I try and spend a good chunk of my time during the warmer months out of the office and working in nature.
It's nice.
Or at least it is until the insects find me.
In previous years I've experimented with a wide variety of insect repellants. From stuff you apply to your skin[1] (I tend not to use DEET-based products for general use because they can damage and melt some plastics) to coils that you burn[2], and had pretty good success with them.
But they all have their weaknesses. What I've always wanted is a solution that allows me to click a button and the insects go away.
I've found the perfect solution.
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This is a two-part system that consists of a tiny device that looks like a hiking stove that screws onto the top of an isobutane gas canister, and a blue pad of repellant that slots into the top.
From that point on the operation is simple. You flip a lever to "on", click a piezo-electric ignitor button, and wait for the unit to heat up and for the insects within a 15-foot radius to get the message and leave.
Each pad contains allethrin, an extract of the chrysanthemum plant, lasts for about four hours (it turns from a deep blue to a white when it's exhausted. There's no bad odor or smoke (sometimes I can see wisps coming from the unit, particularly with a fresh pad), low risk for fire or injury (the unit doesn't get all that hot), and when purchased by the dozen the refill pads work out at a little