Last weekend my family took a camping trip in our home state, Oregon. We stayed on a huge lake, surrounded by coniferous trees, including redwoods. Mt. Hood stood proudly in the background, still topped in snow.

For the most part, it was a fun trip that included activities interesting to both the teenager and the toddler, with an itinerary developed along the lines of my previous post on planning fun camping trips with kids. We took long walks, floated in our raft, did some fishing, and enjoyed evenings around the campfire.

There were a few challenges, though. We weathered a storm (including hail), for one. We struggled with a tent that no one could set up. And we fought that age-old scourge of campers: A battalion of mosquitoes.

Those little pests love mountain lakes. But we were prepared!

We took Buzz Away Extreme Spray, a natural insect repellant. It was important to us to use a product that is DEET-free, herbal, and most importantly, that works.

One thing that makes this product work well is that it comes in a spray bottle - common among the nasty DEET stuff but not so common for natural products. Some herbal products are oils or lotions and more difficult to apply. Being able to spray it on our heads and over our clothes made a big difference in repelling the relentless critters.

We did have to re-apply every couple of hours, but when we did, it worked. I have tried other natural products that seemed fairly useless. This time, I came home with no bites AT ALL. My husband (who used it less frequently) did have bites on his legs.

The only downside is that the smell is fairly strong (think Citronella).

Buzz Away also claims to repel other pests like ticks and fleas. We didn’t run into any of those, but I wouldn’t doubt it. One interesting claim they make is that DEET-based products repel fish as well. Not sure about that although it certainly piques my interest as we did do some fishing on the trip. But the bottom line is that we are not willing to risk the potential harmful effects of DEET for humans.

As I stood by Timothy Lake and watched a swarm of mosquitoes fly around my toddler, I was glad we had our Buzz Away Spray. We might have gotten a couple of bites, but we could have been miserable!

You can pick up Buzz Away! mosquito repellant on Amazon or on the Buzz Away website.

What about you? How do you ward off the critters when you are enjoying the great outdoors?