Mosquito Repellent and Pregnancy: CDC Guidance on EPA-Registered Products
The CDC's guidance is direct: "When used as directed, EPA-registered insect repellents are proven safe and effective, even for pregnant and breastfeeding women." The registered actives it lists include DEET, picaridin, IR3535 and oil of lemon eucalyptus. Look for an EPA registration number on the label, follow the directions, and talk to your clinician about your situation.
Pregnancy turns every product label into a research project, and repellent is one where skipping it carries its own risk: mosquito bites are not just an itch, they are how several diseases travel. So this page does one thing: it lays out, verbatim, what the CDC and EPA actually say about repellent use in pregnancy, with nothing added.
What does the CDC say about repellents in pregnancy?
The clearest sentence in this whole subject sits in the CDC's mosquito prevention guidance: "When used as directed, EPA-registered insect repellents are proven safe and effective, even for pregnant and breastfeeding women."
Short answer: CDC guidance says, “When used as directed, EPA-registered insect repellents are proven safe and effective, even for pregnant and breastfeeding women.” The active ingredients CDC lists include DEET, picaridin, IR3535, and oil of lemon eucalyptus. Look for an EPA registration number, follow the label directions, and talk to your clinician about your situation.
Which active ingredients does the CDC list?
The same guidance lists the registered active ingredients to look for:
- DEET
- Picaridin (known as KBR 3023 and icaridin outside the United States)
- IR3535
- Oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE), a plant-derived ingredient
- Para-menthane-diol (PMD)
- 2-undecanone, a plant-derived ingredient
On picaridin, since it is the one we know best: the National Pesticide Information Center describes it as a synthetic compound made to resemble piperine, the natural compound found in the group of plants used to produce black pepper, and states that it repels insects, ticks and chiggers.
What do the agencies say about picaridin in pregnancy?
The CDC's pregnancy sentence sits above a list of active ingredients that includes picaridin, so the class statement covers it. MotherToBaby, the fact-sheet service of the Organization of Teratology Information Specialists, says picaridin, PMD, IR3535 and 2-undecanone have not been studied in human pregnancy, and that when used as directed only low amounts are expected to be absorbed through the skin into the bloodstream. NPIC's technical fact sheet says no human data were found on the teratogenic or reproductive effects of picaridin.
The developmental data come from animals. NPIC reports that researchers applied large amounts of picaridin to the skin of rats and rabbits for up to two years; the parents' skin thickened, became irritated and developed dark spots, and there were no effects on the offspring. NPIC's technical sheet adds a gestation study in rats and rabbits in which no treatment-related malformations were observed in the fetuses, and a two-generation study in rats whose researchers concluded that chronic skin exposure at doses as high as 200 mg/kg did not result in reproductive toxicity.
In short: the CDC's statement covers picaridin, NPIC's dermal studies in rats and rabbits found no effects on the offspring, and MotherToBaby says it has not been studied in human pregnancy. The DEET comparison is in picaridin versus DEET. That gap is the thing to raise with your OB or midwife; MotherToBaby's own rule is that its fact sheet should not take the place of medical care and advice from your healthcare provider.
What about DEET in the first trimester?
No trial behind this page tested a repellent in the first trimester; the one human trial covered the second and third trimesters only, and the CDC's sentence carries no trimester qualifier.
McGready and colleagues, in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in 2001, assessed daily DEET use in the second and third trimesters inside a double-blind randomized trial of insect repellents in 897 pregnant women. It found no adverse neurologic, gastrointestinal or dermatologic effects, DEET crossing the placenta and turning up in 8 percent of cord blood samples from a randomly selected subgroup of 50 DEET users, and no adverse effects on survival, growth or development at birth or at one year. The authors called it the first study to document the safety of DEET applied regularly in the second and third trimesters, which is also where the evidence stops.
MotherToBaby says most studies do not find DEET use increases the chance of birth defects, and reports one study suggesting hypospadias, a penile birth defect, was more common in males exposed to DEET early in pregnancy, which MotherToBaby says did not prove causation.
A drugstore DEET spray meets the CDC's sentence on the same terms: EPA-registered, used as directed. EPA reports that registered skin formulations run from 5 to 99 percent DEET, so read the percentage and directions; more in our DEET evidence page. The first trimester, with no trial behind it, is the question to take to your OB or midwife.
Do citronella candles, coils, and spatial repellents count?
None of the sources behind this page addresses the safety of citronella candles, mosquito coils or spatial repellents in pregnancy, so this section gives no verdict on them. The CDC's sentence covers EPA-registered insect repellents used as directed, and the label says whether yours is one.
