Summer season means more time outdoors. Unfortunately, that can mean a lot more exposure to mosquitoes and ticks. Here are the repellents which offer the best protection.

As director of a nature conservatory, Steve Ricker spends a lot of time outdoors which means he's no stranger to insects.

"I've been bit by many, many, many, many bugs over the years, so it's part of the job," Ricker said.

Besides wearing a hat, long sleeves, and long pants, he always makes sure to use insect repellent.

Consumer Reports just tested 10 repellents to see how well they protect against two different types of mosquitoes, plus deer ticks.

"Several of the repellents we tested contain the active ingredient deet -- but no more than 30 per cent. And others use newer chemicals like picaridin," Consumer Reports' Kim Kleman said.

One repellent, the Repel spray, uses lemon eucalyptus oil, another chemical. And two other products tested claim to be "all natural" -- Burt's Bees All Natural Herbal Insect repellent and organic Bite Blocker Xtreme.

Several brave panelists at an outside lab bared their arms to test repellents. The first test was for mosquitoes and the repellent worked. Mosquitoes avoided the treated skin.

Next, the repellents were tested against deer ticks. When the arm is untreated a tick will move right up the arm. But on an arm treated with repellent the tick made a U-turn to get away. But some repellents worked better than others.

"The Burt's Bees repellent performed the worst, offering only a fraction of the protection that the others did," Kleman said.

In the end, six products kept mosquitoes and ticks away for at least seven hours. Four are available in Canada:

  • Off Family Care Smooth & Dry
  • Off Deep Woods Sportsmen 2,
  • Cutter Backwoods Unscented
  • Natrapel 8-hour with picaridin (if you don't want to be exposed to the chemical deet)

"The repellents we tested generally had a strong smell and left a slight residue on the skin, but testers found the Cutter Backwoods Unscented, while it had a slight smell, left barely a hint of residue," Kleman said.

And finally, if you wear a hat, Ricker suggests you spray your hat as well.

"It's very effective," he said.

And in case you were wondering, all of the bugs used in Consumer Reports tests were disease-free and that's something you can't guarantee out in nature.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Chris Olsen