The idea is easy: add whole cloves to a bottle of baby oil, allow the mixture to infuse, and then apply a small amount to the skin in hopes that the strong clove aroma will discourage mosquitoes and other insects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But does it actually work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is an interesting piece of science behind cloves. Clove essential oil and eugenol, one of its major components, have demonstrated mosquito-repellent activity in laboratory studies.<\/strong> However, that doesn’t establish a homemade mixture of whole cloves and baby oil as a reliable or standardized mosquito repellent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here’s what you should know before trying this popular home remedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cloves are the dried flower buds of Syzygium aromaticum<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They’re famous for their intense aroma and are commonly used in cooking, baking, and spice mixtures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the important aromatic compounds found in clove oil is eugenol<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Researchers have investigated clove essential oil and eugenol for their potential mosquito-repellent effects. A recent laboratory study found that clove oil and eugenol could provide measurable protection against Aedes aegypti<\/em> mosquitoes under experimental conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier laboratory research also found clove oil among the more effective essential oils tested against mosquitoes, although effectiveness depended strongly on concentration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s probably where the idea behind many clove-based home remedies comes from.<\/p>\n\n\n This distinction is extremely important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Putting several whole cloves into baby oil does not<\/strong> automatically create the same concentration or formulation used in scientific studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Laboratory experiments typically evaluate carefully measured concentrations of essential oils or specific active compounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A homemade infusion can vary dramatically depending on:<\/p>\n\n\n\n So there is no scientifically established recipe such as “X cloves plus X tablespoons of baby oil” that guarantees a particular number of hours of mosquito protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Baby oil can serve as an oily carrier for aromatic ingredients, but baby oil itself should not be confused with a proven mosquito-repellent active ingredient<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The current EPA list of active ingredients in registered skin-applied repellents includes ingredients such as DEET, picaridin, IR3535, oil of lemon eucalyptus, PMD, and 2-undecanone, among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Baby oil is not on that list as a standard mosquito-repellent active ingredient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That doesn’t mean you can never put baby oil on your skin. It simply means you shouldn’t rely on ordinary baby oil as though it provides the protection of a tested insect repellent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your goal is simply to make a clove-scented body oil<\/strong> rather than depend on it for protection from disease-carrying insects, a conservative version can be prepared as an infused oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Place the whole cloves into the clean container.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pour the baby oil over them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Close the container securely and allow the cloves to infuse for several days in a cool, dark place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shake the container gently once a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then strain out the cloves and keep the infused oil in a clean, clearly labeled container.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Important:<\/strong> This should be regarded as a homemade scented oil, not as a substitute for a registered insect repellent where dependable mosquito or tick protection is needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You may see another version of this trick recommending concentrated clove essential oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Essential oils are concentrated substances, and stronger isn’t automatically better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an older human laboratory study, high concentrations of clove oil provided mosquito protection, but researchers also noted that clove oil at higher concentrations could irritate the skin and that participants found its strong odor unpleasant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, don’t assume that applying undiluted clove essential oil directly to your skin is safe simply because cloves are a familiar kitchen spice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even natural ingredients can irritate sensitive skin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you choose to use a clove-infused cosmetic oil, test a very small amount on a limited area first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stop using it if you experience:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don’t apply a homemade preparation to broken, irritated, or freshly shaved skin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Avoid the eyes, mouth, and other sensitive areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is evidence that clove essential oil can repel mosquitoes under controlled experimental conditions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, research published in Insects<\/em> found measurable mosquito protection from tested clove-oil formulations, with eugenol appearing to be an important repellent component.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, that does not<\/strong> prove that whole cloves soaked in a bottle of baby oil will provide the same effectiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The CDC specifically notes that the effectiveness of non-EPA-registered repellents, including some natural repellents, is uncertain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s the key limitation of the viral recipe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suppose two people make this recipe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One adds five whole cloves to 200 ml of oil and leaves them overnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another crushes 30 cloves and leaves them in 100 ml of oil for two weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those aren’t remotely equivalent preparations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet social-media posts may call both “clove and baby oil mosquito repellent.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n There’s no standardized active-ingredient concentration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That makes it impossible to confidently say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “This homemade recipe protects you for four hours.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Any claim like that would need actual testing of that specific formulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re in an area where mosquitoes can transmit illnesses, don’t depend exclusively on an untested homemade mixture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The CDC recommends proven, registered insect repellents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recommended active ingredients in EPA-registered products include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n EPA registration indicates that the manufacturer has submitted information supporting the product’s safety and effectiveness when used according to its label.<\/p>\n\n\n\n People sometimes choose homemade cloves because they want something perceived as more “natural.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are tested alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE)<\/strong> is a plant-derived ingredient used in registered insect repellents. PMD, a related active ingredient, is also used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But don’t confuse a formulated OLE repellent with ordinary lemon eucalyptus essential oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The CDC does not recommend using “pure” lemon eucalyptus essential oil as a repellent because it hasn’t undergone the same validated safety and efficacy testing as registered repellent formulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So even with plant-derived ingredients, formulation matters<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is another common misunderstanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cloves are natural.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So are many essential oils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But “natural” isn’t a synonym for “non-irritating” or “safe at every concentration.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Clove oil is powerful and aromatic precisely because it contains biologically active compounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Research evaluating clove oil as a mosquito repellent has also documented skin-irritation concerns at higher concentrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Treat concentrated essential oils with the same caution you would use with other active skin products.