When you come to Bali you will no doubt hang out at some cool trendy restaurant in a rice field or by the beach. These restaurants are filled with people enjoying their vacations and showing off their tans. To keep their customers comfortable many of these establishments offer customers complimentary bug spray to ward off any mosquitos looking to dine on their diners. More often then not the bottle that you are handed is a brown bottle with a black spray top that has a simple white label that reads BEGONE BUG 100% natural outdoor spray.
Throughout the island, our bug spray has become the go-to natural bug spray. It is effective, 100% natural, and many love the smell using it as a body spray. As amazing as this product is it would have never existed if not for a chance encounter my dog had with a snake.
Imagine Ubud more than 20 years ago, it was unrecognizable. No telephones just loads of rice fields crisscrossed with dirt roads filled with people on bikes and in bemos (local transport). The air was filled with the smell of ceresin lamps and the sky over the rice fields were illuminated by fireflies. My house is smack dab in the middle of these rice fields with only a dirt footpath leading up to it from the “main road”.
One day my dog Sari was bitten by a snake and with no real clinic near, let alone a vet our option was limited, basically all we could do is keep her comfortable and hope for the best. As she laid there dying in our living room the ants and bugs started to come in force like vultures stocking an animal about to die.
My mum feeling helpless and not being able to do much more than offer Sari coconut oil decided she was going to use a blend of essential oils to at least relieve Sari from having to deal with the bugs. She quickly went to our kitchen, the same kitchen Utama Spice was born, and came back with a small glass bottle filled with oil.
After circling Sari in the oil we sat their just wait and watch for what would come next. To our surprise, the bugs soon vanished, and Sari, she survived for many years to come.
After that my mum knew she had something special and after creating a seaweed base for this amazing blend she had created BEGONE BUG.
