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Is It Safe to Use Bug Spray? Is It Safe Not to?
With bug-borne illnesses on the rise, experts say protection is more important than ever
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Key takeaways
- Protection against mosquitoes and ticks is growing increasingly important, but only a third of Americans use bug spray regularly.
- Experts say there are several effective bug repellent options, including products containing DEET.
- Repellents containing DEET have a strong safety record, according to decades of research.
You’re getting ready to leave the house for a late afternoon stroll. A hat and sunglasses to protect your face? Check. Sunscreen on all exposed skin? Check. Bug spray? Probably not.
Only a third of Americans use it to protect themselves from mosquito and tick bites, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Some are turned off by the sticky feeling of common sprays; others worry that the most widely used chemical, DEET, might harm their health.
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But in an era when diseases spread by bugs and ticks are on the rise, shunning this important protection, especially over health concerns, is a mistake, says William Eggleston, a pharmacist and assistant clinical director of the Upstate New York Poison Center in Syracuse. “We are confident that, when used properly, DEET is very safe,” he says.
With the abundance of mosquitoes and ticks, summer is an important time to protect yourself, experts say. The best ways to do that are to cover skin with long pants and long sleeves, especially at dusk when bugs proliferate, and to shield exposed skin with a repellent like DEET.
Is DEET risky? What the science says
DEET (short for N, N-diethyl-meta-toluamide) doesn’t kill the ticks or mosquitoes. Rather, many scientists think it works by masking the smell of our skin that bugs are otherwise attracted to, rendering us invisible.
The repellent has been extensively studied since its invention in the 1940s, Eggleston notes. The EPA conducted several safety reviews, including one in 2014 that did not identify “any risks of concern” either to people or the environment.
Other scientists have reached similar conclusions. A 2020 study examined key health markers for inflammation, immune strength, liver function and the like in people who recently used the chemical and found no negative impact on these markers.
“That was pretty strong evidence to reinforce what the government agencies have said” about DEET’s safety, says Arch Mainous III, vice chair for research at the University of Florida’s Department of Community Health and Family Medicine, who conducted the research.
A review of studies in 2024 concluded that DEET is safe even for children, whose smaller bodies generally make them more sensitive to chemical exposures.
DEET does have its downsides. Some people get a mild rash or itching after an application. And a small number have reported mild confusion, coordination issues or a slowing heart rate, but “these are extreme cases where people applied huge amounts several times in a day on all the skin of the body,” Eggleston says.
Even accidentally squirting some in your mouth — something people occasionally call Eggleston’s poison center to report — doesn’t trigger health concerns, although “it tastes awful,” he says.
It is possible that bugs can be conditioned to be attracted to, rather than repelled by, DEET’s odor, as happened in a widely reported laboratory study published in May. But in this study, the researchers trained the mosquitoes to do this by offering a food reward alongside the smell.
Diseases carried by ticks and mosquitoes are on the rise
Preventing bug and tick bites is especially important because they do more than drive us insane with all the itching. They increasingly carry and transmit numerous diseases.
Infected Culex mosquitoes, for example, caused more than 2,000 people in the U.S. to develop West Nile virus last year and the Andes mosquito sickened others with the joint disease chikungunya — including the first-ever reported in New York State.
In recent years, malaria, which had been wiped from the country over 50 years ago following careful mosquito control, has popped up in Arkansas, Florida, Maryland and Texas. Dengue fever, which causes severe muscle pain and is sometimes fatal, is similarly spreading in Arizona, California and other states.
Dengue is especially worrisome because older people are more likely to be hospitalized in intensive care, or even to die, when they contract the disease, researchers have found.
Tick-related problems are also exploding. The most common, Lyme disease, infected twice as many people in 2022 as in the previous few years. Meanwhile, researchers have found a 100-fold increase in positive test results for a once-rare condition known as alpha-gal syndrome; after being bitten by an infected tick, people develop a severe allergic reaction to red meat (and sometimes milk).
The increases stem directly from climate change, says Beth McGraw, a professor of biology at Pennsylvania State University who studies mosquitoes. More warm days across the country expand their range, and heavier downpours from hotter air create pools of water where mosquitoes breed.
“People in the U.S. have historically been protected from a lot of these diseases. But, increasingly, that’s no longer the case,” McGraw says.
The lack of protection compounds the problem. If people were sufficiently using insect repellent, “we wouldn’t be finding rising levels of these diseases,” Mainous suggests.
Bug repellent options — and how to use them correctly
Sprays are a common way to apply DEET, but the chemical also comes in lotions, creams and pretreated towelettes.
Use DEET only on exposed skin, not under clothing, which means you should get dressed first, Eggleston says. Avoid body parts with a rash or wound to minimize irritation. To cover your face or neck, apply a small amount to your hands and pat those areas, avoiding the eyes and mouth.
It’s best to use sprays outside to avoid breathing in more than necessary. You can spray your clothing for extra protection.
Different concentrations last different periods of time — from one to two hours for 10 percent DEET to up to 10 hours for 50 percent (kids shouldn’t go higher than 30 percent, Eggleston says) — so be sure to reapply if you’re still outside after that time. You can wash off the chemical with soap and water when you get home, although it’s not dangerous to leave it until your next shower, Eggleston says.
For those who prefer not to use DEET, the EPA also sanctions picaridin, catnip oil and citronella oil as effective repellents, although Mainous notes they have not been as intensively studied. What’s more, research published in February found lemongrass, peppermint, oregano and eucalyptus essential oils as protective as 10 percent DEET.
Some stores sell clothing pretreated with the insecticide permethrin, another safe option, according to the EPA. But be careful not to confuse permethrin with a skin repellent; it is intended strictly for clothing and camping gear and must dry before you touch it.
Over the years, Eggleston has seen people hospitalized from spraying permethrin on their skin. While not life-threatening, the intensive pins-and-needles sensation that results is something he says you want to live without.
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