Sawyer 20% Picaridin Insect Repellant
I love the outdoors, but sometimes the outdoors doesn’t love me back. When I’m lying in bed and thinking about all the progress I made in my garden or on my outdoor projects, I want to think about how much produce I grew, what I learned while doing it, and the familiar faces from the farmers market – not all the itchy bites I’m going to have the following day.
DEET-based insect repellents don’t work particularly well on me. Mosquitoes will still land (but won’t bite) when I apply OFF! or something similar, even within the first several minutes of applying it. Repellents containing picaridin discourage them from landing in the first place and seem to remain effective far longer. I’m not saying that Sawyer repellent smells great, but in my opinion it’s far less noxious than an off-putting dousing of DEET.
I wish I had known about Sawyer repellent during my time in the service. I grew up using OFF!, so I just assumed that it was the best thing out there, but I still got my share of bites during training and when we went to the field. I definitely would have had my friends and family send me cans of this during my deployment had I known about it. The mosquitoes that hung out in the palm groves and along the Euphrates River were malicious once the sun went down.
Sawyer is extremely effective against mosquitoes, ticks, and gnats, but only about 50% so against deer flies during their peak activity. With that being said, it still does better than other formulations that I have tried – and trust me, I have searched long and hard for a product that will keep these persistent buggers away.
The company also makes this formulation in a lotion, which will stay effective a bit longer. I prefer the spray because it’s more convenient to reapply it on the move and it’s less messy, especially if there is nowhere to wash your hands.
Living in a rural area makes you think more intentionally about how prepared you really are for what life throws at you, from prolonged ice storms right down to tiny but annoying (and potentially disease transmitting) insects. There are certain things that I always keep in each of my vehicles (fire extinguisher, first aid kit, etc.) and bug spray happens to be one of them. I’ve saved the day on more than one occasion by being the only guy at the picnic, ball game, or hike who brought bug spray and had enough for everyone to keep from being miserable.