How many remedies do you know for soothing mosquito bites? A few surely come to mind, including the drugstore medications that promise to calm the itching. I recently opted for a technological accessory: a mobile accessory that applies intense heat to the bites. I decided to deal with it with grandmother’s remedies.
We are all lucky to have qualities and skills that we evolve throughout life until they become part of our work, personality and hobbies. I have been lucky with some, not so much with others. For example, I’m the one in the group who always gets bitten by mosquitoes.. That there is one floating in the room? We all know who it will hit the bite the trunk. And if I go out in the summer, I’m sure I’ll come back like a Ferrero Rocher. That’s why I always have a remedy to soothe the itching of the bites.
“Hey, ChatGPT. What are the best home remedies to soothe mosquito bites?”
No mosquitoes were harmed in the preparation of this article. The editor was not so lucky.
I already knew most of the grandmother’s solutions; it is not in vain that I have put them into practice throughout my life. But I decided to consult it also with AI, just in case I was missing something. ChatGPT gave me many more remedies than I imagined.
Besides enduring the itch or rubbing my body with sandpaper, here are the home remedies I decided to try:
- Saliva. Who hasn’t soothed a bite by moistening it with saliva?
- Cold. Ice should work, at least it numbs.
- Banana skin. We see that the banana is not only useful for eating or making jokes with the skin.
- Diluted ammonia. I have a friend who did it, I never took any chances. Although it is the main component of After-Bite, I always have a bottle in my medicine cabinet.
- Bicarbonate. I recently did a MacGyver hack of mixing Loctite and baking soda to fix a container, I have both (will Loctite work for clogs? Best not to try).
- Worse. I’m not censoring home remedies, this is one of the most common (just ask Chandler).
- Aloe vera. I have a wild aloe plant in the garden, no problem.
- Heat. This is the remedy that I will face all home remedies: heat applied with the Heat It mobile accessory.
Once all the remedies to soothe mosquito bites were on the table, both those I knew and those that ChatGPT gave me, the most painful moment arrived: put my body at the service of consciousness. It doesn’t cost me much to get injections that I use as a study object, I just have to go out the door of my house. Even as I write these lines: it’s noon and it’s sunnier outside than in a tourist brochure about Europe.
I feel identified with this scene from Lilo and Stitch
After getting my dose of shots, I tried all the home remedies and the technological one.
Saliva
It is not a remedy that does much, the truth is that it only calms momentarily thanks to the sensation of freshness produced by the evaporation of saliva. Better to use it for ice than to soothe the itching of mosquitoes.
Cold
I open the freezer, take out some ice and apply it to the bite. The discomfort instantly subsides and, in addition, I cool down: The remedy is effective for the first few seconds. Once the minute has passed, the itching comes back in full force, it is of no use in the long term.
Banana skin
The feeling of freshness is immediate: just like with ice or aloe vera, the relief of moisture evaporating from the skin calms the itching of the bite. At first, the grain stung a little less, but after a few minutes, it recovered. Yes, it was more bearable, it does something.
Diluted ammonia
Although this is a very old home remedy, it is not something I would recommend to anyone: Ammonia can damage the skin if the solution is not adequate.. To avoid problems, medications such as After-Bite, which contains ammonia for topical use and at the appropriate concentration, are the best option.
Does diluted ammonia work? The truth is that yes: after applying the liquid, the itching relaxes, although it does not disappear. With tiger mosquitoes, it does not calm down completely, after a few minutes the itching returns, a little less aggressive. It did not reduce the swelling of the bite.
Bicarbonate
Walter White would be proud
I made the paste with baking soda and water and applied it to one of the bites that was bothering me. The results were disappointing: beyond the coolness due to the humidity, I did not notice any significant relief from the itching or swelling, either in the medium or long term.
Worse
According to science, urine contains ammonia in a very small solution, which makes it an extension of the grandmother’s remedy above. In my case (Iván, for clarity), I did not do much: I applied it to the bite using gauze without seeing any noticeable results. If the body expels it, it is for a reason, then.
Aloe vera
Taking advantage of the fact that it grows in the “garden”, and that the area is conquered by tiger mosquitoes, I tore off a leaf from the plant, offering my body as a sacrifice. The result was satisfactory, especially in terms of receiving bites. The Ferrero Rocher joke failed.
After applying aloe vera, squeeze the plant a little so that the juice comes outI felt a slight sting that slightly soothed the discomfort of the bite. The relief was not complete, but it is true that it did a lot. After repeating the process several times, the swelling eventually went down.
Heat
It’s time to confront grandma’s home remedies with technology: to apply heat to the bites, I used the Heat It accessory, a resistance controlled by an application that, connected to the USB C of the mobile, applies heat controlled in intensity and time.
I usually set the application to maximum duration and intensity. Depending on the sensitivity of the area, it is sometimes difficult to bear the burning sensation, because the heat of Heat It numbs at first and calms in the medium term. Under my trials and those of my family, This is one of the cheapest and most effective methods: If I have a specific bite, this is what I use. When I have been bitten by several people, things change: it is very difficult to relieve all the bites, if only because of the time it takes to apply the remedy.
Conclusions
After empirically verifying all the methods described, and after letting myself be bitten by a pack of tiger mosquitoes and then coated with different products (yes, also with my own urine), I have my conclusions.
- It is best to combine cold with an effective secondary method. The feeling of coolness on the skin is the instant relief par excellence: when the bite is raging, ice works very well. Later, I verified that applying a secondary remedy in the medium and long term is a good strategy: diluted ammonia is effective, aloe vera seems more natural and respectful of the skin. Both worked quite well for me.
- For a specific bite, localized heat works great.. That swollen pimple that makes you want to scratch your arm… After applying Heat It, not only does the itching disappear, but the relief lasts almost until it disappears. It depends on the bite, the area of the skin and the insect, it has been very effective for me.
- In case of multiple bites with unbearable itching, cold and heat. I often wake up after a mosquito has decided to party all over my body. In these cases, what gave me the best result was to put ice on the bites to calm the itching as quickly as possible and to apply Heat It once the cold has disappeared from the area. The contrast worked very well for me.
I have done all the tests and measurements on my own skin: these remedies can cause adverse effects in other people. You have to be very careful before applying the remedies
The remedies that gave me the best results were ice, aloe vera, diluted ammonia, and heat applied with Heat It Saliva, pee, and baking soda. I would completely eliminate them from my list of home remedies.. And the banana peel is halfway there: the immediate freshness did me good, it also slightly calmed the itching. Which was already a lot.
Cover image | Ivan Linares
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