Before DEET: Discover how pioneers dealt with biting insects. Part 1. Beautyberry
Welcome! My name is Brandy McDaniel and I probably have the oddest life goal of anyone you will meet. I want to know the name, history, and use of every single plant I see in Texas and Oklahoma… in cultivation / commerce and in the wild. For the next 10 minutes we will meet four simple, common plants used as daily staples in pioneer medicine cabinets.
First one we start with is Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana)
Beautyberry
American beautyberry can be found in the wild across the entire south. It is native from Virginia to Texas. If you go hiking in the woods, you will see a large shrub with loose arching canes and magenta purple berry clusters evenly spaced along the branches. It is fairly common in the wild and is commercially sold as one of our star landscape plants.
But that’s the boring stuff. Here’s the useful stuff.
My family would take handfuls of the leaves and stuff them under the yokes of the oxen or mules to keep the bugs from biting them as they worked. Chemical analysis showed that it’s as, if not more, potent than DEET. Beauty berry is exceptionally good at repelling mosquitoes, biting flies, chiggers, fleas, some ticks, and fire ants! Seriously! We have something that works against fire ants.
Now note that it is the volatile oils in the leaves that work. So if you boil or cook them in any way, you’re getting rid of the useful chemicals. Put the leaves through a food processor and make a tincture. by submerging the damaged leaves in alcohol.
Now speaking from experience, we tried this and the only thing it didn’t work on was seed ticks. I would add lantana or ragweed to the tincture to provide complete protection. And as a bonus, if you use lantana, it will make any bites you have already gotten, go away.
