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April Robbins pours the insect repellent mixture into bottles in the shed she and her husband run their business out of in Bunker Hill on Wednesday, July 13, 2022. "She does it because she has the steadier hand," Joe Robbins said. Photo by Allie Schallert, aschallert@post-dispatch.com
BUNKER HILL — April Robbins couldn't figure it out.
"Summertime came, and we didn't have any problems being outside. But we would go to town and come home all covered in insect bites," Robbins said.
A little research revealed the answer: Robbins, 48, is a gardener. She grows an abundance of fragrant herbs, and some — such as mint, lavender and lemon balm — are natural insect repellents.
From such happy accidents, a business was born. With her husband Joe, 52, she runs Skitopel, which makes all-natural candles and insect repellent.
April Robbins pours insect repellent into bottles while her husband, Joe, mixes another batch of the product in their shed in Bunker Hill on Wednesday, July 13, 2022. They've been making the repellent since 2019 but this year April started making it full-time.
Skitopel — a mash-up of "mosquito" and "repel" — is now sold at 19 hardware stores, grocery stores and markets across Central Illinois, from Mascoutah to Springfield, and the Robbinses hope to break into the St. Louis market soon. They also sell their products at the farmers markets in Alton, Collinsville and Maryville.
And that puts them squarely in the middle of a national trend, said American Mosquito Control Association spokesman Dan Markowski. "We're seeing a lot more of the essential oils used in mosquito control for repellent as well as for controlling them," he said.
The path to Skitopel started three years ago. The Robbinses did it as a lark, using their own herbs to make candles for themselves, relatives and friends.
It's an old entrepreneurial story: They gave candles to friends and relatives who all suggested that they sell them. They went into business that same year.
The Robbinses create their product in an outbuilding at their house, down a farm-lined lane near Bunker Hill, in Macoupin County. They built the outbuilding specifically for the company, after early efforts to make the products in their home predictably led to problems.
"You'd have wax going all over the place, down cabinets," said Joe Robbins.
Joe Robbins hangs up a basket of freshly cut mint leaves by hanging it from the ceiling in his shed in Bunker Hill on Wednesday, July 13, 2022. He and his wife, April, have a few fields with different varieties of mint to put into their insect repellent. This year they planted an extra field to keep up with demand for their product.
And the two children who were still living at home (they have three, and one new grandchild) refused to go into the basement, where the couple was drying herbs. The aroma was too strong, they said.
Now the couple dries the herbs, which they still grow in their backyard, in plastic mesh baskets in the new building, hanging high to take advantage of better air circulation.
April Robbins crushes up dried mint leaves in her shed in Bunker Hill on Wednesday, July 13, 2022. She has to pick out the stems as she crushes the leaves.
Once the herbs are dry, they grind them in small industrial grinders. They take the herbal powders, supplement them with commercially made herbal oils and mix them with melted soy wax for the candles and soy oil for the sprays.
When they first began making candles three years ago, the couple put the wax in metal pitchers that hold perhaps a half-gallon of liquid. They boiled water on top of their stove, placed the pitcher in the boiling water and then hand-poured each candle.
Now they use wax melters, which resemble iced tea dispensers, complete with a spigot in front. They currently have five of the devices, the smallest of which has the size and shape of a large Crockpot.
The candles, which come in 16-ounce and 20-ounce sizes, originally had a single wick. But too often, they burned only around the wick, leaving an insect-repelling wax doughnut around the sides. Now they have two wicks, to burn the complete candle.
Joe Robbins mixes the insect repellent ingredients in a large pot using a motorized whisk in Bunker Hill on Wednesday, July 13, 2022. It is also mixed in a blender to ensure all the herbs are small enough to make a smooth product.
Creating the insect-repellent spray was more of a matter of trial and error. April Robbins said she was determined to keep their products all-natural and organic. But two of the ingredients they wanted to use, witch hazel and lavender, must be registered with the Environmental Protection Agency to be included in insect repellents that are applied to the skin.
It can be an arduous task for a company to be allowed to use these ingredients. All told, it would cost the Robbinses about $100,000 for the privilege, they said.
They turned instead to a list of ingredients that are specifically exempt from the EPA regulations. Among them is mint, so it is the active ingredient in their insect repellent.
But some people don't like the smell of mint, so friends asked them also to create a lemon-scented spray. The active ingredient is still mint, but the lemon aroma — courtesy of a fragrance company — is dominant. And it is still natural.
April Robbins pours the insect repellent mixture into bottles in the shed she and her husband run their business out of in Bunker Hill on Wednesday, July 13, 2022. "She does it because she has the steadier hand," Joe Robbins said.
But do all-natural products work?
"The actual amount of efficacy varies from product to product," said Markowski, the American Mosquito Control Association spokesman.
The Robbinses say their spay is 100% efficient for two hours, keeping all mosquitoes away during that time. A laboratory in Texas confirmed it, they said, though they had to tweak their formula several times before they achieved the desired results.
Last year, April Robbins quit her day job to work full-time on the company. For the previous 25 years, she had worked as an accountant.
"I was tired of being in an office. I love to be outdoors. I want to be outside. I took a leap of faith," she said.
Joe Robbins still works as a salesman of wholesale plumbing and HVAC products, but he helps out when he can.
The insect repellents run $7.99 for four ounces or $10.35 for eight ounces; candles are $14.95 for 16 ounces or $18.95 for 20 ounces, through skitopel.org. Prices are similar at area stores and markets.
It's skitopel.org instead of skitopel.com because the dot-com address was already claimed by someone who wanted to sell it. The Robbinses did not take the bait.
So far, the gamble of starting their own business is paying off, at least in a modest way.
"We're not going gangbusters yet," Joe Robbins said, "but we're not hurting."
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Daniel Neman is a retail business writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
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April Robbins pours the insect repellent mixture into bottles in the shed she and her husband run their business out of in Bunker Hill on Wednesday, July 13, 2022. "She does it because she has the steadier hand," Joe Robbins said. Photo by Allie Schallert, aschallert@post-dispatch.com
April Robbins pours insect repellent into bottles while her husband, Joe, mixes another batch of the product in their shed in Bunker Hill on Wednesday, July 13, 2022. They've been making the repellent since 2019 but this year April started making it full-time.
Joe Robbins hangs up a basket of freshly cut mint leaves by hanging it from the ceiling in his shed in Bunker Hill on Wednesday, July 13, 2022. He and his wife, April, have a few fields with different varieties of mint to put into their insect repellent. This year they planted an extra field to keep up with demand for their product.
April Robbins crushes up dried mint leaves in her shed in Bunker Hill on Wednesday, July 13, 2022. She has to pick out the stems as she crushes the leaves.
Joe Robbins mixes the insect repellent ingredients in a large pot using a motorized whisk in Bunker Hill on Wednesday, July 13, 2022. It is also mixed in a blender to ensure all the herbs are small enough to make a smooth product.
April Robbins pours the insect repellent mixture into bottles in the shed she and her husband run their business out of in Bunker Hill on Wednesday, July 13, 2022. "She does it because she has the steadier hand," Joe Robbins said.
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