DEET-Free Bug Spray, Sorted by Active Ingredient, and What Each Label Says

What EPA registration does and does not tell you

The CDC's page on preventing mosquito bites (updated August 28, 2024) says to use "EPA-registered insect repellents with one of the following active ingredients" and lists DEET, picaridin, IR3535, oil of lemon eucalyptus, para-menthane-diol and 2-undecanone. It does not rank them, and neither do we. EPA says registration "indicates that they have been evaluated and approved for human safety and effectiveness when applied according to instructions on the label." A label is a legal document: when we quote one, we give the date EPA accepted it.

A botanical balm that carries no registration number is a different thing, not a worse-labeled version of the same thing. It is lawful under FIFRA 25(b) if every ingredient is on EPA's minimum-risk list and on the label. It also has no registered effectiveness data, which is why the botanical products on this page are kept to their own shelf.

The under-three rule, and where the labels differ

"Do not use products containing OLE or PMD on children under 3 years old" is the CDC's guidance, on both its mosquito and its tick pages (updated August 28, 2024). The Repel and Cutter label (EPA Reg. No. 305-62, accepted January 15, 2025) prints it as "Do not use on children under the age of three years." The OFF! Botanicals label (4822-612, accepted December 19, 2025) prints "Do not use on children under the age of three."

Not every OLE label does. The master label for 84878-2, on which Natrapel is named as an alternate brand (accepted January 6, 2026), prints no under-three precaution; its optional claims include the California statement below. Murphy's Naturals, which we associate with the same registration only through outside records and not through its own page, says on its own page that it is "not registered by California for use on children under three," and that EPA removed an age restriction from 30% OLE products. The CDC Yellow Book (2026 edition, updated April 23, 2025) says certain OLE-only products at 30% or less can be used on children under three and that parents should always read the product label, and it also says that, in general, parents should not use OLE or PMD products on children under three. EPA's page on using repellents safely (last updated November 10, 2025) says some oil of lemon eucalyptus products should not be used on children under the age of three, and also that there are no restrictions on children under three for certain products with oil of lemon eucalyptus as their sole active ingredient at concentrations of 30% or less.

We follow the stricter CDC page for every OLE and PMD product here and tell you what each label says. For a child under three, mosquito netting, long sleeves and avoiding dawn and dusk come first, and your pediatrician decides about anything more.

Products we read and did not pick

The CDC lists picaridin and IR3535, and most of these are EPA-registered (the OFF! Adults & Kids and Avon pages print no registration number). Each is here for the reason given beside it, which is printed by the maker, on EPA's label or on the maker's safety data sheet. All were read on 2026-10-26.

• Sawyer 20% Picaridin, 4 oz pump spray. Twenty percent picaridin. Sawyer's safety data sheet file is named for EPA registration 54287-22, which EPA lists as Insect Guard 3023 under another registrant (EPA's list does not name Sawyer, so the match rests on the file name); the newest label EPA lists for it is dated February 14, 2022. Sawyer's page prints neither a registration number nor any other ingredient. Sawyer's safety data sheet (January 27, 2025) lists polyethylene glycol at 18 to 24%. The label says "Do not apply to the hands of small children" and prints no age limit; Sawyer's page says the spray is safe "on children as young as six months of age," which is the maker's claim and is not on the label.
• Natrapel Picaridin, 6 oz. Twenty percent picaridin, EPA Reg. No. 56575-15, label accepted January 6, 2026 (Natrapel's page does not print the number; we matched it by the brand name on EPA's label). The maker's page lists "Water, Ethyl Alcohol, Polyethylene Glycol, Fragrance."
• Ranger Ready Picaridin Insect Repellent. Twenty percent picaridin, EPA Reg. No. 93221-1 (from EPA's list; the maker's pages do not print it). The product pages for both the Orange and the Scent Zero versions list "Water, Alcohol, Propylene Glycol, Fragrance." The newest label EPA lists for it is dated April 26, 2021, and EPA's list shows the registration was transferred on November 13, 2024, so a bottle in your hand may carry newer wording.
• OFF! Clean Feel aerosol and spritz, and Deep Woods MAX. Twenty percent picaridin (4822-564 and 4822-556). The other ingredients are one combined "80%" line, which is acceptable on this page's own rule for a registered product. The gel is the one we picked only because it names them. These sprays are registered and did not meet our pick test only because they do not itemize the other ingredients. OFF!'s directions differ from the gel's: for these sprays they read "For children 1-10 years, only apply one time per day," and for the gel "2 years and up." Read the bottle in your hand.
• OFF! Adults & Kids (picaridin 10%). The lotion's own page says suitable for children aged 3 months and older in one place and 6 months and older in another, and the pages do not print a registration number, so we could not settle its age claim.
• Avon Skin So Soft Bug Guard Plus IR3535 (three products). Each combines IR3535 with a sunscreen; the sunscreen ingredients named on the aerosol and the lotion include octinoxate and oxybenzone (the third page lists no sunscreen actives). We recommend buying repellent and sunscreen separately.
• Cutter All Family (IR3535 20%). The maker's product page and its pack label disagree: the page prints "Do not use on children under the age of three years," while the maker's 2023 pack-artwork PDF prints no age limit. We found no Amazon listing for it through the product API we use on 2026-10-26, so it would be our first IR3535 product if it appears.

Where this leaves our cheat sheet's ingredient list. The bug repellent cheat sheet has listed propylene glycol among the ingredients its picks avoid. OFF! Clean Feel Clear Gel names propylene glycol, and it is the only picaridin product we read that names all its other ingredients with no PEG or fragrance among them. We kept the gel and said so here rather than quietly bending the rule. If propylene glycol is a line you will not cross, the gel is not for you, and the OLE and botanical products on this page are the alternatives.

We have not read any 2-undecanone product, and we did not get past the front page of Bite Blocker or Coleman Botanicals.

On the mainstream shelf: the DEET labels

The CDC lists DEET among the six ingredients for EPA-registered repellents. This page is DEET-free by design and gives no verdict on DEET; below are label facts only, read 2026-10-26.

Product	Active and registration	Children, per the maker's page and label
OFF! Deep Woods V aerosol	"DEET - 25%"; 4822-167	"Do not allow children to handle this product. Do not apply to children's hands." No age limit printed in the text we read.
Cutter Backwoods 6 oz aerosol	"DEET 25.0%"; 305-51-121 on the page	"Do not apply to children's hands. Do not allow children to handle this product." No age limit printed in the text we read.
Repel 100 4 oz aerosol	"DEET: 98.11%"; 305-30 per EPA's list	"Do not allow children to handle this product." and "Do not apply to children's hands." No age limit printed in the text we read.

The yard, and putting it on

Emptying standing water once a week reduces mosquito breeding near the house: plant saucers, buckets, watering cans, gutters, birdbaths. Do it alongside repellent, not instead of it. Apply a repellent to your own hands first and then to a child's exposed skin, never onto a child's hands, and keep it away from eyes and mouth. Our bug repellent cheat sheet is the at-a-glance buying list; this page is organized by active ingredient and shows the labels.

What this page cannot tell you

We read maker pages and EPA labels; we did not test any product, taste or smell any of them, or contact any company. We do not say how many hours a repellent lasts. Where a maker gives a figure, it is the maker's, and EPA's optional label text is not a guarantee. We could not confirm which retail product several OFF! registration numbers belong to. Labels were read on 2026-10-26, and several OFF! labels were re-accepted in July and August 2026, so we will re-read every quoted label in January 2027. The jar or bottle in your hand wins.