<\/p>\n\n\n Be especially cautious about experimenting with homemade essential-oil repellents on babies and young children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For children, the CDC advises using appropriate registered repellents according to their labels, dressing children in clothing that covers their arms and legs, and covering strollers and baby carriers with mosquito netting. It also provides specific age and application guidance for different repellent ingredients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don’t apply insect repellent to a child’s hands, eyes, mouth, cuts, or irritated skin. Adults should apply repellent to their own hands first when applying it to a child’s face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Follow the exact product label because age restrictions can vary by formulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Repellent is only one part of mosquito protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can also reduce exposure by wearing loose-fitting long sleeves and long pants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The CDC also recommends eliminating containers that collect standing water around homes, because these can provide mosquito breeding sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For certain situations, clothing and gear treated with permethrin can provide additional protection. Permethrin should be used according to product directions rather than improvised as a skin treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This viral hack is often advertised broadly as an “insect repellent.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s too vague.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Different insects respond differently to chemicals and odors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Evidence that a substance repels one mosquito species under laboratory conditions does not automatically mean it will repel:<\/p>\n\n\n\n ants, flies, fleas, ticks, bed bugs, cockroaches, or every other insect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In particular, the CDC notes that evidence does not support relying on natural products marketed as bed bug repellents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So avoid assuming that one homemade mixture is an all-purpose pest solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One reason homemade clove preparations seem convincing is their smell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cloves have an extremely noticeable aroma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You put the oil on your skin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You smell cloves for hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, it feels like something must be happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But human perception isn’t a reliable measure of mosquito protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A product can smell incredibly strong to us without providing adequate protection against the insects we’re trying to avoid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Only controlled testing can establish how reliably a formulation works and how long its protection lasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can infuse whole dried cloves into oil as a scented cosmetic preparation, provided the ingredients are suitable for your skin. But that doesn’t transform it into a standardized or proven insect repellent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There isn’t a scientifically validated infusion time for producing a mosquito repellent from whole cloves and baby oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re simply making scented infused oil, several days can transfer some aroma. But don’t interpret a stronger smell as evidence of stronger mosquito protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ground cloves expose more surface area, but they also create sediment and make the preparation harder to filter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More importantly, increasing extraction doesn’t provide a known or standardized repellent concentration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Applying concentrated essential oil directly to skin isn’t advisable without appropriate formulation. Clove oil can be irritating, particularly at higher concentrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ordinary baby oil isn’t one of the standard active ingredients recommended by the CDC for reliable mosquito-bite prevention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes. Laboratory studies have found mosquito-repellent activity from clove oil and eugenol. But protection varies with formulation and concentration, and those findings don’t validate every homemade clove recipe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The viral baby oil and cloves trick isn’t completely invented<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is legitimate scientific interest in clove oil because compounds such as eugenol have demonstrated mosquito-repellent activity in experimental studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But there’s an important difference between that evidence and the social-media recipe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whole cloves soaked in baby oil are not a standardized, clinically validated insect repellent.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you enjoy the fragrance and your skin tolerates it, you can treat the mixture as a homemade clove-scented body oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But when reliable protection against mosquito bites matters \u2014 particularly in areas where mosquito-borne diseases occur \u2014 use a registered repellent with a proven active ingredient and follow the label instructions. That’s the approach recommended by the CDC and EPA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes viral home remedies contain a grain of real science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The important part is knowing where the science ends and the viral claim begins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mosquito season brings out hundreds of homemade insect-repellent tricks, and one of the simplest circulating on social media involves only two ingredients: baby oil and cloves. The idea is easy: add whole cloves to a bottle of baby oil, allow the mixture to infuse, and then apply a small amount to the skin in hopes … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/easyrecipes.el-maarifa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/easyrecipes.el-maarifa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/easyrecipes.el-maarifa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/easyrecipes.el-maarifa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/easyrecipes.el-maarifa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/easyrecipes.el-maarifa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105,"href":"https:\/\/easyrecipes.el-maarifa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions\/105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/easyrecipes.el-maarifa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/easyrecipes.el-maarifa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/easyrecipes.el-maarifa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/easyrecipes.el-maarifa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Why Are Cloves Used in Homemade Insect Repellents?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/easyrecipes.el-maarifa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-34.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nBut Whole Cloves in Baby Oil Are Not the Same as Tested Clove Oil<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\n
What Does Baby Oil Do?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Viral Baby Oil and Clove Recipe<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
You Will Need<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
How to Prepare It<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Don’t Confuse Whole Cloves With Clove Essential Oil<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Patch Testing Is Sensible<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
Does the Mixture Repel Mosquitoes?<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Why Homemade Repellents Are Difficult to Evaluate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What Should You Use When Mosquito Protection Really Matters?<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\n
Want a Plant-Derived Option?<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Natural Doesn’t Automatically Mean Safer<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nWhat About Children?<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Other Ways to Reduce Mosquito Bites<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
What About Flies, Ants, and Other Insects?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Why the Clove Smell Doesn’t Prove It’s Working<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Frequently Asked Questions<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Can I put whole cloves directly into baby oil?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How long should I leave the cloves in the oil?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Can I grind the cloves?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Can I apply clove essential oil directly?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Does baby oil stop mosquitoes from biting?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Does clove oil have any scientific evidence behind it?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Bottom Line<\/h1>\n\n\n\n