Insect repellent

I am not a fan of mosquitoes and I think that many people would agree with me. In general though, mosquitoes tend to love a certain friend of mine much more than they love me. I guess I'm just not as tasty or technically, I just don't emit as much carbon dioxide. :-) People I know who get swarmed by mosquitoes have a particularly paranoid reaction when they see tiny bugs flying around.

Most of them swear by DEET. Unfortunately, DEET is a rather toxic substance. The CDC also recommends picaridin and repellents made with lemon eucalyptus oil. Picaridin is still an artificial substance, but it is considered a more desirable alternative to DEET because it doesn't smell and it doesn't eat plastic. On Wikipedia, it looks like picaridin in concentrations below 10% is rather ineffective. If I were to get a picaridin repellent, I'll probably try looking for something with 15% to 20% concentration. Right now, I'm leaning towards a lemon eucalyptus repellent. You probably have to reapply the lemon eucalyptus one more often than DEET or picaridin, but I like the fact that the active ingredient isn't something artificial. Not that there's anything wrong man-made substances if they work and aren't toxic, but picaridin is a new substance to me and I'm a bit leery of it right now.

Anyways, I have a year to mull this over as I won't be going anywhere until the honeymoon, it looks like. I'll definitely bring some insect repellent with me considering the allergic reactions I got last time I went on vacation!