If there’s one thing I’ve learned through our camping adventures this summer, it’s that nothing will inspire me to ditch my “green” ways quicker than insects that bite. But after that first DEET-filled day, the guilt set in, and I started looking for healthier alternatives that actually work.
Enter EcoSMART. It turns out that you really can have environmentally sensitive insect repellents! Thank goodness. My guilt is soothed, my children remain unbitten, and life is good.
For today’s contest, one lucky Want Not reader is going to receive an EcoSMART value bundle (winner’s choice). This is a great way to introduce yourself to a variety of their products, and free is our very favorite price, right? Right!
Want to win? First go read the contest rules and regulations, then come back here and leave a comment on this post by 11:59 p.m. Eastern (8:59 p.m. Pacific) on Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 to be entered. The winner will be determined by random number generation and greenness of aura. (Wait. Is a green aura good? Maybe that’s not a great idea….)
Ready? Go!
My name is Mir, and I'm a bargainholic. (In my spare time, I'm also a
booo for bugs!
Winning this might mean that my family agrees to go camping again this summer! Whee!
I am so green you’d think I was about to be sick. I am so green shamrocks pale next to me. I am so green….
Ohh me please!
how fabulous!
i want to be deet free
help me rid myself of deet.
I hate bugs!!
seriously? how much do i love that you have introduced this to me? my child has the most sensitive skin in america (excepting maybe chickadee’s), and we live in the buggiest area on the planet. would love some of this stuff…am checking it out either way!
Oh my goodness this would be perfect! I have been wondering what to do about my nine month old and the insects we are sure to encounter in Maine in a few weeks. This would be wonderful!
Going camping, need the bug spray.
Oh please be me! I have 2 little kids and a huge mosquito ridden lawn. they peer out the window, begging to go out….please Mir, let them go out!!!
Count me in!
Oooo! So allergic to insect bites and stings! Pick me! Pick me!
I’m headed to the great outdoors and will need this.
I’d love to try it out.
Mir, you know how to scratch my itch.
My SHOPPING itch. Don’t look at me like that.
Sounds like a great product!
Oh, I’d love to try these products!
oh pick me please
Pesky pests make me crazy!
Pick me, the DEET fan.
Bugs love me best (unfortunately)! Crossing my fingers…
I am totally covered in mosquito bites today. I need repellent!
Goodness do we need this…my kids are covered in bug bites right now!!
Oooh! We NEED this! Pick me, please.
I’d love to try a deet free product that works!
Oh I’d love this! I hate using deet on kids.
We’re taking our girls on their first camping trip next month, so this would be WONDERFUL!!!!
Safe Picnic Value Bundle would be perfect!
I don’t know if its plain ignorance or just laziness, but I usually don’t carry or put on bug spray when I am out in the woods or even our backyard. There is something in me that says ‘oh well..” Sure, the red bite marks hurt and look gruesome later, but they’ll leave and it’s all part of the natural process, I figure. Of course, I do take care of my son and DH’s needs and will spray them with FamilyCare from SC Johnson. But, now that we are frequenting our local health food store, we are aware of more choices. Thanks for your suggestions too.
The baby girl and I would love this!
Backyard bbqs by the pool would be ever so much better if I win!
This would be nice to get.
I would really like to win these products
Going camping soon — and the natural insect repellents I’ve tried so far seem to attract insects.
Wouldn’t it be nice to enjoy my hammock for more than April, May, and October…
I’m just itching to see who wins this.
Bugs love me but the feeling isn’t mutual. Please help me break up with bugs in a healthy way!
Sounds great, thanks!
I get eaten alive by mosquitoes!
please let me win!
Ugh. Bugs love our yard. I would love a better way to avoid them!
The mosquitoes, they think I am delectable.
I do daycare and I am always looking for things like this!!
Oooh! Living in the NorthEast after an unusually rainy spring makes bug repellent my new summer perfume. Please let me be the winner!
Green is a pretty color.
OOh, I would love the safe picnic bundle, please! Itch-free picnics are the best!
