Natural repellent - where did they do?

Have been looking for your favourite natural mosquito repellent but can't find it on the shelf anymore?

All manufacturers of products making claims about their "mosquito repellent" properties have been targeted by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medecines Authority (APVMA).

As a result some natural repellants have been re-labelled without reference to their repellent properties or they have been withdrawn from sale until they go through registration.

Before an agricultural or veterinary chemical product can be legally supplied, sold, or used in Australia it must be registered by the APVMA.
This is the same role the Therapeutic Goods Administration has for pharmaceutical and health products.

According to the APVMA, an "Agricultural chemical product" includes any substance or organism used to: destroy, stupefy, repel, inhibit the feeding of, or prevent pests on plants or other things.  And "other things" includes humans!

So products that make claims such as "A botanical blend of powerful herbal oils to deter insects naturally" are not allowed to say that unless they have been registered - which I imagine involves proving the claim and the safety of all ingredients. 

What happened to your favourite?
Bugger Off personal insect repellant -- withdrawn from sale while it is re-labelled or registered
Lemon Myrtle natural insect protection -- now called an 'antiseptic topical spray'
Mozzie F.O. natural insect repellent -- is still for sale, so must be registered
Scatter Bugs insect repellant -- re-labelled and is now called 'Skin Guard'

What are the ingredients in a natural mozzie repellent
All natural repellants that we know of are simply a combination of essential oils that mozzies don't like in a solution such as water and palm kernel alcohol.  Some add Glycerine and Aloe Vera for added thickness and feel.

The types of essential oils that deter mosquitos include Citronella, Tea Tree Oil, Eucalyptus Oil, Lavender, Lemon Myrtle, Sage and Rosemary.

Natural repellent for babies and sensitive skins are the same ingredients but the oils are much more diluted so as to be less likely to irritate.

Take care
As with all essential oils, even though they are natural, people can be very sensitive to specific oils.  Always test a tiny bit first.  Pregnant women should always consult a medical practitioner before applying essential oils to the skin.

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Thermos :: 25% off sale

The weather is cooling down (in Australia at least!) - so think about warming up with a reusable thermos insulated bottle, cup or container.   For a limited time, they are all 25% off at Biome online and instore (Biome Paddington and Biome City stores - only when you mention this offer).

Biome has the best quality insulated water bottle choices - food grade stainless steel, double wall insulation, manufacturer guarantee for peace of mind.

Choose from:

• Kids Konserve insulated container - perfect for noodles, soup, pasta or cold choices like yoghurt
• SIGG sleek metro mugs - coffee thermo to toss in your hand bag without leaks
• SIGG insulated thermo mug - handle and sipper top for drinking on the go in the car
• Thermos - traditional Thermos quality. Straw sipper Thermos Funtainer bottles for cold drinks only, or insulated containers for hot meals likes noodles, soup & pasta.
• Klean Kanteen insulated water bottle - for hot or cold food or drinks. Add a cafe cap to turn your insulated bottle into a reusable coffee cup.

See all thermos insulated choices on sale now >>

Replacement parts / spare parts for insulated water bottles

Part of Biome's eco philosophy is to think about prolonging the life of a product and often a bit of a water bottle or drinking mechanism will break or wear out long before the actual metal or BPA free plastic bottle.  That is why Biome encourages all our suppliers to offer replacement parts.  We offer Thermos plastic straw and Thermos silicone mouth pieces for the Thermos insulated Funtainers.  You can find the Thermos Spare Parts here.
 

Thermos spare parts

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Storm in a Ziploc bag

As storms so often do, it began with some huffing and puffing of moist air and grew into a tempest of opposing forces.  A Quebec father blogged about his six year old son's experience of being banned from a contest at school because he brought lunch in a plastic Ziploc bag.  Within a few days it developed into an international debate on how to teach our children environmentally-friendly values and eco-fascism.

Many of us no doubt agree that penalising children for "environmental misdemeanours" is a negative learning experience -- but where does that differ from providing an incentive that they may miss out on?  In this case, I take issue with a young child being judged by the actions of his parents when he has so little control over the household budget and choices.  I liked the arguments that education is about providing children with the scientific facts and allowing them to form their own opinions.

The original blog post was written in French, but there has been plenty said in English!

