Bug repellant?

[Owlie]

Have you guys tried Bite Blocker (soybean oil and geraniol based)? It works. I don't work for them. I just use it, and I am serious mosquito bait.

I'm well aware that citronella, B-vitamins, pennyroyal, and who-knows-what-else don't really work. I've tried them all. Bite Blocker works. (What I haven't actually tried is plain ol' soybean oil from the grocery store, which would probably be a lot cheaper - I might have to try it one afternoon in my garden, just to see.)

Higher concentrations of DEET don't protect better, they just protect longer. IOW, DEET works to a certain extent, you're either at an effective "dose" or you aren't, and the concentration is only about the half-life. Bite Blocker prevents bites as well as DEET for about an hour and a half between applications - which admittedly is equivalent to only about 5% DEET. OTOH, it's about how often you're supposed to reapply sunblock, so you can do both at the same time.

Having to carry a bottle of repellent along with me for longer excursions is a small price to pay IMO for not having to worry about damaging the plastic bag that protects my phone and car key ... my phone or car key itself ... my clothes ... my bike computer ... my kayak ... or even possibly the resins that hold my carbon frame together.

That's not even getting into the health issues, which I know some people dispute - there is NO dispute that DEET damages plastic (never mind any potential health effects of the products of that plastic breakdown, which have never been studied AFAIK).

Go ahead and try it in case I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure any bug-repelling abilities come from the geraniol--it's a major component of citronella oil--and the soybean oil is just a carrier.

I finally found the stuff my mom uses. It's based on lemon eucalyptus extract. I think the brand is Cutter, and I have no idea how well it works.
I really should look at tick repellant. My hair is really thick, so it's not terribly easy for them to get at my scalp (and the rest of me is pretty easy to search for them), but if they manage to get there, it'll be next to impossible to find them.