>>1043093The single most effective insect repellent I've used is Permethrin, you spray it on your clothes beforehand and it stays on through several washes.
I used it when I was clearing a metric asston of dense viney brush on the bank of a creek on my parent's property, it was essentially a 10 foot tall mass of dense impassable Wisteria vines and trees filled with every pest found in Virginia, the entire process took about two weeks and I didn't find a single tick or mosquito bite on me until I went to retrieve my chainsaw in untreated clothes which resulted in several ticks gaining hold. I've also had similar results while camping, I use permethrin treated long sleeve shirts/pants and have a treated hammock as well, I pretty much never have to deal with ticks and mosquitoes but my friends always seem to get eaten alive.
The one caveat is that you have to use long pants and shirts, if you leave significant skin exposed you will end up with mosquitoes getting you, baring that anything with 30%+ DEET seems to work well, just about anything else is worthless.
