Insect Repellent?

[mudskipper]

Its early in the summer right now but in about a month the black flies will be big enough to eat me whole. I never seem to find anything that makes them stay away although mosquitoes seem to stay away decently. Anyone have experience keeping away insects other than mosquitoes?

[purple]

I normally use a product by Cutter, although I've had issues with black flies myself. The problem is you don't want to use too much DEET, but many of the products that work better for the bigger insects have a higher level than is really recommended.

[Richie]

I have mostly used a product by Burt's Bees. Honestly for the longest time I never used anything at all-the bugs just don't seem to like me. There are certain things that you can eat that make you unattractive to the biting buggers, things like marmite and garlic. I must just have a diet that makes me smelly to them :P

[George]

I use Soltan kids spf 30 with wasp repellent, but nothing much else. I haven't seen many mozzies in this area, and certainly am not prone to being bitten. Wasps on the other hand scare the pants off me.

[mudskipper]

I've never used the two in one products. Since you are supposed to reapply sunscreen every couple hours, but not repellant its safer to use two different products so you can apply them both as needed. Never heard of Soltan before.

We get mosquitos and flies big as barns up here. Our town is built in and around marshes and right on the water so its prime breeding ground for them.

[purple]

I'd never thought of that. Does the Burt's bees have deet in it or just natural ingredients? I've always wanted to go more natural but normally they don't seem to work enough when I see people who use them. They talk about how healthy it is, while swatting away mosquitoes the entire time ;)

[Richie]

Burts is natural yes. It seems effective, but then that's coming from a person who doesn't have much of a problem with insect bites in the first place so I might not be the best judge of these things.