrible. HORRIBLE!  Our daughter currently has about 20 bites (not an exaggeration!) and my husband & I have quite a few as well.  I really dislike the aerosol bug sprays- they make all of us (including the dog) cough.  I have started making my own bug spray, and while it works well, it’s still not 100% effective.  We love to sit on the porch but the mosquitos are really ruining that right now.

I didn’t want to buy the citronella torches and I had a really hard time finding the refillable tabletop torches.  So out of desperation, I made my own.

I bought replacement torch wicks and some mason jar inserts, the tealight inserts to be exact.  I used a regular mouth pint mason jar as my vessel.  Then I drilled a 3/8″ hole into the middle of the tea light insert for the wick to pass through. Fill the mason jar with your choice of citronella oil. I cut each wick in half and then assembled the jar, the insert/wick and band.  Next time though I will cut the wicks longer, they were a tad too short!  This works for now.

It was pretty windy so the flame looks a little bigger than it actually was! I used the top of a  cocktail shaker to snuff out the flame when I was done.  Any metal cup/shot glass/measure cup should do the trick as well!

The best part, beside keeping mosquitos at bay while we enjoy our porch, is that these only cost about $2.75 each to make!