Mosquito bites...

[MrCanary]

Earlier this week, in Norfolk, I was bitten by a horsefly and my hand swoll up to the extent I had to take my rings off. This reminded me of how I regularly get attacked by mosies when I am in France. I always seem to be their target whilst my wife hardly ever gets touched!

Lots of people have suggested preventitive measures, but most seem ineffective.

Has anybody got any suggestions that really work?

 

[Chris Head]

Deet. It's an effective repellant, I've got some really strong stuff, 98% I think.

If you're bitten heat is effective at relieving the bite. Put some boiling water in a cup, drop a teaspoon in for a few seconds and then press the back of the heated teaspoon against the bite, OK it might hurt a bit but it's effective.

[YCCMB]

This sounds quite stupid but I read it on another forum and tried it and it does seem to work: sellotape.If you stick a small piece over the mozzie bite, it really seems to stop itching. Of course, you may then have to explain why you're covered in bits of sellotape...............[:D]

[Pierre ZFP]

In an 'Outdoors' shop in Strasbourg I saw a little device which you pressed over a mozzie bite and clicked the top repeatedly.  It delivered high voltage shocks to the area [blink]  I didn't get one (it was quite expensive I think) but has anyone tried this?

[Cat]

I remember reading somewhere that mozzies don't like the smell of B vitamins in the bloodstream, could be true as I rarely get bitten, and am a Marmite lover.  Of course, for some people that cure could be worse than the bite [+o(]

If you do get bitten, antihistamine cream applied immediately is very good, and aloe vera also works. 

[Pierre ZFP]

[quote user="You can call me Betty"]This sounds quite stupid but I read it on another forum and tried it and it does seem to work: sellotape.If you stick a small piece over the mozzie bite, it really seems to stop itching. Of course, you may then have to explain why you're covered in bits of sellotape...............[:D][/quote]

It will compliment the bits of sticky plaster behind my ears to stop my seasickness

[Pierre ZFP]

Ah! found the thing I was looking for - anyone used this?

[MrCanary]

Thanks all...

Chris - you are the second person who has told me the heat theory for bites.

Cat - your suggestion is one of the bits of advice I have been given here in Norwich. Yesterday, a pharmacist who took a look at my horsefly bite, suggested that when I next head for the Loire, I should start taking 'one-a-day' B-Complex tablets three days before I go and then one every afternoon at about 3.30pm. He said this works for many people with the mosquitoes being put off by the excretion of the B vitamin through the sweat glands. 

[Meg]

I've already been well munched and am covered in bites by something or other [:@]

[Meg]

Ouch the teaspoon hurts! Think it may have helped a bit though.....i have counted 10 bites on my legs alone [:@]

Cat, i have been eating marmite every day for the last few weeks!!

Does anyone know why some people get bitten and others don't. Himself rarely gets bitten. Or is it some people react to bites and others don't??[8-)]

Edit, Pierre i've seen those.....not tried it though.

[Pierre ZFP]

I always get bitten...a lot!!!

I was told it was because mozzies always attack bad meat first [+o(]

[makfai]

Don't know if it works on mozzies but this product is allegedly (See article at http://heritage.scotsman.com/ingenuity.cfm?id=1819182005)    bought in large quantities by the Marines guarding Faslane RN base

http://avonshop.co.uk/

link shortened by a moderator to fit page width

 

[PeterG]

Hi Pierre,

I use one of these little gadgets http://www.roamingfox.co.uk/Zapper-Click-Bite-Relief-pr-16299.html I got mine at Asda.

As I can react quite badly to the little blighter's it does seem to reduce the itching. If I get bitten really bad I take a non drowsy antihistamine tablet.

[Dick Smith]

The other answer is to cover as much of your skin as possible as much of the time as you can - obvious, really, but it works.

[Meg]

[quote user="Pierre ZFP"]

I always get bitten...a lot!!!

I was told it was because mozzies always attack bad meat first [+o(]

[/quote]

Rubbish Pierre...........my meat is fresh and tasty and mozzies love me!

(I haven't been itching since the teaspoon............magic!![:)])

[andyh4]

[quote user="Cat"]

If you do get bitten, antihistamine cream applied immediately is very good, and aloe vera also works. 

[/quote]

Fine unless you are allergic to antihistamine creams - I have had bites blister to the size of a table tennis ball until I realised the cure was the problem.

