Thousands of People Swear By This DEET-Free, Expert-Recommended Insect Repellent

Its main ingredient is safe enough for pregnant women and infants to use.

With the official start of summer underway, you probably have tons of all-day outdoor activities planned for the next few months, from family barbeques and picnics to tropical vacations. Unfortunately, with warm weather also comes tons of pesky bugs, so having an insect repellent on hand wherever you go is probably a good idea. Just like choosing the right sunscreen, it’s important to find a bug spray that’s not only effective at keeping insects away, but is also safe to use. That’s why thousands Amazon shoppers have made this Sawyer Products Picaridin Insect Repellent their go-to.

The best-selling insect repellent has over 2,800 five-star reviews from shoppers who say it’s a life saver for both daily use and traveling to places ridden with mosquitoes. Its main ingredient, picaridin, is naturally occuring in black pepper plants and considered a safer alternative to DEET—according to the National Pesticide Information Center, less than six percent of the picaridin is absorbed by the body once applied. Sawyer Product’s repellant is odorless, colorless, and comes in both spray and lotion varieties. Other than the stamp of approval from Amazon customers, the repellent is also recommended by Consumer Reports, where it was a top performer in the brand’s insect repellent tests.

To buy: $8; amazon.com

The Sawyer Products repellent will keep away mosquitoes and ticks for 12 to 14 hours (depending on whether you use the lotion or spray), and up to eight hours for other varieties of flies, chiggers, and gnats. One shopper even put it to the ultimate test on her four-year-old son, who is severely allergic to mosquitoes. “My 4 year old son is severely allergic to mosquito bites. When he does get bit, they swell to the size of a half dollar, get hard and hot and often turn into a staph infection. Every summer he was getting antibiotic prescriptions and I was starting to get seriously worried about this problem,” she wrote. “We tried so many bug sprays, but they just didn't work. My sweet baby is just irresistible. I took him to an allergist and he recommended Sawyer Picaridin. I have been so happy with this bug repellent. Since using this bug spray, we haven't had to deal with a single bug bite and no more antibiotics!”

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And tons of customers swear by the product when traveling to exotic locations, too. “Used this product for twelve days on African safari in Tanzania, five days in the Amazon Rainforest, and three days in the Galapagos Islands and it was outstanding,” another customer wrote. “In Africa one person in our party who was using an over-the-counter mosquito repellent continued to be bitten—we gave her some of our Picaridin and biting ceased immediately. I cannot recommend this product highly enough.”

Whether you’re super susceptible to bug bites or don’t want to risk a mosquito-borne virus on vacation, you might want to make room for Sawyer Products Picaridin Insect Repellent in your go-bag this summer.