I'm severely allergic to mosquito bites. Mildly allergic to all other insect bites.
My entire life has been a never-ending tribulation of repelling this very insect. I've tried every alternative repellent that has ever been reported, spoken, or rumored. Home brews, all naturals, and secret potions. Garlic, onions, vitamin B, Skin so Soft, citronella, you name it, I've tried it.
They are all bunk.
Nothing, and I mean nothing, has kept mosquitoes off of me other than DEET. Since I was a baby, my parents have been dipping me in the highest percentage of DEET available. If the DEET isn't potent and fresh, I'll get bitten anyway.
Nowadays, they offer higher concentrations than they ever used to. I use whatever has the highest, and it works. If I'm in the field all day, I keep some OFF! Wipes to reapply because it does fade. I'll have to check out Thermacell. Never heard of it.
Also, I've searched the world over for remedies to bites afterward.
I've tried them all too. Nothing but time (a long time for me) heals mosquito bites.
A side note:
For some reason mosquitoes swarm to me more so than others that are around me. I've known about their homing to CO2 all along, but unless I emit more CO2 than others do, I can't figure it out. If you were to ask my wife, she could fill your ear with instance after instance where we both walked through a yard and I got attacked and bitten a dozen times in a matter of seconds and she was left alone. In fact, she rarely uses repellents and rarely gets bit, but I can't mow my lawn without covering myself in it.