Serious bug bites- any home remedies?
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free skin care · Thu May 31, 2012 8:02 pm

Hello ladies- I just returned from Honduras and my body is riddled with swollen, red mosquito and sand flea bites... easily over a hundred, and boy do they itch. It's at that point where I have itched too much and turned many of them into little scabs. Does anyone have ideas on how to reduce itching and help healing? Especially with the expediting healing... With this many bites, I look like I've contracted chicken pox or something! Home remedies? Anything?

free skin care · Fri Jun 01, 2012 3:38 am

Sorry to hear about your bites - you sound like me. Unfortunately, if things are so inflamed, you might need to get a steroid cream and/or use antihistamines. I wish I wasnt so stubborn and used them sooner as I get pigmentation if the bites get too inflamed and red. Now I always have people asking me what happened to my feet Sad

Steroid creams help to some degree. I tried home remedies like natural creams with MSM and other great things (Moogoo) but it as that one step too extreme. Hope yours don't scar like mine!

free skin care · Fri Jun 01, 2012 12:22 pm

I use vigin coconut oil on flea and mosquito bites. Works very well to heal and control the itching.

In fact, if you know you'll be somewhere where you most likely will get flea/mosquito bites, coconut oil acts as a bug repellent, too.

free skin care · Fri Jun 01, 2012 4:22 pm

lavender essential oil really helps.....

free skin care · Fri Jun 01, 2012 8:10 pm

daler wrote:

lavender essential oil really helps.....

I am with you daler! Very Happy

Fri Jun 01, 2012 8:31 pm

There's also the old standby of Calamine Lotion. Smile

free skin care · Fri Jun 01, 2012 9:39 pm

This may strike all as strange, but my pediatrician had me use un-seasoned Adolph's Meat Tenderizer for bites on my kids, something in the enzymes draws out the poison/venom from insect bites. We were in a rural area of Florida close to the Everglades and had terrible fire ants and humongous wolf type spiders (spiders would bite my babies at night)!

You just make a paste with it and water and apply to the bite/s and cover with a band-aide, it also kept them from scratching so works on the itch as well as shrinking the bite!

HTH

free skin care · Fri Jun 01, 2012 11:00 pm

Oral antihistamine for that many bites, should really have started a week or so ago tho. Confused

free skin care · Fri Jun 01, 2012 11:16 pm

Firefox7275 wrote:

Oral antihistamine for that many bites, should really have started a week or so ago tho. Confused

Better late than never, they will at least stop the itch! Smile

free skin care · Fri Jun 01, 2012 11:51 pm

DarkMoon wrote:

Firefox7275 wrote:

Oral antihistamine for that many bites, should really have started a week or so ago tho. Confused

Better late than never, they will at least stop the itch! Smile

Unfortunately they might not with that many bites and a history of scratching, the immune system will already be in overdrive. Antihistamines are more effective the earlier they are started (preferably beforehand) because of their mechanism of action. But that is easy for me to say: clearly one can forsee the hayfever season more easily than a mass bug attack! Sad

Jenp7: one of the best things for itching is applying something cold, the nerves cannot transmit cold signals and itch signals simultaneously. It's really important you don't scratch because that can introduce infection and trap you in the 'itch-scratch' cycle.

free skin care · Sat Jun 02, 2012 12:35 am

Firefox7275 wrote:

DarkMoon wrote:

Firefox7275 wrote:

Oral antihistamine for that many bites, should really have started a week or so ago tho. Confused

Better late than never, they will at least stop the itch! Smile

Unfortunately they might not with that many bites and a history of scratching, the immune system will already be in overdrive. Antihistamines are more effective the earlier they are started (preferably beforehand) because of their mechanism of action. But that is easy for me to say: clearly one can forsee the hayfever season more easily than a mass bug attack! Sad

Jenp7: one of the best things for itching is applying something cold, the nerves cannot transmit cold signals and itch signals simultaneously. It's really important you don't scratch because that can introduce infection and trap you in the 'itch-scratch' cycle.

Funny it has worked for me with Fire Ant bites after a few days and sleepless nights of incessant itching and scratching.
They make a mosquito bite feel like a kiss in comparison!

free skin care · Sat Jun 02, 2012 8:04 am

Just getting back from the beach for Memorial day, I know exactly what you mean.
My son and his friends were fishing in brackish water outside of our house in Port A and got eaten alive! We used the meat tenderizer (I keep it in my bag), clear Calamine lotion, and an Aloe/lidocaine spray that doubles for sunburn relief. We also take Benadryl and that reduces the inflamation and calms the itch for me. If you are prone to allergic reactions like my family is, its also a must in the travel bag.
The hardest part is to resist scrathing but if you are you could use emu oil or mederma. I keep a sample of the Biafine in my bag as as well as prednisone for extreme reaction(which I have a RX for and always comes in handy).
Sand fleas are tricky as they prefer the warm moist areas of your body as well. That was our experience in Mexico and the locals told us to shower off immediately, wash your bathing suits well and apply the topicals along with an antihistimine.
I HATE mosqitoes and sand fleas, ugh!!!
We have a thermocell that we place in the outdoor living areas but if you aren't carrying it around with you all the time, you are prone to getting bit when the winds/breeze dies down.

free skin care · Tue Jun 05, 2012 9:33 am

Another thing that will help is tea tree oil. Next time you go out, use tea tree or lavender EO and it will help repel the buggers.
some bugs are attracted by the smell of your skin- smells like "dinner" to them! So, the EOs mentioned above give your skin a different smell that the bugs don't like.

free skin care · Tue Jun 05, 2012 2:58 pm

Hoping your bites are well-healed by now but for future reference, this mixture is what I use for insect bites and it takes away the itch and sting right away:

Lithospermum infused oil, SheaButter, Beeswax, Menthol crystals, Borneol, Lavender essential oil, Peppermint[mentha arvensis], essential oil, Tea Tree essential oil, Rosemary essential oil, Patchouli essential oil, Juniper Berry essential oil, Cajeput essential oil.

works a treat!

free skin care · Wed Jun 06, 2012 3:05 pm

Thank you all for your help! I am beyond the itching stage now (thankfully), and am trying to heal them with coconut oil and tea tree oil. I unfortunately found mylself scratching in my sleep, so I ended up with a lot of little scabs. Also, those sand flea bites seem to really take a while to heal as I still have small, red bumps all over. Sigh. Next time I will travel armed with all the amazing EO and OTC recommendations posted here. Thanks again!

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