Check places like Whole Foods for "natural" repellant creams.

My favorite sprays are "Skeeter Defeeter" (sp: Defeater?) and stuff made by Cedar-cide. I find those at small local nurseries, or sometimes at Lowe's.

The best stuff, IMO, is made with either citronella oil or cedar oil.
I've used both those sprays and also various creams on my kids with no side effects--even when they were babies (but read the label!)

Since I live in the Houston area--I feel your pain about the mosquitos! Me and my youngest are allergic and we get these welts that swell up about 3" long. The skeeters are always worse in summers after hurricanes/TS, but every year is pretty bad here!

Vicky's blog!

The latest edition of Mother Earth News had an article in it about Lemon Balm. It said to crush some of the leaves and rub them on your skin for a natural mosquito repellant.

There are plenty of natural lotions available also that work really well.

Two things that also helped us out in our yard were scattering cedar pellets and cedar mulch. And also encouraging frogs and toads.

I wish you the best of luck in finding what works for your family!

Avon has a no deet spray.

I made my own mosquito repelent. I bought from a local health food store some eucolyptus oil. At home I put 1 cup of vinegar, 1/2 a cup of baby oil, 2 sprigs of rosemary, some lavendar and some marigold, some mosquito shoo plant which is a geranium that smells citronela like. plus added about 1 tsp of the oil. I put it all in a bowl and let it sit for two day. I stirred it a little. Then I put it in a squirt bottle and spray it on my self my kids, and if we are on the back porch I spray it around outside. It seems to work for us.

i made some my own, my daughter is a skeeter magnet, and these past few years they have been huge and like skeeters on acid!! ya smack em and well they are back up!! and they look funny!! ok so here goes, i use olive oil, ya can get some at the dollar store and target for 99 cents. and i put in 1 or 2 t spoons of mint oil, you can use mint stuff that ya put in your food to taste. but then they say ya have to add alcohol as a diffuser, i don't cuz it don't seem to work as well, i just shake really well and spray on her, it works really good!! no skeeter bites!! and......she smells really good, also you can replace the mint with lavander oil. it works just as well, they don't like that either!!
or lemon. but the mint or spearmint works great for last year. i personally love lavender. ummmm it was
1 pt olive oil
2 t mint, lemon, spearmint, lavender (any of these) oils
in a spray bottle shake really well :')) smell awesome!!
i use the olive oil cuz its excellent for your skin!! the others smother your pores. this stuff won't smother them and it will carry the smell for a long time!! even when your working hard in the garden!! or playing in the pool!! if that dont' work sometimes i will double up on the mint for her, key thing is to put it on befor they get sweaty. LOL
she's only 6 but that girl can really attract them skeeters!! i told her its cuz they know that she loves the fairys so much!! LOL so she don't mind the oils so much, especially cuz of the smell!! LOL hope it works!! :'))

For most adults, a great mosquito repellent is simply taking 300mg to 400mg of Thiamine (Vitamine B1) a half hour or so before going outside. This vitamin doesn't build up in your system and any excess is quickly filtered out by the kidneys. You do have to repeat the Thiamine after about 3 to 4 hours.

The Thiamine causes an odor to be secreted from your skin that the mosquitoes apparently don't particularly like. It can be a little hard to get used to the fact that the mosquitoes still hover and may land, but they don't bite. The Thiamine seems to have worked for my family and most of our friends.

I've often wondered if this might be safe for kids but haven't had the opportunity to ask a doctor. If anyone finds out the answer to whether this would be safe for kids, please post and let me know.