Ben's Tick and Insect Repellent Wipes

As a person who has always had allergic over-reactions to insect bites of all kinds, I have shopped for and tried more varieties of supposed 'repellents' than you could shake a stick at. The organic, non-chemical, non-DEET products my friends and family encouraged me to try just never worked for me so I gravitated toward DEET products in the heavier concentrations of 30% and up. An aerosol preparation containing DEET (N,N-diethyl-3-methylbenzamide, N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide) at 30% kept me sting free for three weeks in the insect infested tropical rain forests of Costa Rica. There are, however, a couple of problems with these products. Firstly, the DEET itself is quite toxic - and not just for the bugs. Based in alcohol, as it customarily is, in the usual propellent cans, it penetrates the skin and enters the user's blood stream. An undesireable situation, to be sure. Secondly, the propellent nature of most of the products using DEET as an active ingredient, cause, by their very nature, a goodly amount of the spray to miss the intended body part(s) and to be breathable by anyone close by, user or not. Again, an undesireable reality. In addition, there is also the issue of the effect of aerosols of ANY kind on the Earth;s ozone layer. So - What would make DEET products safer, more efficient and less smelly (much of the smell comes from the alcohol)? The answer would be a product made available as a wipe rather than a propelled spray and based in water rather than alcohol. I am pleased to report good results with Ben's, which with 30% DEET, has worked as well for me as the spray formulations but are water based and don't make me smell like a walking insecticide repository.