A new repellent designed to keep biting greenhead flies away is drawing high demand along the Jersey Shore, where the relentless insects can turn a summer day at the beach or on the bay into a painful experience. “They’re vicious,” David Showell of Absecon Bay Sportsmen Center said. Jack Klaas, along with brothers Jake and Nick Ironfield, are behind “Greenhead Guys” making a plant-based and safe repellent. Klaas said he has endured plenty of encounters with the biting insects on Long Beach Island and that the bugs have been a familiar summer nuisance since he was a child. “Even as a little kid, you knew that if the west wind was blowing, you knew, that the greenheads were going to be out in force and their bites hurt,” Klaas said. Greenhead Guys’ plant-based, DEET-free spray hit the market this year after extensive research, formulation and testing. The men behind it say that it has already produced more than 20,000 bottles, with sales exceeding expectations. The company’s repellent contains four active ingredients. “That’s geraniol, lemongrass, clove, and cinnamon,” Jake Ironfield said. Ironfield said the spray is also intended to repel other biting insects. “It also works extremely well against mosquitoes, ticks, gnats, deer flies, horseflies, no-see-ums and other biting insects,” Ironfield said. The spray is produced and bottled in a garage in New Hampshire and sold online and at about 130 locations from Maryland to Maine, including more than two dozen shops along the Jersey Shore. At Absecon Bay Sportsmen Center, David Showell said the repellent has become a big seller. “I have people that weren’t customers are finding the store because they heard that I had it and buying two and three bottles at a time,” Showell said. Heidi Moran of Absecon said she had previously struggled to find something that kept greenheads away. “I’ve never seen anything that worked,” Moran said “Live by it. It is fabulous.” The demand has meant long days for the Greenhead Guys. “We will stay up until 1, 2 a.m. bottling, you know, shipping, being just prepping for the next day but we love it,” Nick Ironfield said. The Greenhead Guys are now looking for commercial space as they plan to expand the business. This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC Philadelphia. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC Philadelphia journalist edited the article for publication. ...read more read less