Tried the (relatively) new picaridin bug spray (gel, actually, in my case, but there’s spray and lotion as well) this season, and I am never ever going back to DEET.
No smell, no grease, no damage to synthetic fabrics, and works just as well as 90%+ DEET formulations if not better. Tested in deep woods crawling with ticks and inundated with mosquitoes. Major success.
Just thought I’d share as a bonus for my fellow federated campers who haven’t heard of this stuff yet. 5/5 stars, A+++++ would slather again!
I’ve also had great success with picaridin! Though I used the dry powder spray.
It’s been in my rotation for a year or two now, works great.
Except for whatever reason, last weekend, it seemed to worked a little, but largely not. We got absolutely destroyed. We planned 3 days 2 nights, but we cut out the second day.
I’ve seen thick clouds of mosquitoes before, this wasn’t that. But there were plenty of them, and no matter how often we reapplied, we got bit.
Only in the direct sun were we safe. Or if the wind picked up for a bit.
I’m not against picaridin, I’ll try it again. But I wished I had some deet with me to do an A/B comparison.