When it comes to safety, DEET’s record is about as solid as it gets for any product meant to go on your skin. “There has never been a documented case of DEET poisoning when applied following label directions,” says Swale, who co-authored a peer-reviewed safety review of DEET in the journal Pest Management Science in 2019.

The EPA, which completed a comprehensive re-review of DEET in 2014, reached the same conclusion: There are no risks of concern to human health, including to children. A clinical trial following 897 pregnant women who applied DEET daily during their second and third trimesters found no adverse effects on the mothers or infants at birth or at 1 year of age. In fact, it’s the only repellent with that level of safety data on young children (though experts we’ve spoken to recommend caution with very young infants, particularly those 2 months and younger).