...I may also have figured out the reason for the dermatitis.

It is possible that I have become sensitive to DEET. Both times I had the itchy skin badly recently were on days when I had been out in the field. And then Saturday morning, my research student and I went out to do sampling...I hadn't planned to put bug spray on but then thought better of it (it looked like there could be ticks in the area and it had not been brush hogged in a while). Within five minutes of spraying, my hands started itching like CRAZY. Unbelievable, painful, unbearable itching.

The good news is I have some Burt's Bees stuff - it's botanical - and it works REALLY well against mosquitoes (it's what I spray on when I garden). Not sure how it is against ticks but I think it's going to be what I use from now on.

I have all kinds of weird sensitivities; one time when I was in grad school vinyl tile was being laid in the building and the adhesive they were using made me go into something that was almost like a severe asthma attack along with dizziness. As soon as my friends pushed me out the front door into the fresh air, it went away.