Rex Trulove
Mosquitoes are major pests nearly everywhere that people live. They can be found from the tropics to the subpolar regions and from lowlands to the mountains. When there are mosquitoes present, people often experience mosquito bites, which cause itchy welts. How can you treat the itching?
Cause of the itch
This is simplified, but when the female mosquito bites, she punctures the skin with a hypodermic-like mouth. When she finds a blood supply, she doesn’t immediately start sucking up the blood. Rather, she injects some saliva into the wound. The saliva contains an anticoagulant to prevent the wound from closing up and to keep the blood flowing.
The body’s natural response to the anticoagulant is to try to fight the substance, much in the same way it does when you get a cut or scrape. This causes swelling and irritation at the site of the bite due to the production of histamines. In turn, the histamines cause the itchy sensations.
Histamines can cause other symptoms, too. Pain can be caused by histamines. In fact, a common histamine response is what we call “hay fever”, which is a histamine response to pollen. Anyone who has suffered from hay fever knows the symptoms.
Treating the itch of mosquito bites
Because of the cause of the itching of mosquito bites, the treatments are usually based on one of two things. Either the swelling is treated or the histamine is treated. Occasionally, both are treated at the same time.
One substance that is known to reduce swelling and to block histamine is bromelain. This is one of the active substances found in raw pineapple juice. Applying some of the raw juice can relieve the itch of the mosquito bite. The issue here is that bromelain is destroyed when it is heated, so it needs to be raw pineapple juice that is used. Most commercial pineapple juice is heated during the canning process, so it contains very little or no bromelain.
Honey can be applied to the bite, too. Honey is usually quite effective, but it has a drawback. The sweet smell is an attractant to mosquitoes, so it is suggested that you only use honey to treat the bite after you come inside.
The juice from crushed garlic can also relieve the itch. This has a secondary advantage, too. Mosquitoes and other biting insects do not like the smell of garlic, so it also functions as a mosquito repellent.
Vitamin C is a strong antihistamine that is useful. Nearly all fruit is high in vitamin C, though some fruits are higher in this vitamin than others are. Using fruit juice, for instance, lemon juice, orange juice, or apple juice, can relieve the itch.
There are a large number of other plants that can be used as well. If the plant has anti-inflammatory or antihistamine properties, it should reduce the itching of mosquito bites. It should be noted, though, that scratching the bite can make matters worse. Scratching usually increases the swelling of the bite, which increases the histamine response.
How well any of the treatments work depends on the individual, as much as anything else. What will work for one person may not work with another. This should be understandable since some people suffer from hay fever and others don’t. The histamine response varies from person to person.
Still, this should give you a starting point for relieving the itch of mosquito bites.
I have always dealt with mosquito bites, to this day. Was always told because I am so sweet. ha! I use aloe gel or cream if I have it, but use alcohol at first and sometimes an ice pack if there are several bites. Have had to take Benadryl before.
I have learned to stay indoors after 5:00pm. They are really bad right before dark.
I have a salve that I can make, but it is more involved than the treatments I listed. LOL
The thing that works best for me is to stay indoors. 🙂
I could see how that would work, provided that you can keep them out. lol
You are very welcome. There are a number of people I know who scratch and scratch. It doesn’t help, but they do it anyway.
nice post thank you very much
Thank you for the information. Good to know. I like keeping fresh lemon juice around, I remember someone saying have your dog lick the spot but I have a cat.
Lemon juice will probably be a better cure than even having a dog licking it. :))
We in the Balkans, all diseases, and even mosquito bites, treat home-made brandy.If you have a toothache, if you cough, you have rheumatism, temperature … this is a good old home made brandy ..I’m a little joking, but, really, when I’m biting my mosquito, I brush brandy and very fast itching disappears.
That is the effect of the alcohol. Rubbing alcohol can work, too, and it doesn’t waste good brandy. (I had a friend who felt the same way about rum. To him, it cured any ailment. Once I got him to admit that it really didn’t cure anything, it just made it so you don’t care. lol)
I need to save this great information the next time we have an event outside. Great information!
This should go a long way toward helping with the itching. :))
I never thought of using garluc to repel them! Will try it on the 4th and see if it repels some people, too. I have found that tge Hulda Clark “zapper” gets rid of the itching. No idea why, but am grateful that it works for me.
The late naturalist and herbalist, Euell Gibbons, said of garlic, “It repels mosquitoes, fleas, ticks, chiggars, and friends.”
Thanks for the advice ahead of time this year. I will have to try some or all of these. I usually scratch them until they bleed. lol
You are very welcome. I know quite a few people who scratch and scratch. It doesn’t help, but they do it anyway.
Oh,,,it helps..giggles. scratch scratch scratch..
You know what I got into this last week? Chiggers! And I thought we didn’t have them…I bet these might work on chiggers too.
They should indeed help. The repellent properties of garlic also do. When the late, great naturalist and herbalist, Euell Gibbons, spoke of garlic, he said that garlic was fantastically powerful at “repelling mosquitoes, fleas, ticks, chiggers, and friends.” lol