Using a good mosquito repellent is essential on your gap year to reduce the risk of getting bitten and contracting insect borne diseases such as malaria, dengue, zika and many more. But with so much misinformation and so many repellents on the market how do you know what works and what doesn’t? How do you know which is best? Don’t worry I’ll take you through everything you need to know before you go so you can make an informed decision about your own travel health.
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Michael Huxley is a published author, professional adventurer and founder of the travel website, Bemused Backpacker. He has spent the last twenty years travelling to over 100 countries on almost every continent, slowly building Bemused Backpacker into a successful business after leaving a former career in emergency nursing and travel medicine, and continues to travel the world on numerous adventures every year.
Bemused Backpacker 
I had no idea there were only limited ingredients that were recommended! I honestly thought if chemists were selling them they must work. I’ll be looking at the ingredients from now on. Thank you.
Glad to hear it Andrea, that is the power of branded marketing and the homeopathic companies know it. They know if they can sell it in pharmacies they will get that automatic ‘health profession endorsement’ in the eyes of the public. Unfortunately there is a wide gap between being safe for sale and being effective for use.
So apart from DEET are the others you mentioned completely natural then?
PMD is a natural extract, Icaridin and IR3535 are synthetic natural products.