Aside from concerns re effectiveness and possible medical side effects from insect repellents, one also needs to consider how it may interact with things it gets on. For instance, the deet-based insect repellent and or the sun block we were using dissolved part of the finish on my son's Remington 870 Express shotgun. OTOH, I used the same products, but it/they didn't affect the different finish on my Remington 1100.

So the moral is be careful with chemicals around things you handle.

John