Mosquito bites

Hi Bencr85,

Mozzies love me 😔  In Cuba one year, the hotel doctor had to give me a steroid injection because I had 79 bites - and that was from the knee down on just one leg! 😄

We've lived in Spain for more than 4 years now and your question made me think of how diligent I am about protecting myself.  To be honest, I feel like I just take sensible precautions - citronella candles dotted around when we're eating in the garden; and we don't have plant pots with water trays near our eating areas, because mozzies love standing water.  If we're going out, I always spray repellant on exposed skin.  I also carry a tube of Fenestil in my bag, in case a mozzie does manage to get me - it's about €6 from the pharmacy, but goes a long way.  

As for healing, the best deterrent is not to scratch - I have a friend whose arms are covered in scars from scratching bites.  I believe that mozzies inject their 'host' with a protein that prevents the blood from coagulating and that's what causes the itching, so the idea with Fenestil, or any other anti-itch medication, is to apply it as as soon as possible after being bitten.  It works for me and even the largest bite usually stops bothering me after 3 days.

My husband spent some time working in Central America, where mozzies are rife, and he claims that the best deterrent is a sun tan, although that doesn't work for me 🤔  On the rare occasion he has been bitten, he applies the back of a hot spoon to the bite to relieve the itching, but I tried that once and it's not an exact science - way too easy to burn youself!  I guess you have to try various things and find out what works best for you.  Good luck!

Kind regards  

Kim

Hi Bence85

Mozzies are indeed a nuisance. It’s about the only thing I hate about Spain!

As Kimmy11 points out, much you can do to help. I’ve found that the best advice I could give anyone is, DONT SCRATCH. If you can get over the initial itch, it will ease off (in my experience). The scratching really exacerbates it. Not sure I could have resisted 79 tho! Poor Kimmy ☹️🤪🥂

After a bite: Ammonia, also known as NH3, produced naturally in the human body and in nature. (amoníaco). Buy it in all shops ( near cleaning products) tuppence a bucket-full. Or buy it in a chemist or supermarket  (with all sorts of trade-names at "silly prices"). 

Mosquito repellant - 1 cup lemon ammonia (must be lemon) to 1 gallon of water, put in a pressure spray unit and spray your patio/outdoor living areas and surrounding plants (plants live ammonia which is also used in some fertilizers) and mosquitos hate it.

V

I've posted a photo below. Use the one on the left as a repellant, it's very effective. 

Then if you do get a bite use the roll on liquid in the tube on the right. It will stop swelling and irritation immediately. 

These products are available in Mercadona up here, not sure if Mercadona is trading in your area. 

They work 99% for me.

Kind regards, Steve

Hi

In all the years that I worked in India found out the best cure for bites was a FRESH LIMEwhich you sliced and rubbed on the bite also take GARLIC every day  either tablet form or some fresh !!!

Worked for me as they really used to love me until one of the locals put me on the right path.

Cheers

As mentioned already garlic is a big help. Chop it up small and eat it raw on cut of bread & butter. Do that a couple of times a day. Not easy to do but keeps the majority away. It’ll keep everybody else away too of course 😊

I agree with Kimmy11 about Fenistil from local farmacia, but, make sure you don't touch/ scratch the bite. I know it can be very irritable, but as soon as you realise it's a bite then use a wet kitchen towel/tissue and swipe it over the area first, before applying the Fenestil gel. They love my skin so now I always apply Jungle Formula repellant (from UK, we by it at Boots and bring loads over), from mid afternoon, as sometimes the mozzies are the Tiger ones which can bite anytime they like 😣.

However I have been complacent today and thought we were out of mozzie season now, but have 2 bites on my right arm lol. So sprayed myself big time after my shower this evening! I've read mozzies don't like windy weather but if the sun is out and warm, they'll be around. It was warmed up here by 2pm lol.

Regards, Jan.