The CDC Yellow Book describes spatial repellents as aerosol insecticide sprays, vaporizing mats and mosquito coils containing active ingredients such as metofluthrin and allethrin. It says that although many of these products have repellent or insecticidal activity under certain conditions, they have not yet been adequately evaluated in peer-reviewed studies for efficacy in preventing vector-borne diseases, that travelers should supplement them with an EPA-registered repellent on skin or clothing, and to use them with caution, avoiding direct inhalation of spray or smoke.
On wristbands, the Yellow Book says the effectiveness of non-EPA-registered repellents is unknown and travelers should avoid them, and that repellent-impregnated wristbands are ineffective. MotherToBaby says natural repellents not on the EPA list, including citronella candles and wristbands, might not work and are not recommended where insect-borne disease is a risk, and that plant oils such as citronella have not been studied in human pregnancy. Candles are covered in mosquito repellent candles, the oils in citronella and plant repellents, the wider field in natural repellents.
If a coil, vaporizing mat or candle is part of your evenings, take its label to your OB or midwife with the repellent question; the agencies cited here have not answered it.
How should you apply repellent while pregnant?
The application rules are the same ones EPA gives everyone, and they are worth following precisely because the CDC's safety statement is tied to them:
- Read and follow the label directions, and be sure you understand how much to apply.
- Apply only to exposed skin and/or clothing. Do not use under clothing.
- Keep it away from eyes and mouth and apply sparingly around ears. With sprays, spray your hands first, then apply to your face.
- Never apply over cuts, wounds, or irritated skin. Pregnancy makes some skin more reactive than usual; this rule is easy to forget on a scraped ankle and worth remembering.
- Wash treated skin and clothes with soap and water after returning indoors.
If you are also caring for small children, EPA's rule for them: do not apply repellent to children's hands; apply it to your own hands first, then put it on the child.
What else does the CDC recommend besides repellent?
The registration number is worth a sentence of its own, because it is the difference between the two kinds of products on the shelf. A repellent with an EPA Reg. No. on its label has been through federal registration, and that number is what connects the bottle in your hand to the CDC's sentence above. A citronella candle or an essential-oil bracelet has no such number, and no such sentence. The CDC's guidance points you to the registered aisle.
Repellent is one line in the CDC's four-part prevention list: use EPA-registered insect repellents, wear loose-fitting long-sleeved shirts and pants, wear clothing and gear treated with permethrin, and control mosquitoes indoors and outdoors. The clothing line matters in pregnancy for a simple reason: fabric is protection with no application questions at all, and pairing it with repellent on the skin that stays exposed is the full CDC picture.
If you want to compare specific registered products, EPA's search tool lets you filter by protection time and active ingredient, and our Repellent Index lets you compare all 631 registered skin repellents by what their federal labels actually claim.
Does pregnancy change where you should travel?
Yes, in the CDC's guidance it does: the CDC Yellow Book tells pregnant women to reconsider travel to areas with a Zika outbreak and to avoid or delay travel to malaria-endemic areas if possible. On bites it is short: pregnant travelers should avoid mosquito bites.
On Zika, the Yellow Book says birth defects from infection during pregnancy include brain, eye and neurodevelopmental abnormalities, and that pregnant women should reconsider travel to outbreak areas and, for the duration of the pregnancy, avoid sex or use condoms with anyone who has traveled to a risk area. It says adverse fetal outcomes have been noted with chikungunya and dengue, so pregnant women should also reconsider travel to outbreak areas for either.
Malaria gets the strongest language. The Yellow Book says it can be much more serious in pregnant than in non-pregnant women, with high risks of illness and death for mother and fetus, and that pregnant women should avoid or delay travel to malaria-endemic areas if possible because no prophylactic regimen provides complete protection; if travel is unavoidable, avoid mosquito bites and use an effective prophylactic regimen. CDC's malaria risk-assessment page says the same to clinicians: advise women who are pregnant or likely to become pregnant to avoid travel to malaria areas if possible, and if travel cannot be deferred, an effective chemoprophylaxis regimen is essential.
CDC writes that advice for clinicians, so bring the itinerary, with dates and trimester, to your OB or midwife and a travel medicine clinician before you book.
The part that belongs to your clinician
This page reports what the agencies publish for the general case. Your pregnancy is a specific case. Bring the repellent question to your OB, midwife or family doctor, especially if travel to an area with mosquito-borne disease is on your calendar; they can weigh your destination, trimester and history in a way no label or blog post can.
Longsleeve is an EPA-registered picaridin lotion (EPA Reg. No. 101457-1). It repels mosquitoes and ticks for up to 14 hours, and its accepted federal label also carries the claim "Repels biting flies, stable flies, black flies, gnats, chiggers, sand flies and Scottish biting midges (no see-ums) for up to 8 hours." It is fragrance-free, with nine disclosed ingredients, every one listed on the ingredients page.
