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Insect & Mosquito Repellents

Bug sprays with the chemical DEET can give you headaches and could cause more severe, long-term health problems, as can clothing treated with the synthetic pesticide permethrin. And, with the wide array of plant-based repellents on the market now, those harmful chemicals are unnecessary--unless you're traveling to an area where serious insect-borne diseases are a real threat.

What To Look For
Active Ingredients
For most of your backyard barbecues and hiking trips, you can keep mosquitoes, ticks and other biting insects at bay with products containing plant oils, such as geranium, citronella, tea tree, catnip, marigold, lemon balm, lavender and peppermint; oil of lemon eucalyptus, recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); or picaridin, also recommended by the CDC and considered just as effective as DEET on mosquitoes found in the U.S.

But don't stop at the sprays. Mosquitoes and, to a certain extent, ticks can be eliminated from their hiding places and breeding grounds with proper lawn maintenance. You can also try mosquito dunks, which are small disks that slowly release bacteria that will kill bugs upon ingestion.

Effective Against...
Bug sprays aren't a one-size-fits-all product. While most protect against mosquitoes, they don't always ward off ticks. Read labels to make sure the product you purchase fits the right bug problem.