Would love to be “bug Free” for the rest of the summer!!
Me Me Me!
Thank you. I’d love one.
Oh, please let me win this. We have the worst mosquitoes and the seem to be actually resistant to even Deet, so I’m willing to try anything.
In the Adirondacks bugs rein supreme. Give me DEET-free help, please!
might make my bee sting heal better.
Sounds nice!
Pick us!! Our family need it.
Awesome for our jungle of a backyard!
My husband was just saying that we should go camping. Bug free would be great!
The kids already have a few bites, but better late than never!
My kids are bug magnets but I really hate using deet products. This looks like a winner. Feel gree to choose my number!
Thanks, Mir, for putting this product up on the blog!
I live in swampy florida – pick me!!
We can see a creek from our backyard. I can’t go out to water my plants without getting bitten. I would love to try this!
what a great idea!
Pick me for the Safe Outdoor bundle please!
I had to go back to Deet too, thanks for bringing this to my attention!
i’d love to try that bug spray!
Sounds like a great product! May just have to go buy some if the number generator doesn’t like me this time. (It is a pretty number generator though, I have to say that!)
Insects that bite make me cry. I would slather myself in 90% DEET if it would keep the bugs away. But I would be happier and healthier with something green, I know.
yeah!
Thank you!
This would be great for my husband to try.
I HATE bugs!! Thank you.
I would love to try that out…allergic to several kinds of bits and stings.
Bugs bite!
Please oh please. I’m stratching at a dozen bites today
Deet free sounds great. Bugs seem to love me. Sweet Meat???
would love to try this!
Could really use this!!! Thanks!
Sounds great!
Would love to try this.
I love going for hikes in the woods with my kids. DEET free would be the way to go, too, of course! Woohoo!
Bugs love me – and I hate them!
I’m itching to try it
I would soooo love to get this.
Save my family from the mosquitos! Even if don’t win, thanks for the product info.
I so need this.
This would be AWESOME. Thanks for the chance!
We would love this – TX summers = mosquitos!
Pick me!
Okay so we just got this new puppy (even though I am…er…*NOT* an animal lover) and we have been spending SO MUCH TIME outside in the humid, mosquito-y Georgia outdoors. I have never picked so many ticks off of myself and my children. Shudder and Gross. I suppose if there is no way we can actually permanently de-bug the entire state of Georgia, I suppose a pet-and-child-friendly bug spray would be almost (okay, not really) as good. So…ahem…consider me entered.
We use SSS by Avon here but would love to try an alternative that is green. The mother of one of the children in my childcare is in the Sustainabilty Dept here at our University and I will be passing the link along to her. Thanks!
please make me invisible to the state bird of SC… the Skeeter.
Do I get an extra pity vote if I tell you my kitchen is currently invaded by ants and they’re the kind that I have to let live to take the bait back? Either way, I am ALL about the bug spray this week!
My son can’t use DEET because of a medical condition/prescription, so this would be great for him.
Thanks, Mir!
My children taste oh so good to mosquitos. They have huge welts allll over them. No matter what I do. Sniff.
EcoSMART is my favorite. Thanks!
Thanks Mir!
I would love to give it a try!
I’m a mosquito buffet over here! Please pick me!
We would love to give it a try!
Being Deet free and bug free would be great!
Despite my attempt at being green, we are not stingy with the DEET. Would love to find an alternative.
I’ve tried natural alternatives that don’t seem to work. I’d love to give this one a chance…
This would be awesome for our camping trips!
Sounds interesting – I’ll try anything to keep from being a bug’s banquet again.
Sounds great!
oh yay..who likes pesky bugs anyway?
Oooh this would be great!!
Thank you for this! We moved into a new house last year and are shocked by the number of mosquito that also hang in our ‘hood.
Would love to try this!
i’d love it
As the mosquito magnet in the fam, I would love to try this freebie to see if it works.
This sounds like a great product!
Great product. Count me in please.
We would love this! Thanks Mir
This would be awesome! My daughter is a magnet for biting bugs, with or without bug spray!
