Tag Archives: Insects

Belize, Our Products

Casa Mascia Products At The Pharmacy.

Pharmacy.on.Market.StreetJust writing to let you know that NJV Pharmacy on Front Street, Punta Gorda has stocked up on our Casa Mascia products.  A Big Thank-you to the Vernons for continuing to support locally-made natural products.  You will find our usual goodies including Copal Medicinal Soap, Oil and Ointment, Lemongrass Insect Repellents, a selection of our Massage Oils and lots more!

Massage Oils.
Massage Oils.
Copal Medicinal Oil.
Copal Medicinal Oil.
Lemongrass Insect Repellent Balm.
Lemongrass Insect Repellent Balm.
Belize, Medical Related, Our Products

It's That Buggy Time Again!!

Munchkin.Miserable

With the start of the rainy season in Belize, the bugs have come out; the whole army of biting bugs include mosquitoes, botless flies, sandflies and noseeums.  It can drive you crazy especially when they get aggressive and start buzzing around you.  Here are a few tips to keep the bugs at bay:

  1. Wear long sleeves and trousers and socks when you can.  Bugs favour the elbows, ankles, face and neck area and reducing the amount of exposed areas, makes less skin area available for biting.
  2. light a lamp or candle 10 feet away from the area that you plan to be using; this will draw any biting insects away from you and actually incinerate them.  Make sure that the flame is away from pets, children and causes of mischief.
  3. Bathe regularly and only wear clean clothes after bathing.  Biting insects are attracted to body odours and sweat that accumulate without bathing.  As a general guideline, the bedroom would benefit from becoming a zone that can only be entered after bathing first to reduce biting insects at night.
  4. Don’t leave anything that can gather standing water near your dwelling.  Favourite spots are plant pots, containers and old tyres.
  5. Try and live in a raised dwelling otherwise you need an open fire all the time in the tropics.
  6. After all the above factors are taken into account, it is appropriate to consider using an insect repellent.   Incidentally, …wink….wink..nudge…nudge…this Brand works very well.
Lemongrass Insect Repellent Balm.
Lemongrass Insect Repellent Balm.
Lemongrass Insect Repellent Spary.
Lemongrass Insect Repellent Spray.

Check out The Apothecary for more information.

Belize, Our Products, Soap

Placencia Sidewalk Festival 2016.

Standing.Together

Hi Everyone!!  I am writing to let you know that Annette Vernon of Placencia Pop-Up Art will be selling our Casa Mascia Apothecary products at the Placencia Sidewalk Festival next weekend.  She will have all the following goodies:  Copal Medicinal Oil Vials, Copal Medicinal Ointment, Copal Medicinal Soap, Itch Done Gone, Lemongrass Insect Repellent Balm, Jackass Bitters and Neem Soap and White Pitahaya soap.  Look out for all these products…

Copal Medicinal Oil Vial.
Copal Medicinal Oil Vial.
Copal Medicinal Soap.
Copal Medicinal Soap.
Lemongrass Insect Repellent Balm.
Lemongrass Insect Repellent Balm.

Sorry we won’t be there this year!!  If there is anybody that wants something that is not on the list please email me.  Cheers and have fun at the festival this year!!

Belize, Our Products

Busy Bugs In The Bush.

Full.Face.Munchkin.Dark

Today I made body oils; this consisted of pasteurising coconut and avocado oil (I basically heat it up to 72C and hold it at that temperature for five minutes.

Body Oil Bottles.
Body Oil Bottles.

The Chocolate Body Oils are very popular down here in Toledo for the tourist market since cocoa (cacao) is a major commodity down here.

Glueing and Pasting Every Single Label.
Gluing and Pasting Every Single Label.

In keeping with our philosophy, I cut, glue and paste every single label.  It is my hope that my positivity in working will infuse into the product from beginning to end.

Bottles are Packed in Plastic to Keep Away Bugs in The Tropics.
Bottles are Packed in Plastic to Keep Away Bugs in The Tropics.

We live in a wooden house in the Tropics (in the bush…think Sean Connery in Medicine Man…yes, we do live like that!) so I have to obsessively protect my wares from the environment.  One particular problem is a bug which looks like a metallic shiny green robot bug (looks exactly like StarBug from Red Dwarf, if you know what I am talking about); it hovers and buzzes around all my precious boxes looking to plant mud everywhere to build nests.  You can spot him a mile away with its back legs trailing mud everywhere and it makes a continuous droning noise like an electric screw-driver.  Truth be told, they are actually rather “cute” in a buggy sort of way and if you look at them, they are not menacing or predatory like the biting bugs of Belize.  They just act as if they are messy little bugs that mean  you no harm but like to smear mud everywhere. They have made too much of a mess of my products that as a consequence, I have had to cover all my products in plastic.  I used to wrap things up in brown paper bags in boxes but these bugs seem to be attracted to anything made out of paper.