Mosquito/bug repellant

[Crankin]

I use DEET, too. I've tried some of the others and even the Picaridin doesn't work for me. I live in an area that is full of deer ticks and 2 people in my neighborhood have progressive Lyme Disease; i.e. they got bitten back in the day and never got treatment until it was too late. One was an MIT prof who pretty much lost a lot of his cognitive ability. I'll take my chances.
I avoid the local trails at this time of the year, except for one that is wide and the foliage doesn't touch you. I got a tick bite last year. My DH found a tick, engorged, on my back, 2-3 days after I had hiked with a client. He got it off, but I did go to the doctor, who put me on a 3 day course of antibiotics. I generally don't go out riding when mosquitos are around, but they do spray here. When I was up in NH last weekend, there were lots of black flies at one point in the ride, which had me wishing I had put some repellent on. I did use it on a hike the next day, and it was a good thing. There were tons of mosquitos, flies, and various other nasty flying things.

[OakLeaf]

Oxybenzone (ingredient in some sunblocks) and DEET potentiate skin absorption of each other, whereas picaridin and oxybenzone absorption is unchanged or even inhibited when used together. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21155391

The EWG piece is really worth reading, because it highlights how "what's the best insect repellent?" is the same kind of question as "what's the best bike?" First you have to understand what you want from it, and only then you can figure out which products can best do the job.

Armed with some more knowledge of the mosquito species in the micro-environments in my area, I bought something with picaridin, only because I want to make one more trip to the blueberry patch before the season's over. But I don't anticipate using it often. Bite Blocker works fine on everything *except* those Asian tiger mosquitoes.