I beg to differ. Not only is there mention above about biting bugs in Australia but let me tell you about the critters in our own US deserts.
The mosquito - there are parts of the desert with enough water to support mosquitos and their prey. Though they're nowhere near as fierce and numerous as Washington state's.
The horse fly - big, black, evil flys that drill into you. They're hateful.
The deer fly - more innocuous little grey flys that bite worse than the horse fly. I've had them bite through jeans.
The scorpion - fortunately not usually deadly poisonous but still painful as hell.
Yep -- we've got deer flies and horse flies too. I'm all too familiar. (Agree that deer fly bites are nasty, but horseflies are worse. They actually punch a good sized hole into you that hurts like hell. In addition I am actually
allergic to horse fly bites. I got one on the back of my hand one time and the whole hand swelled up like a baseball glove.)
And we have
black flies -- nasty little blood suckers. Small insect and a painless bite, but then the bug's anticoagulant keeps the bite hole bleeding for up to 24 hours. You can literally feel nothing, and then someone tells you that you've got blood running all down the back of your legs.
Not saying these creatures don't exist in the desert -- I'm sure there are some -- but it's all relative. In the north and the northeast US, there are so many of these things that you head indoors at times. There were way, way, way fewer biting insects in the desert areas I've visited than what I am used to.
Oh -- and about DEET -- I can't stand it. I feel like I can't breathe when it's around, so never use it. Plus, anything that will melt the back of a plastic watch is probably something we shouldn't be putting into the environment, IMHO. I'd rather deal with the bugs by covering up, using citronella, or moving indoors at times.
God. Just talking about all of this makes me want to move west right now.