My husband is always looking for something new to fend off bugs. Pick us?
This would be great for the remainder of the summer, which will last another 5 months here in Texas!
Ooh, yes!! I’m in!!
We could definitely use this!
Oooh. I could save my daughter from so many “’squito bites!”
we would love to try this!
I would love to try this for my little ones with sensitive skin.
Sign me up. My poor son seems to attract skeeters, and ends up with big welts all over his legs.
We are a tree huggong family! Fortunately we have lots of trees here in the Pacific NW! Just in case I win (fingers crossed) I will be out of town from 7/23-8/9!
Oh, this would be awesome. My husband is very picky about bug repellant and has yet to settle on an eco-friendly one that is satisfactory to him.
Oh defintitely need this for around the lake and pool!
Very cool. It just has to be better than the useless natural kind I bought. I’d love to try it!
I hate bugs!
We would love to be bug free…
My kids need this!
would love to try it, my poor little guy is allergic to mosquitoes
I HATE bugs that bite, so count me in!!!
Sounds great – was pretty much eaten alive by mosquitoes a few weeks ago!
I currently have 5 mosquito bites….please pick me!
This would be helpful for around bonfires. Thanks!
Thanks for the chance! We’d love to be able to keep the bugs away so that we could be outside more.
there is only a few minutes between the appearance of the mosquitos and the attack of the mosquitos areound here, it seems like they wait until my kids are prancing around trying to catch the lightning bugs to start biting them, we really need this!
I hate bugs!
THanks!!
The Mosquitos are thick around here, send help.
Legs. Covered. In. Bug bites. Send. Help. Please!
My wee ones and I are being eaten alive by mosquitoes and ticks. Yes, yes, yes!
Do they sell that stuff at the store?
Mosquitoes love me, I don’t love them!
I would love to win one of the bundles.
Me, me, me! PLEASE!!
This would be great, thanks!
I found out on a camping trip last year that I’m now allergic to DEET so I’d love to try this….
Oh, husband is a mosquito magnet! We’d love to try this out.
oooo Count me in. The dog loved it when I sprayed roundup in the yard. He since had about three baths just to make sure we got it all out. I’m all for finding something thats safe for him.
I live in Arkansas and have a rice field in my backyard. I do LOVE anything that will keep those pesky mosquitos off of us. You are the BEST Mir!
Great, thanks!
I hate mosquitos. Sign me up.
Please please please?
Be gone, bitey bugs!
According to the map of insect bites on my body, it would appear that I have been a smorgasbord for the buggy world way too often this summer. Would love to try out different options to what is currently obviously (scratch, scratch) not working.
I am very excited about trying this product. My sensitve-skinned daughter is alergic to Deet, so often she goes without any protection. We’re just coming into rainy season and then the mosiquitos take over. Thanks for the chance to win!
Next to being debt-free, being deet free is something I would enjoy. And probably easier to achieve…
I’m itching to win this one! Thank you
My child has an issue with Deet – and I have an issue with Mosquitos. Please pick us!
We just brought home a puppy and we are spending so much time outdoors,doing the potty training thing and would love to win!!
I love green!
Boo for bugs. Hooray for green!
Green is good.
Oooohhh. I get eaten alive by the nasty critters… still, rather than kill the entire planet, would be nice to just avoid being bitten.
I won’t do deet, and I am one big mosquito bite all over. I really hope I win this one!
I’d enter this contest, if I could stop scratching long enough to type…
My husband NEEDS this!
The bugs LOVE me and I would LOVE to have these products! Thanks, Mir and EcoSMART!
We don’t use DEET so it’s always nice to find good alternatives!
bugs, bugs go away!
Count me in. We live in Deer tick central.
out in the great outdoors today and really needed the bug spray.
Oh, please! We are being eaten alive this summer!
Please! We have lots of mosquitoes in Texas.
Green is good.
We live in ’squito land…
I’m so tired of mosquitoes around my house I am considering getting a bat box for my house. That is serious my friend.