Short answers
Is insect repellent safe during pregnancy?
The CDC's statement: when used as directed, EPA-registered insect repellents are proven safe and effective, even for pregnant and breastfeeding women. The conditions are the substance: EPA-registered products, used as the label directs. For your individual situation, ask your clinician.
Is picaridin okay to use while pregnant?
Picaridin is on the CDC's list of EPA-registered active ingredients covered by its guidance for pregnant and breastfeeding women. NPIC describes it as a synthetic compound made to resemble piperine from the plants used to produce black pepper. As with any repellent in pregnancy, use it as the label directs and raise it with your clinician.
Is DEET safe in pregnancy?
The CDC's list of registered actives covered by its pregnancy guidance includes DEET, alongside picaridin and the others above. The CDC's condition applies across the whole list: used as directed, per the product label.
Which repellent does the CDC recommend most for pregnancy?
The CDC does not single one out. Its guidance covers the class: EPA-registered repellents with the listed actives (DEET, picaridin, IR3535, OLE, PMD, 2-undecanone), used as directed. The choice within that list is yours and your clinician's; the registration number and the label directions are the non-negotiable parts. MotherToBaby says the CDC, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and other major health organizations recommend the use of insect repellents in people who are pregnant or breastfeeding to protect against insect bites that spread disease, and the CDC Yellow Book says that other than its listed safety tips, EPA does not recommend any additional precautions for using registered repellents on women who are pregnant or lactating. MotherToBaby says its fact sheet should not take the place of medical care and advice from your healthcare provider, and neither should this page.
What about breastfeeding?
The CDC's sentence covers it explicitly: EPA-registered repellents used as directed are proven safe and effective "even for pregnant and breastfeeding women." EPA's general rule to wash treated skin after coming indoors applies as usual. The CDC Yellow Book says the same, that EPA-registered products are considered safe when used as directed, even for pregnant and breastfeeding women. MotherToBaby says there is little data on the use of insect repellents during breastfeeding, that it is important to consider the benefit of using them to prevent illness, to follow the same instructions as during pregnancy, and not to apply repellent to the nipple area so the nursing child does not get any in the mouth; MotherToBaby also says to talk with your healthcare provider about all your breastfeeding questions.
Are you more likely to get bitten by mosquitoes when pregnant?
One study says yes, for one mosquito: a study published in The Lancet on 3 June 2000 found that pregnant women attracted twice the number of Anopheles gambiae complex mosquitoes, the predominant African malaria-carrying mosquito, as their non-pregnant counterparts, a mean of 6.33 per night against 3.1 after adjusting for variation between huts and trials. The authors named increased heat and increased release of volatile substances from the skin surface as two physiological factors behind it. That study, and the rest of what is known about who gets bitten, is in why mosquitoes bite some people more than others.
More Longsleeve in your Google feed:
Sources
- CDC, Preventing Mosquito Bites. https://www.cdc.gov/mosquitoes/prevention/index.html
- EPA, Using Insect Repellents Safely and Effectively. https://www.epa.gov/insect-repellents/using-insect-repellents-safely-and-effectively
- EPA, Find the Repellent that is Right for You. https://www.epa.gov/insect-repellents/find-repellent-right-you
- NPIC, Picaridin General Fact Sheet. https://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/PicaridinGen.html
- MotherToBaby Fact Sheets (Organization of Teratology Information Specialists), Insect Repellents, NCBI Bookshelf NBK582767, August 2024. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK582767/
- NPIC, Picaridin Technical Fact Sheet, reviewed March 2009. https://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/archive/Picaridintech.html
- McGready R, et al., Safety of the insect repellent N,N-diethyl-M-toluamide (DEET) in pregnancy, American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, October 2001, volume 65, issue 4, pages 285 to 289 (PubMed 11693870). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11693870/
- EPA, DEET, last updated May 27, 2026. https://www.epa.gov/insect-repellents/deet
- CDC Yellow Book, Mosquitoes, Ticks, and Other Arthropods, April 23, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/yellow-book/hcp/environmental-hazards-risks/mosquitoes-ticks-and-other-arthropods.html
- CDC Yellow Book, Pregnant Travelers, April 23, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/yellow-book/hcp/family-travel/pregnant-travelers.html
- CDC, Malaria Risk Assessment for Travelers, May 15, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/hcp/risk-assessment/index.html
- Lindsay S, et al., Effect of pregnancy on exposure to malaria mosquitoes, The Lancet, 3 June 2000, volume 355, issue 9219, page 1972 (PubMed 10859048). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10859048/
Last reviewed 2026-08-26 · every claim on this page is sourced above