Here is one interesting opinion from a blogger on simpatico.ca news

On his blog, [the father] accused the school of "propaganda" and pondered what was next. Disciplining school children who wore clothes made in China?  Across the board from editors, to bloggers, to general public, the school in Laval is being lambasted and accused of "Eco-fascism."

Dare I say I commend them. Granted it's true that children don't pack their own lunches so there's a disconnect between the lesson and real life, but the idea that a 6-year old be against plastic bags can't be detrimental.

Perhaps in this case Felix didn't quite understand why plastic bags were bad. All he understood was that he couldn't win a teddy bear if his mother used one in his lunch. The better thing to do would have been to educate both the children and the parents so that they could pack lunches together and decide on the most eco-friendly choices.

Was this situation Eco-fascism? Hardly. The school was simply trying to teach a lesson - a little misguided perhaps but memorable nonetheless. I'm sure the boy is discouraged from using the bags in the future, which is what we should be aiming for in the end. There's no better way to teach proactive environmentalism than to the young, who have yet to form their plastic, gas-guzzling habits.

And, as quoted in a National Post news article,

Schools tread into dangerous territory when they start enforcing environmental messages without understanding the complex scientific arguments behind them, said Jane Shaw, president of the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in North Carolina, and co-author of the book "Facts, Not Fear: Teaching Children about the Environment"... For instance, she said, the debate still rages over whether reusable dishes are really more environmentally friendly than disposable ones, taking into account the water and energy used to wash them.

"In the background to this is the idea that somehow we -- meaning teachers and textbook writers -- know what the environmental impact of something really is,” she said. “Studies have shown it’s very difficult to know whether it’s better to use a china cup or a disposable plastic cup.”  Instead, she said, schools should focus on teaching kids the fundamentals of science so that they can explore environmental issues themselves and draw their own informed conclusions as they get older.

“They’re getting a lot of pabulum about recycling and what is green and that kind of thing,” she said. “They’re not learning the basics of science, which in the long run is much more important.”

Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Sandwich+gets+excluded+from+class+contest/4199546/story.html#ixzz1DQLKuMHS

Inspired to make some eco-friendly choices when packing lunch?  See Biome's range of lunch boxes

We'd love your opinion either here on on our Facebook page.

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Get rid of mould with clove oil

Why clove oil for mould?

The City Council inspector that visited my cousin's inundated house after the 2011 Brisbane flood, gave some advice that inspired this blog post.  He advised to keep away from chlorine bleaches to clean mould as it only 'bleaches' the colour out and does not kill the mould. "It'll be back in a few weeks," he said. "CLOVE OIL is the best!" 

Clove has powerful antiseptic properties and should be used with care. Clove oil actually inhibits mould by attacking and killing the spores.

Shannon Lush, co-author of Spotless, is an expert on cleaning after wet weather. 

Remove mould from hard surfaces
If you can, first clean the surfaces with a mixture of 4 litres of hot water, 1 tablespoon bicarb of soda and half a cup of vinegar.
Mix a quarter teaspoon of Oil of Cloves (no more) per litre of water, put it in a spray bottle, lightly mist on. Leave for 20 minutes and wipe off.  Spray again and leave.  It will take 24-48 hours for the mould spores to dry and drop off.

Remove mould from soft furnishings and items
Mix one kilo of uniodised salt into 9 litre bucket of water. Wash the affected surface, wait until the salt crust forms and brush off with a soft broom.   Please take care that the salt does not end up in the garden.

Cleaning smell out of carpets
Use half the amount of soap recommended in the instructions for your steam cleaner plus add: half a cup each of of bi-carb soda, white vinegar and methylated spirits and two teaspoons each of eucalyptus oil and glycerine.
Steam clean your carpet as usual.
Thank you to ABC local radio and Shannon Lush for the references on cleaning. 


 

Clove oil and many other essential oils to use in cleaning, such as Lavender and Eucalytpus, are available from Biome Eco Stores online or in our stores.

Tinderbox clove oil made from the clove bud.  Tinderbox is a great Western Australian small business

UPDATE January 2015
Read our latest post 6 things to know about using clove oil for mould removal
Includes safety advice about using clove -- although it’s natural, it can still cause skin irritations and some people may have an allergic reaction. It should be kept away from children and those on blood thinning medication shouldn’t use it.  We also have advice from Nicole Bijlsma: while clove oil has been long recommended for killing mould spores, Nicole says she doesn’t recommend it because the focus should be on the cause of the mould growth which is moisture.

