Body-worn insect repellent products are popular today for those who want to keep away insects from their home, garden, and surrounding areas. The concept of bug repellent is not new. For centuries, people have been using various types of repellents to control flies, mosquitoes, fleas, and other pests. The chemicals used for these applications are banned and may be dangerous to the environment in the long run.
Commonly used body-worn insect repellent products contain ingredients such as diethyl phthalate, diethyl carbonate; N, N-Diethyl-3-Methylbenzamide (DEET), metofluthrin, oil of lemon eucalyptus, picaridin, and ethyl hexanediol. It's been around since the early 1940s and was marketed widely as "fearless" insect repellents, even though it contains high levels of DEET that may be toxic to animals. Humans are known to sensitively react to DEET and there are several cases of severe skin rashes and neurological problems in both children and adults that may be attributed to DEET exposure. In the case of children, the effects are normally mild and usually stop within a few days but in adults, symptoms can last for weeks or even months.
The main problem with body-worn insect repellent products containing DEET is that they don't seem to prevent mosquitoes from biting at all. Instead, they just stop them from biting. Mosquitoes are known to bite at anything they can get their hands on so obviously insect repellents containing DEET would not work. It has been proven that mosquitoes will still bite, no matter what insect repellents a person uses.