Best ways of avoiding and treating mosquito bites?

Question

With the long evenings and plenty of BBQs, I tend to get bitten a lot. Mosquito sprays don't seem to work...are there any other ways of avoiding bites and treating them when they occur? Antihistamines are one option, but I'm interested in natural remedies too please.

Answer 1

Hey up hunny.....
Sadly, you can't avouid them biting you. They will do that no matter what, but what I can suggest (and it was the suggestion of my mid-wife when I lived in Malta) Is to drink Tonic Water, It contains quinnine and although they may bite you, the quinnine will repel any reaction to the bite and it is non-medicinal.....Unless you take it with a little gin or vodka, that of course WOULD be purely medicinal!!
Honestly, all I can tell you is that is works for me, it works for everyone else I have suggested it to and hopefully it will work for you too. I still live abroad, just not in Malta and have not taken anti-histamines for years.....Try it. It is cheap and anything is worth a go.

Answer 2

When a female mosquito feeds for a blood meal, several things happen. First, a sort of anesthetic is injected, followed by an anticoagulant, both from glands that are separate from the digestive tract. Then, the blood meal is ingested into the gut of the mosquito where enzymes degrade the cells. The blood meal is a prerequisite for the female to lay eggs. In the case of malaria, the parasite is able to actually live and multiply in the mosquito and then travel from the gut to other parts of the anatomy where it can be injected with the anticoagulant and anesthetic from the "salivary glands" of the female. HIV can not survive inside the gut and therefore can not be transmitted from a mosquito bite, even if that same female were to have two successive blood meals (not very common) within a few hours.

Answer 3

Peel an onion until your eyes water. The onion is releasing toxins. After a shower, gently rub the onion over your soft porous areas. Under the arms, behind the knee, wrist areas, back of neck and ankles. This has to be done freshly so plenty of juice flows. Then gently do the same with a lemon or lime. You can squeeze the lemon and lime and mix together if it is easier. Use a warm flannel to apply the scent, to the same areas as the onion before. A friend actually liquidised all three and just applied them as one with the flannel, and claimed the same effect. Works a treat.

Answer 4

Unless you are particularly sensitive to mosquito bites the best treatment is to leave them alone. Sometime just running a little cool water over the spot brings relief. Another is a spot of rubbing alcohol or cologne wiped over.

Mosquitoes are attracted by carbon dioxide you exhale and by sweat. You can confuse them if there is a strong local air movement - inside an unscreened building a ceiling fan works wonders. The usual natural repellent is citronella, but it may not be fantastically effective.

Answer 5

I have the same problem.

I use Vit B12 vitamins and Odourless garlic tablets plus the Avon soft and sensual green dry oil spray is brilliant.

The mosquito's can smell something in your blood they like hence why some of us get bitten more than others and the vit B12 and Garlic oil change the smell or help disguise this odour whilst the Avon spray has a scent the mosquitos dont like. Or so i beleive! lol

Answer 6

Citronella usually works. Also, if you don't mind the taste and the body odour, eating raw garlic keeps insects at bay - at least it works for me and my family, but not apparently for everyone. Reading another contributor, eating marmite & raw garlic sandwiches should be magic!

The best simple remedy for itching bites is an ice-cube on the spot. If no ice is available, just water to cool the skin. Otherwise you're down to one of the many analgesic creams formulated for just this purpose. I'm also told that taking antihistamine tablets (sold for hayfever or travel sickness) stops the bites from being too annoying, but I haven't tried it myself.

Answer 7

Products with deet work best for applying to the outside but since you are looking for a natural product, taking zinc is the best solution that I've found. It does need to build up in you system. Before a long backpacking trip, I would start taking zinc several weeks in advance. Deet on the outside and zinc on the inside, no mosquito will come near you!

Answer 8

Cover up as much as possible - the little so-n-so's can only bite your skin they not big enough to bite through your shirt. Grow plants that the mossies dislike near the area you have your barb-e-Q (yep I cant spell) they make insect repellant sprays but they are probably not all that effective, but anything better than nothing. As for treatment (natural) ask a good herbalist.
Be aware that as our climate seems to be warming there is a possibility of nasties like malaria reaching us here in the uk eventually so any signs of anything bad head for your GP.
(Just to cheer you up)

Answer 9

Vitamin B1 in large doses (harmless as water soluble) makes you taste funny to them and they don't bite. There is a gadget on the market to treat bites, I have one, it has a pizo electric crystal in it and you put it on the itchy spot and press the trigger and it gives off a tiny electric charge that stops it itching. But I'm sorry I've lost the packaging and can't remember what its called. Its a little yellow and black gadget about an inch long and works really well, I got mine from a health food shop; try asking around.

Answer 10

Mosies hate the smell of lemon, when on holiday i fill a net with cotton wool and soak in in lemon juice, since doing this ive never been bit on holidays again.
I would say maybe garden candles that are sented citrus.
Use a perfume that smells of lemons
See if u can get lemon spray for ur clothes
Hope something here will help u