Here are a few of the more interesting home remedies for insect stings that I've run into over the years.
- Soak the affected area with vinegar.
- Put a cotton ball dipped in ammonia on the bite to draw out the stinger and reduce the pain and itch.
- Smash up a clove of garlic and place the poultice on the affected area.
- Spread some honey onto a clean cloth. Place an ice cube on top of the honey. Wrap up the cloth and place on affected area, honey side next to the bite.
- Kill a rattlesnake and then eat some of the meat every day for the next week. (I don't recommend this one since monkeying with rattlesnakes is dangerous, but I included it anyway because it's the oddest insect bite treatment I've ever heard of.)
Amazingly enough, the honey insect bite treatment worked wonders for me last summer when a wasp decided to kick my ass for disturbing its territory while I was mowing the lawn.
I've never tried treatment No. 5 and have no intentions of doing so in the future.
Chet Day
Editor, The Natural Health Circus
http://chetday.com
P.S. If you have a natural insect bite treatment you'd like to share, click on the comment link below and start typing.
I have read about the vinegar and ammonia but my understanding is that ammonia or baking soda (alkaline) is for bee stings and vinegar (acid) is for wasp stings. (And I assume that hornets, yellow jackets, and the like are wasps rather than bees.)Those guidelines have worked for me. Hopefully, I never have to try the honey and ice remedy, but it sounds very soothing.
ReplyDeleteFor black fly bites, I rub some sliced touch-me-knot (jewel weed, wild impatiens) stems on the site for instant relief. Where I tend to wander in the woods in Maine it is plentiful, though as the summer gets drier, so does the juice in the stems of the plant.
I have always used a little mud or plantain that has been mashed up, which ever is handy. They both work very well.
ReplyDeleteWell Chet, you don't know what you're missing, because rattlesnake is truly delicious!
ReplyDeleteI use a product called Melaleuca Oil (the base being tee tree oil). It is a wonderful natural product that I use for alot of things.
ReplyDeleteYes, tea tree oil can be helpful mostly in preventing an allergic reaction to a bite or sting IFF (IFF = if and only if) applied IMMEDIATELY when the bite/sting occurs. Ammonia (which is a base) is used for stings or bites where the insect is using an acid (such as ants and flies) for digesting the tissues at the bite site. Arnica gel helps reduce swelling & bruising from bites/stings. Clay or thick mud can also be used to help draw out the injected poisons - put the clay on the bite & let it dry & as it dries it will draw out the poison. Homeopathic apis (bee venom) helps some people. Florasone cream (made from a flower) helps the itching. I personally have SEVERE reactions to deerfly/yellowfly bites and am trying to find a reliable treatment.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Chet, pit viper venom (lachesus mutus) is a homeopathic remedy for menopausal hot flashes - and it works GREAT !
ReplyDeleteFor ticks and chiggers - keep your grass around your house mowed regularly and fairly short. (We live in the country.) We have a little dog who has thick hair - we get her "shaved" for the summer so we can find ticks, once the frosts are gone. I discovered Vicks or a little Eucalyptus oil is good for chigger and tick bites on humans AND dogs - helps kill the itch and heals the sore, and ALSO seems to discourage ticks. I regularly check our dog for ticks and remove at the head (look up instructions for removing ticks)with a big pair of tweezers I keep just for her - (I have a container with hot water and dish detergent ready to deposit the ticks I pick). Then I dab the spot with Vicks. I also found that it helps discourage them if I put a little Vicks under the armpits and on the lower belly. You will find that chiggers bother dogs between their toes. You can take and dab a little Eucalyptus oil or Vicks there on a piece of cotton. I don't glob it on - you'd have an accumulation of dirt if you did. My little dog went from running from me to actually holding still and liking being worked on. I do like to bathe her about once a week as well - she's an outdoor dog. I went from as many as 30 or so ticks to 1-3 using the Vicks. (I put some Vicks in a little container we use just for her, and replenish as I need to.) It pays to be persistent. Eucalyptus oil is also a good antiseptic - I used it on a badly infected injury on my leg that was not responding to any other treatment, and within two days the soreness and extreme redness was gone! I kept it up until no soreness or redness remained.
ReplyDeleteI have several remedies for insect bites:
ReplyDelete1.smashed fresh basil OR comfrey leaves applied as a poultice.
2.small amount of tobacco soaked in water and applied to bite.
Both of these even work on fire ants !
3.fresh slice of onion works on wasp- and hornet bites. Just wrap the slice to the sting and keep it there.
Hope that helps
For bee/wasp stings and ant bites, liquid bluing is the best remedy! www.mrsstewart.com
ReplyDeleteI never remove a tick any more. I dap him with tea tree oil. He dies and generally falls off on his own and it barely itches afterwards. For chiggers which used to leave me itching for many weeks, I apply for usually two days after which time they hardly itch at all.
ReplyDeleteMy Doctor told me to make a paste of meat tenderizer and water and put it on any stings that I get. If fact she told me that I should never go camping without it considering I have a mild to moderate reaction from stings.
ReplyDeleteDances-with-herbs mentioned she has SEVERE reactions to deerfly/yellowfly bites. She can desensitize herself by collecting deerfly/yellowfly. Put them in a solution of 50% alcohol and 50% water. This will extract the proteins from the insects. Put a drop of this liquid on the top of your sternum, over your thymus, for a week. Leave it on from 8 to 24 hours. You may want to do it again in a month. (You can decant the liquid off the insects after a couple of days if it is too gross for you.)
ReplyDeleteI had severe reaction to mosquitos, large, ugly, swollen/bruised itchy bites that itched for a week and woke me up at night. Now mosquito bites rarely itch and don't swell. You can use the same procedure on foods - put a dab of the food directly over your thymus.
Just keep in the herb garden plants of Basil.
ReplyDeleteGrab a leaf and rub in the leaf. Go ahead, get the green muck smuged in.
I herd the best cure for chapped lips is chicken shit.
ReplyDeleteMore than likely you will quit licking them, and therefor no more chapped lips.
We have used the ingredients in the kit found at www.brownrecluses.com to successfully treat brown recluse spider bit, and a poisonous copperhead snake bite and rattlesnake bite, hornets, bee stings, fire ants, mosquito bites and poison ivy. It is an awesome kit because it takes the pain away and absorbs out the venom. Activated charcoal absorbs 400 times it's weight. It is my understanding that it is the most absorbitant material on the planet.
ReplyDelete