I hate DEET for that reason too. I've used Cutter repellent with picaridin a few times and it seems to work okay. Obviously the benefit is that it doesn't eat up your gear. I was hiking a few months ago and for some reason the black flies and gnats were utterly terrible so I sprayed on the picaridin but it hardly seemed to do anything. Maybe the Cutter brand doesn't have a very high concentration or something but I was a little disappointed.