Oh please! Our next door neighbors have “a water pond” (unkempt swamp filled with weeds) AND a baby pool constantly filled with water for their dog to play in. Can we say mosquito heaven? And now the ones on the other side have stolen the baby pool for the dog idea. Soon I won’t be able to go outside.
Oh, pretty please. Mosquitoes love me.
Another contest, yay!
I’d really like to try this because we have the mosquitoes that a nuclear bomb couldn’t kill!! I’d love to find something that really works.
181 comments already! Honestly, take an afternoon and spend it working and look what I nearly missed!
I so need this. Considering the mosquitoes that take over our back yard every summer, and the fact that they dive bomb my kids . . .
My kids don’t SEEM that sweet, but the mosquitoes sure think so!
How perfect. Here in Maine it has rained and rained and the mosquitoes have multiplied and multiplied some more. Thanks for the chance.
Great prize!
Deet-free mosquito repellent sounds good. I’ve read that Deet isn’t all that much better than more natural repellents, so why use it?
My numerous itchy skeeter bites beg you to pick me!
Since we need bug-spray just to go out in the backyard, this would be a heaven-sent!
Awesome. We have some crazy bugs in TN.
Thanks for the recommendation! This would be great for our big camping trip next month!
This would be excellent!
My dad is convinced that nothing will stop bugs from biting him. I’d love to try this and prove him wrong!
Always looking for more ways to be environmentally friendly. Thanks for the info!
The backwoods of Western Montana would be a great place to try the bug repellant out, don’t you think?
I <3 green!
We live in a mosquitoe pit, so I am in desperate need of a some repellant…trying to be economical and use up what I have before trying something new, but winning would be a great way to try something new and save money!
Holy moly! Popular contest. Who knew so many people detest bugs? Add me to the list!
Wonderful. . . I hate putting the standard bug sprays on the kids and Skin-So-Soft just doesn’t work – at least for us. MKW
No DEET? I might miss the toxic fumes, but I could stand to reduce my chemical glow.
Love this product line – going camping for 2 weeks – definitely need bug spray. Thank you!
I have the most bug bite riddled child. This would be great!
Here goes nothing!
I would like to be picked, please. LOL!
Bugs like to eat my toddler’s sweet eyelid meat, giving her huge, itchy shiners! Gah!
I hope I win!
Oooh, that sounds good. Maybe I’ll be able to venture outside again before Winter!
Keeping our fingers crossed!
My mosquito-allergic toddler would beg for this, if she cared a bit about being covered with red whelps all summer. But I care! GIMME!
I get bitten by everything – this would be wonderful!
My kids are always being bitten by one thing or the other…just never put anything on them, b/c I’m afraid of all the chemicals. I would love to try this out!
Green is definitely the way to go especially if it keeps the bugs away!
Oh! I’d love this for my little ones when we go camping.
Pick me!
pick me!
Yeah for no mosquitos!
I would love to try this! Thanks!
This would be great for my hashes!
Down with the bugs:(
Ooh, I’ll try this . . for when my kid isn’t already half a mile away by the time I hold up the spray bottle.
Good stuff! Thanks – JEssica
Great giveaway…I hate bugs!
Great timing – the mosquitos just rearmoured themselves, I think.
Whoa – you mean I could avoid feeding the vampire mosquitos my precious blood without soaking my skin in nasty chemicals? Cool!
Hey, I’ll try anything to protect my mosquito magnetic body
Mosquitos and I have a love/hate relationship. Obviously, I HATE them, but they definitely LOVE me.
this sounds great!
I’m sitting here scratching my many mosquito bites…I NEED this!
Would love to be entered. We were up North a week ago and had to use DEET as it was the only way to (kind of) prevent bug bites.
Sounds like a plan
excellent!! been wondering if this exsisted!
I’d love this!
perfect. felt guilty as i covered kid with DEET and then forgot to give him a bath that evening. Worried all next day he was getting neurological damage!
This is great! No bites!
Would love to give this a try!.. thanks!!
That would be fabulous! bug spray that works and is green… impressive!
neat product…I’d love to try it!
Hate bugs – Love free!!
