Friday, June 6, 2014

Extinguish the Itch and Sooth the Sting!

Already? We’re only one week in to the unofficial start of summer, and biting buggers have started driving us bonkers. So here are 6 timely tips that’ll help you ditch the itch until fall’s first frost:

Stop scratching! When mosquito bites have you itching like crazy, reach for a bottle of antiseptic mouthwash. Moisten a tissue with it, hold it on the bite for about 15 seconds, and kiss that irritating itch goodbye.

Give an itch the brush-off. Put a dab of white (non-gel) toothpaste on the bite or sting site. It’ll start working instantly to stop the itch and reduce any swelling.

Remove the weapon. Unlike ticks and mosquitoes, stinging insects, such as hornets, bees, wasps, and yellow jackets, don’t transmit disease, but they do inject venom, which the stinger continues to release even after the attacker has gone. So don’t squeeze your flesh to get the stinger out; that will only force the venom farther in. Instead, keep your skin flat as you scrape the stinger out with your fingernail or the edge of a credit card.

Tenderize the bite. Meat tenderizer is a classic fixer for treating stings. Just mix it with a few drops of water and spread it on the stricken site. The tenderizer will break down the protein in the poison, thereby nixing its pain-producing properties. Meat tenderizer takes the pain right out of a jellyfish sting, too. So take along a shaker of the stuff when you head to the beach.

Plop, plop, fizz, fizz. Dissolve two effervescent antacid tablets in a glass of water. Then moisten a soft cloth with the solution, and hold it on the bite for 20 minutes.

Zing the sting. It has always seemed a bit ironic to me that an insect that delivers such searing pain can also produce one of the best antidotes to its sting. But it’s true! Just smooth a dab of honey on the spot (after removing the stinger, of course), and the pain and itch will vanish.


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