We Asked AOA Families What They're Actually Using for Tick Protection This Season. One Product Came Up Over and Over.

Every spring we survey our members about what gear they're actually using — not what they bought, not what they intend to use, but what they reach for every time they head out the door. This season, one product came up in our tick protection responses more than any other: TrailPatch by NatPat.

We started seeing it in the members' forum in late 2024. By March 2025 it had generated more discussion than any other single product in the outdoor health category. We reached out to members who had mentioned it and asked them to share their experiences in their own words.
What follows is a selection of those responses, edited only for length. The pattern across them is consistent enough that we felt it was worth sharing with the full membership.

What Our Members Are Saying

What Makes TrailPatch Different

The pattern in these responses — children who apply it themselves, adults who switched from DEET, consistent results across different environments — points to two things: the format and the delivery technology.

TrailPatch is a sticker. It goes on clothing, not skin. The active ingredients — Geranium, Peppermint, Thyme, and Cedarwood essential oils — are microencapsulated in NatPat's proprietary AromaWeave™ biodegradable bamboo nanofibre technology, which releases them consistently over up to 8 hours rather than evaporating within the first hour like a spray.

AromaWeave™: the controlled-release technology behind TrailPatch's 8-hour protection.

The sticker format solves the problem that has made tick prevention unreliable for families for years: child compliance. Children who refuse sprays, wipe off lotions, and resist anything that smells chemical will put on a sticker with a fun design without being asked. As Rachel T. from Portland put it: "My youngest calls them her adventure badges."

The AOA's Position

We reviewed TrailPatch's ingredient safety data and mechanism of action before agreeing to this partnership. The essential oil blend has documented repellent activity against tick species in peer-reviewed research. The AromaWeave™ controlled-release format addresses the primary limitation of plant-based repellents — duration — in a way that no spray or lotion can match.

Our recommendation is straightforward: if you have children who resist chemical repellents, TrailPatch is the most practical tick protection option we have seen. A repellent that children willingly wear on every outing is more protective than a chemically superior product that gets skipped.