UPDATE October 2012
Read how mould causes allergy and asthma in some people and the importance of a clove oil room sanitiser that kills airborne mould spores. You can make your own as described below with a piece of jumbo chalk or use the new Australian product mould aroma gel.

UPDATE February 2012
Another tip from our readers, heard on ABC local radio:
To counter mould in homes, put a few drops of pure clove oil on jumbo sticks of blackboard chalk then place them in cupboards around the house and allow the scent to waft around killing mould spores. Replace with a few more drops of oil every month or so once the scent has disappeared. Particularly good idea because you are not spraying any more moisture in an already moist house.
 
UPDATE February 2011
Since our first post, we have had so many questions about how to use clove oil for removing mould from so many different situations - including a whole house!  Some houses that were flooded have been gutted back to the wood frame and people are spraying the water & clove oil mixture all over the wood frame before new plasterboard is affixed.

Another common problem is mould on clothes, shoes and linen.  Take the clothes outside and brush off so that the mould spores do not spread around the house.  Hang them in the sun, as sunlight can kill some forms of mould.  If necessary, spray the affected area lightly with a mixture of quarter teaspoon of clove oil to one litre of water.  *Always patch test in a discrete spot first.

If the mould has stained the fabric, Shannon Lush suggests: Use one kilo of salt per bucket of water and soak overnight. Hang the clothes on the clothesline without rinsing.  Once it dries, a salt crust forms on the fabric.  Brush it off.

What other uses does clove oil have?

Clove has a calming effect.  Put a few drops in an oil burner to spread a calm essence through your room.
Clove is also a scent associated with the festive season.  Did you ever make clove spiked orange pomanders as a child? A pomander was traditionally made to mask odours using citrus fruits spiked with clove heads.  For your own green Christmas scent, drop some clove oil into an oil burner or one of our Banksia scent pots. 

Clove can also be used as an anaesthetic for tooth pain! Put some clove oil on a cotton bud and rub on the painful area to numb the pain.

How to make clove oil?

Source: Wikihow  The recipe to make clove oil at home starts with grinding whole cloves in a spice or coffee grinder. Wrap in cotton or coffee filter paper and submerge in jar of olive oil  that you then heat for 45 minutes using a double boiler of water. Allow clove package to steep for another week or so.  Makes a weak form of clove oil suitable for human application.  Professionally made clove oil is best for cleaning as it is stronger and may have better analgesic (pain killing) properties. 


See clove oil and green cleaning recipes on our Pinterest.




About the clove plant

Image & text from www.plantguide.org
The clove-tree was native in the Moluccas, or Clove Islands, and the southern Philippines. Now cloves are extensively cultivated in Sumatra, the Moluccas, West Indies, Penang, Mauritius, Bourbon, Amboyne, Guiana, Brazil, and Zanzibar -in fact, throughout the tropical world. Zanzibar is said to supply most of the cloves of the market.

 The clove-tree may attain an age of from sixty to seventy years, and some have been noted which were ninety years old and over. The average life of the plantation clove-trees is, however, perhaps not more than twenty years. The trees begin to yield in about five years after planting. The picking of the immature flowers with the red calyx is begun in August and lasts for about four months. From two to four crops are harvested each year.

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Makedo for kids who just love to make-do with stuff around them

A genius Australian invention, Makedo helps children (and adults!) learn about reuse and recycling in a playful way.  Makedo is a set of reusable connectors for making things from the stuff around you. With the Makedo gadgets and found materials like cardboard boxes and plastic containers, the whole family can construct amazing inventions.  The video shows it better than words can explain!

1 min crash course from MAKEDO on Vimeo.


Makedo and its Australian designer, Paul Justin are being talked about all over the design world.  From Core77 design magazine
MakeDo is a new kind of Lego: a kit of parts serving as connectors for creations made from recycled cardboard and other cheap, readily-available materials. The kits wisely build on the concept that if you give kids a fancy new toy, they'll be bored in an hour, but give them a cardboard box and they'll play all day. Kids, and maybe all of us (as proven by the Maker Faire), respond best when given the tools to find the answer rather than the answer itself.


Makedo makes it onto Biome's Top Green Gift Ideas List for 2010.  Visit our Green Christmas section for Christmas decorations and entertaining.