Please pick me! These NC mosquitoes are tearing me up! I also got my first yellow fly bites on the 4th of July, they still aren’t healed up!
This would be great. This year, we found a safer mosquito repellent for the yard called Cedarcide, it makes me happy to use it!
Oh please, please please
thanks,
Ann
I would love to try this. Thanks.
yes please!
I need this!
I too want to get rid of Deet
sounds great!
I hate bugs
excellent contest!
Perfect, we’re going camping in August!
Nice to know there is another product for people like me allergic to bug bites and also allergic to deet. Maybe I can enjoy the summer now
If only I would have known about something like this while I was vacationing in Italy… I still carry the marks of the bites
I would love this!!
We’d love this. Please enter us!
Bugs love me. Help!
no bugs and no chemicals? sign me up!
We have twins with tasty necks (so say the bugs) — would love this!
Haven’t heard of this one…throw my name in the proverbial hat! I am no friend of bugs.
What a great prize! Thanks for the contest!
pick me, pick me!
I would love to be free of bug bites
This would be a nice win. Love those products.
We are just running out of “regular” bug repelent, so we’d love to win some!
I’d love to try this.
bugs love me, help!
We live by water, and bugs love me too. Especially if I go out running at night. PICK ME!!! (not you bugs)
This stuff sounds awesome – thanks Mir!
Pick me!
Bzzzz.
Safe Home Value Bundle, please! I saw a bug and need to kill it in an environmentally friendly way.
My husband has the luxury of bugs hating him, but they LOVE me, so I would love to try this stuff out. Thanks!
BIG mosquitoes in Louisiana! Pick me!
I could REALLY put this gift to good use. I’m afraid to play in the yard with my kids for fear of nasty mosquitos!
I get an average 4 bites/day. HALP.
Ok, I’m very green, but skeptical of any claims to successful insect repellent not containing DEET. I would love, love, LOVE to be proven wrong because that stuff is nasty. Keeping my fingers crossed here in St. Louis.
I am very green, but I have not heard of these products. I would like to win this, so please pick my number random generator.
Sounds great.
Ooh – Deet Free! I’m pregnant and willing to try anything that might work… I HATE bugs!
I may be the last one but hope you make me your first pick as winner.
Regards
Joan
Sounds like a great prize – given that we can barely be outside due to sooo many bugs!
Pick me! I live in La, we have mosquitoes the size of small dogs down here!
This sounds great!
I am a bug magnet and I would love to try this stuff!
Please include me! Every bug that ever existed lives here in TN with me.
What a great thing to win! Yukky squitos!
Thanks for the contest!
Pests *love* my boys! Please save them from Georgia summers.
Me me me!
Wow! This looks great! The lawn and garden bundle looks like it would cover home and camping! Whee!
Pick Me!
We could certainly use these products as our second week of Wyoming Bible Camp is getting ready to start up.
The Eco Friendly…
My daughter has the world’s most sensitive skin. Bugs love her and their bites show for months. I would love to try these products.
Ooh, pick me pretty Mir!
I would love to try these products – I’m a mosquito-magnet, and so is my daughter!
hate pests, love green! thanks Mir!
Sounds good!
No bugs, sounds good to me
We don’t like bugs! Pick me!
Woo hoo, sounds great!
I do NOT heart bugs. Please pick me!
I am a bug magnet! Not by choice! Pick me!
I get eaten alive – would love this!
These sound great. I have been looking for something safe to control the weeds.
I always use vanilla extract for personal bug repellent, but I could try this. Free is always good!
Thanks, Mir!
jess
Green is great — thanks!
Bugs be-gone!
Bug Off I say! Pick me please!
Seeing as my husband is a huge bug magnet, this would be wonderful.
Bugs love my family, so repelling them gently would be lovely.
We have waaaay too many bugs in our yard – this would be great!
Count me in!
What a great idea! Thanks for the chance to enter.
Would love to scare the bugs away:)
would love to say goodbye to angry itchy mosquito bites.
I care for a lack of bugs a great deal.
Let’s keep the bugs away!