Effective treatment for mosquito bites?

Post Reply
Thornyone
Posts: 388
Joined: 7 Dec 2017, 11:15am

Effective treatment for mosquito bites?

Post by Thornyone »

Yesterday I rode around a local nature reserve, riverside with former gravel pits, now landscaped pools. It was warm and very humid and I was in a shady area and before I realised what was happening I had an large itchy white wheal on my arm. I then collected about 12 bites on my legs. I wasn't wearing my reading glasses but the biter was certainly a brownish fly about 7mm long with markings. I’m pretty sure that the assaults were launched by Culiseta annulata, a large native mosquito with a particularly nasty bite. The bites are now very itchy raised lumps, largest about 3cm across. Can anyone recommend a strong over-the-counter remedy? In the past I have found Anthisan pretty useless. Tea tree oil isn't helping a lot either.
reohn2
Posts: 45158
Joined: 26 Jun 2009, 8:21pm

Re: Effective treatment for mosquito bites?

Post by reohn2 »

Cetavelex is an antiseptic cream that stops the itching.Jungle Formula is a good insect repellent and they also do an insect bite relief spray.
-----------------------------------------------------------
"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
Thornyone
Posts: 388
Joined: 7 Dec 2017, 11:15am

Re: Effective treatment for mosquito bites?

Post by Thornyone »

reohn2 wrote:Cetavelex is an antiseptic cream that stops the itching.Jungle Formula is a good insect repellent and they also do an insect bite relief spray.

Thanks. I’ll go to my pharmacy :D
User avatar
Redvee
Posts: 2465
Joined: 8 Mar 2010, 8:58pm

Re: Effective treatment for mosquito bites?

Post by Redvee »

I've got tea tree oil at home and tea tree cream in my locker in work for bites I get on the way to work. The oil has a strong odour and the cream has a much weaker odour but there is the reconisable odour when you open the tube. Both don't help speed up the healing but they do reduce the itching sensation and reduces the urge to scratch.
Thornyone
Posts: 388
Joined: 7 Dec 2017, 11:15am

Re: Effective treatment for mosquito bites?

Post by Thornyone »

Redvee wrote:I've got tea tree oil at home and tea tree cream in my locker in work for bites I get on the way to work. The oil has a strong odour and the cream has a much weaker odour but there is the reconisable odour when you open the tube. Both don't help speed up the healing but they do reduce the itching sensation and reduces the urge to scratch.
Thanks.
I am a great fan of Tea Tree oil and use it neat on cuts and grazes. I mix it in aqueous cream with patchouli and lavender to prevent athlete’s foot (something I never get now despite plenty of use of communal changing areas). I also use it if I have to do a bit of diy “surgery” on ingrowing toe nails. It worked much better on an infected toe than the “sledgehammer to crack a nut” oral antibiotics which a GP once prescribed me for the same problem. But unfortunately it didn’t seem to be helping on what seem to be particularly vicious mozzy bites.
The pharmacist I went to yesterday recommended hydrocortisone cream and it does seem to have helped: a better night’s sleep last night :D
User avatar
horizon
Posts: 11275
Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 11:24am
Location: Cornwall

Re: Effective treatment for mosquito bites?

Post by horizon »

Since this is an open forum and since you asked, I'll just throw in my tuppence worth. I do accept I'm out on a limb with this but here goes:

I wouldn't touch anything with a bargepole for these bites apart maybe from Tea Tree oil and that I wouldn't bother with anyway, absolutely not hydrocortisone cream. IMV, your body has responded in the best way possible and I would leave it to heal and suffer a couple of bad nights. It may even be that next time's attack is less severe as a result.

I'll leave it there because I know that this POV is an unpopular one, to say the least.
When the pestilence strikes from the East, go far and breathe the cold air deeply. Ignore the sage, stay not indoors. Ho Ri Zon 12th Century Chinese philosopher
Thornyone
Posts: 388
Joined: 7 Dec 2017, 11:15am

Re: Effective treatment for mosquito bites?

Post by Thornyone »

horizon wrote:Since this is an open forum and since you asked, I'll just throw in my tuppence worth. I do accept I'm out on a limb with this but here goes:

I wouldn't touch anything with a bargepole for these bites apart maybe from Tea Tree oil and that I wouldn't bother with anyway, absolutely not hydrocortisone cream. IMV, your body has responded in the best way possible and I would leave it to heal and suffer a couple of bad nights. It may even be that next time's attack is less severe as a result.

I'll leave it there because I know that this POV is an unpopular one, to say the least.

This was the first time I’ve used hydrocortisone. The problem is that I seem to have become a more-allergic rather than less-allergic individual over recent years, and a particularly attractive meal for all manner of munching insects. Even worse, despite having penicillin numerous times in childhood and adulthood, I had a nasty reaction to it last year and can no longer have it.
User avatar
horizon
Posts: 11275
Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 11:24am
Location: Cornwall

Re: Effective treatment for mosquito bites?

Post by horizon »

having penicillin numerous times in childhood and adulthood


The problem is that I seem to have become a more-allergic rather than less-allergic individual over recent years


I rest my case. :)
When the pestilence strikes from the East, go far and breathe the cold air deeply. Ignore the sage, stay not indoors. Ho Ri Zon 12th Century Chinese philosopher
mercalia
Posts: 14630
Joined: 22 Sep 2013, 10:03pm
Location: london South

Re: Effective treatment for mosquito bites?

Post by mercalia »

dont wash - they cant get thru the dead skin and dirt :wink:
crazydave789
Posts: 584
Joined: 22 Jul 2017, 10:21pm

Re: Effective treatment for mosquito bites?

Post by crazydave789 »

take a simple hay fever remedy for the swelling and itching though it can take a day for it to get into your system.

clove oil is rather effective at numbing the skin which might help if you can't feel the itch.

tea tree wipes are good.
hamster
Posts: 4131
Joined: 2 Feb 2007, 12:42pm

Re: Effective treatment for mosquito bites?

Post by hamster »

There's a brilliant Australian product I used to use when I lived in the tropics - Stingose.
You can buy it via Amazon these days.
User avatar
Cunobelin
Posts: 10801
Joined: 6 Feb 2007, 7:22pm

Re: Effective treatment for mosquito bites?

Post by Cunobelin »

Image
Thornyone
Posts: 388
Joined: 7 Dec 2017, 11:15am

Re: Effective treatment for mosquito bites?

Post by Thornyone »

Cunobelin wrote:Image

I like the ingenuity. But much less satisfying than clapping my hands together on a few of them and reducing them to a few billion atoms :)
Furkuk
Posts: 30
Joined: 26 Jul 2013, 10:30pm

Re: Effective treatment for mosquito bites?

Post by Furkuk »

Hay fever tablets every time :-)
Post Reply