I'm not sure people even tried to keep bugs off themselves. I read the memories of a Yiddish baker in Varsaw a hundred years ago, he describes how the bakery was full of spiders, fleas, lice, mice, rats, sometimes in the dough itself, and people just didn't pay any attention to it. Then he describes with some details how a new decree (from the Russians who ruled Poland) compelled bakers to close their bakeries till they had entirely re-built them along the new hygiene lines, and how all the small bakeries didn't survive, having to close for so long. This was at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Source: Der yingl fun der krokhmalne, Yankl Perelman

There is an incredibly long list of natural insect repellants that reach back to pre-history. Clove oil, vinegar, neems oil, citronella, pyrethrum, and many others could possibly have been used on animals. Clove oil is even used today in natural insect repellants for dogs. The smoke put off by burning spices and plants can also ward off pests and would have done well for anyone near the fire or incense. Herodotus writes about the use of burning castor oil in ancient Egypt for this reason.