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Lunch boxes - easy & healthy

Biome loves gathering great ideas from our customers and we also love giving them a little prize for their help. Our last Facebook promotion was to post three unique ideas for food to pack in healthy lunch boxes & we'll include two free Kids Konserve Kozy sandwich wraps with your next online order or in-store purchase.

Here are some of the ideas for lunch boxes we received.
Savoury

• Rice Paper Rolls filled with vermicelli, bean shoots, grilled chicken and coriander
• Salad Pita Pockets
• Vegie sticks with Homemade Coconut Dip
• Cold toasted sandwiches with cream cheese and tuna
• Leftover cold quiche shapes (cut using shape cutters)
• Homemade mini meatballs
• Antipasto selection
• Rice Balls rolled in Turmeric
• Rissotto cakes
• Popcorn
• Wholemeal lavash wraps with chicken, avocado, lettuce and tomato
• Sandwich with marinated tofu and lightlty fried pumpkin slices
• Leftover meal in a thermos lunch jar for lunch
• Tuna, avocado or vegetable sushi
• Rolypolies (flat bread rolled up and cut like pinwheels with any smooth simple filling - like vegemite, hommus, cream cheese)
• Homemade yoghurt with crushed berries swirled through
• BBQ sauce or fruit chutney on a wholegrain roll
  
• Seaweed strips
• Cucumber and hommus
• Red capsicum and snow peas
• Homemade pizza slices cold 
• Raw kale chips

Sweet

• Snowy Fruit Balls - dried apricots, dried peaches dried apple rings, sunflower seeds, raisins blended then rolled in coconut
• Apricot Fruit Bars covered with Rice Paper
• Dates spread with peanut butter, rolled in coconut and chilled
• Pumpkin & yoghurt muffins
• Sugarless date, rolled oat and banana slice
• Organic dried sultanas and apricots bought in bulk and divided into reusable snack containers
• Fruit kebabs
• Homemade iced tea
• Melon balls - a mix of watermelon, cantelope and honeydew scooped with a melon baller
• In summer, frozen banana, grapes and orange pieces
• Dried banana chips and dehydrated pineapple
• Sweet pistachio Lara bar

Thank you to all the great biome Facebookers that provided us with these great lunch box ideas.

Now, what to pack the lunch in? 
All of the kids lunch box available at Biome are safe, from BPA, lead, PVC and other toxins.  We also help make it easy to pack a waste free or 'wrapper-free' lunch with reusable lunch box containers.  Try a stainless steel lunch box.

The all-in-one Goodbyn lunch box with 5 leak-proof compartments and one lid has been trialled by us and makes it so easy to pack a waste free lunch.

Reusable sandwich wraps are a great way to reduce plastic wrap waste and avoid toxins in some plastic wraps - and even save money.

And one that has been very popular with the adults are the Bento boxes this great company also have a recipe book available for more ideas.

Find all these options on our website or you can come see us at the Biome eco stores.

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Biome newsletter - All new for Spring

Our stores and online are blossoming with

the colour and liveliness of Spring.

Revive your skin, your home, your passion for the planet.

 

View our latest newsletter online >>

Highlights

• New products: Effervescent bath cupcakes, Porcelain mortar & pestle, Ask Alice postcards, Makedo find & make kits, Baby memory book, single Ecococoon stainless steel cups, Wooden branch crayons, Tortellini baby feeding cushion
• Order Personalised Kylie Johnson stars by 15 October
• Corporate Christmas cards & gifts
• Biome rewards
• On Sale: Botani, Kosmea, Escapulario beads & more

View more of our newsletter online >>

Threatened species & Wipe for Wildlife
There was a whole lotta love last month for the creatures that share our planet. With our threatened species giveaway we looked at the Snub fin Dolphin (northern WA &Townsville), Long nosed Potoroo (East Gippsland), Clouded Leopard (Nepal to Borneo), Bonobo (Congo) and Albatross (Macquarie Island).

They all face the same main threats: foremost is habitat loss from land clearing for houses, agriculture and logging; and secondly, predators introduced to their environment.

Each of us can help by reducing pressure for land clearing and logging by choosing paper products made from post consumer waste recycled, pre-loved furniture, plantation timber, avoiding palm oil, supporting people working directly with your favourite animals, and using recycled toilet paper!

  Are you a tree flusher? We love the Wipe for Wildlife promotion by Zoos Victoria to get people thinking about saving wildlife by using recycled toilet paper.

You can even download a poster for your toilet door!

