Insect repellent advice

[gingertoast]

So we're fortunate enough to have 2 lovely holidays coming up; Caribbean and Central America.

Usually I go for spray on insect repellent but given the locations we're heading to are pretty tropical I'm mindful that I might need to be extra cautious (last time I had a lot of bites they came up in hideous welts and have scarred). Is there a supplement that I can take in addition to topical sprays?

Advice much appreciated

I don't think so just go for the highest % DEET you can, and I take antihistamines daily when I'm somewhere I'm likely to get eaten as i always have ridiculous reactions to bites

Yy to the daily antihistamine. Fexonfendaine is the one. You can buy it OTC now in 120 mg doses, called allevia. I take 180mg, so you may need to play around with the dosage.

In terms of topical sprays, high deet is what you need, but the chemical-ness does my head in. I've found smidge to be a good competitor.

I've used Mosi-off Deet bands on wrists & ankles & they're very good.

Take multiple brands of insect repellent with different active ingredients. Deet is great when it works but it doesn't work on everything. Spray under and over clothes.

For a non-deet based one I like incognito. You can also spray this directly into clothes for extra coverage. I also take a B1 supplement and a daily anti-histamine.

I wear no perfume and this year took Original Sauce lemon as a body wash. First year I’ve had hardly any bites bites and reactions. Only got bitten where I’d clearly missed any repellent. I got more bites and need for antibiotics in UK this year because I hadn’t put any repellent on.

Thanks all - I'll stick with the tried and trusted in that case.

I cover up now, seems the easiest solution!