Now I use a devise for sucking the "poison" out of the bite.  Like a syringe but with a cup over the end.  When you press down on the syringe it sucks out the air.

Also good for snake bites (allegedly) and unlike creams, never runs out.

It doesn't totally stop the swelling but the bites rarely itch 

[Nicos]

[quote user="makfai"]

Don't know if it works on mozzies but this product is allegedly (See article at http://heritage.scotsman.com/ingenuity.cfm?id=1819182005)    bought in large quantities by the Marines guarding Faslane RN base

http://avonshop.co.uk/

link shortened by a moderator to fit page width

 

[/quote]

This is used in the Amazon Jungle and works better than anything else on the market - even DEET!. Smells good too!

It's well known in the equine circles too....

[Morse98]

I heard about the Avon spray working for bites last year, so went ahead and bought some however I must be the exception to the rule as it had absolutely no effect on me I was bitten as much as I had prior to using it. The only thing I have found to work with me is a product called Mosquito Milk in a rollerball type applicator.

Would try the sellotape however as I get bitten so much I would have to totally wrap myself in sellotape and I don't fancy having to try and get it off in certain places![:-))]

[Patf]

Prevention - as Dick says cover up, especially outside in the evenings. In the house - we have screens in the upstairs room windows. We like to have the windows open at night. Pat.

[Gemini_man]

if you're indoors electric plug-in mozzie killers work extremely well even with the windows open all night - the refills last for 45 days - I've been using them as a matter of course for the last 3 weeks or so.

if you're outdoors ..... that's a different matter - apparently citron candles or cream keep them at bay but personally I'm not convinced

my view on it is if you're tasty they'll bite if not they won't - have to admit outside I always get bitten to death [:P]

[Gardengirl]

I suffer badly from bites, and they can really swell up and go a bit nasty, as well as itching like mad. I already take a daily anti-histamine capsule (prescribed by my GP) throughout most of the year for rhinitis (hay fever is one form of this, but is usually confined to springtime); I get rhinitis at many times of year. I use Avon Skin So thingy, (recommended to me years ago by my niece who was living in India, and found it worked for her), vitamin B, lemon-scented and other Deet-free remedies, citronella candles and plug-in electric thingies, depending where I am at the time - in/out-doors & which part of the world. I have also used Deet when absolutely necessary, but am very dubious about its effects -it shouldn't touch various materials, and I'm not sure in my own mind that it's totally safe for me or the environment - but it can be very effective.

I also regularly use those little plastic clickers on bites; these are very effective at reducing itching, and can be bought all over the place including Boots. Even my dubious husband has agreed that they work!

A couple of years ago we were on an Australian island, probably Dunk (yes, really!), and bought an anti-midge remedy. It was in a small round tin, and you rubbed the soap-type tablet on the skin. It smelled lovely - eucalyptus etc, and was amazingly good. I continued to use it up till last summer, when it was becoming very small, and have since lost it. It was wonderfully effective on all the nasties in Australia and all over Europe. I'd love more of it.

On the subject of some of us being more of a target than others, my husband and elder son don't get bitten much, whereas our younger son and I are usually targetted. Younger son has been known to be targetted on the head very badly, whilst others around him have not had a single bite. I do wonder if sweat has something to do with this, as he is a very sweaty mortal, as am I to a lesser extent.

[Clair]

I've read that mosquitoes prefer hot skin to cool skin.

Mr Clair luuuves being wrapped up in a duvet (yep, even during the heatwave of summer 2003) and gets bitten mercilessly.

I sleep covered with a cotton sheet and hardly ever get a bite... (I slept outside in hammock during the heatwave in summer 2003 and didn't get bitten once)

[Tony F Dordogne]

There's a thread about a similar subject on a gardening thread at the moment - there seem to be a particularly nasty typoe of spiders biting away plus some bloody awkward ants - I saw one this morning in the garden, must have been a quarter of an inch long, never seen an ant that big outside oif a wildlife programme.

I'm off to the pharmacie tomorrow for one of those sucking out things - I've been bitten to hell by the spiders in the garden.

[samanta]

I can recomend avon SSS too!!!

 

 

[cooperlola]

Here I've found the best products (repelents and post-bite) are "Steripan" - available in LeClerc.