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EcoJot & Jane Goodall : 2 of our fave things in 1

The covers of Ecojot’s new sketchbooks available at Biome feature four endangered species in Ecojot's trademark quirky, colourful style: Chimpanzees (which Dr. Goodall has studied and advocated for over 50 years), along with the Giant Panda, Sumatran Rhino and Whooping Crane.

All Ecojot journals are made in Canada from 100% post-consumer recycled materials.  The proceeds from this line support the Jane Goodall Institute, including its global environmental and humanitarian youth program, Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots.

“In 1960, 26-year-old Jane Goodall ventured into what is now Tanzania’s Gombe National Park to document the behavior of wild chimpanzees. Her work there would inspire generations of Earth’s citizens to look at animals – and sustainability – in new ways,” said Mark Gavin, co-founder of Ecojot.

Aside from producing gorgeous, eco friendly products, Ecojot has given 25,000 notebooks to children in developing countries under the “Buy 1, Give 1” movement. Glues & inks are vegetable based and biodegradable; and the mill used to make the paper uses clean, affordable biogas (recovered landfill gases) as their alternative power source.
 
About Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots
Founded in 1991 by Dr. Jane Goodall and a group of Tanzanian students, Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots program is about making positive change happen—for our communities, for animals and for the environment. With tens of thousands of young people in more than 120 countries, the Roots & Shoots network connects youth of all ages who share a desire to create a better world. Young people identify problems in their communities and take action.
Source: excerpts taken from the Media Release on the Jane Goodall Institute website. 

See the range at Biome:  Ecojot sketchbook and note books.

During September, Biome is celebrating the animals that share our planet.  Find out how you can win $25 vouchers by identifying Threatened Species and what else is happening in our eco stores.

Download a free ecojot wallpaper for your computer

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Gardens make me smile

Our cuddling carrots.  Seems we planted the seedlings too close together, but we loved them all the same...  Do you have a photo of something in your garden, or someone else's, that makes you smile?

The clever Linky list below allows you to upload a photo and, if you wish, include a link back to your own blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc.  (Just upload a smallish image for speed and it gives you the chance to crop it to size.)

And, for more edible gardening inspiration, please come along to meet David of Productive Gardens this weekend Saturday 28 & Sunday 29 August at Biome Paddington or Biome City store on Thursday, 2 September.  More info about times and location 

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Talking rubbish with like-minded friends

Photo credit: winning poster in the World Industrial Design Day competition

Do you have anxieties about throwing things "away"?  Do people putting food scraps into recycling make you edgy?  Do you break out in a sweat when there's no recycling bin to dispose of your drink bottle?

During our recent visit to Melbourne for the retail trade fairs, I had a hurried and animated chat with Wasteman.  What fun to gabble with a like-minded soul about rubbish -- rubbish of the wasteful kind that is.  Wasteman devotes a blog to problems with waste and loves to take photos of rubbish bins and odd rubbishy things.  He introduced me to the waste pyramid and thinking about recycling being the last resort. 

Could it be that because we find recycling so easy we are actually likely to generate more recycling and waste, rather than first trying to avoid, reduce or reuse?

At home we have just ordered a larger recycling bin being offered by the Brisbane City Council.  Ours is always overflowing each fortnight, but maybe that's not such a good measure of our eco-performance. Seems we should actually be trying to downsize our recycling bin by generating less "stuff" to be recycled.

Things to make me feel less-wasteful:

• Buy in bulk
• Choose items with little or no packaging
• Pack a wrapper-free lunch using Goodbyn or Kids Konserve
• Grow our own vegetables
• Use shopping bags that last forever.  Wasteman has more to say on this!
• Stop the Junk Mail, but what about the newspapers?
• And my daily buzz, BYO my KeepCup reusable coffee cup - and save 50cents in the process (1 coffee per day x 50 cents saved = $182 dollars a year!)

We just received a lovely letter from the Salvos Stores about their Buy Nothing New Month in October.  They say this national 'conscientious consumuption' campaign is about reducing the community's impact on the environment by encouraging reusing and recycling.  It's a fantastic concept.

I love to send things to the Salvos or Reverse Garbage....I've blogged before about my hoarding tendencies because I can't bear to throw things away (Continuous loop of Reverse Garbage).  

Are there any other friends out there with strange anxieties about waste?  Tell us here or please pop on over to our Facebook page and tell us there...

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