Effective home remedies for mosquito bites – first aid tips

Mosquito bites are a popular topic for supposed horror reports – but only in media that like to cash in with “the sky is falling on our heads” topics. If you look closely, there’s nothing verifiable behind it, although buzzing gnats can drive insane all but the sober Zen master. There are nasty inflamed mosquito bites – but they were scratched beforehand. There are people who have contracted diseases through mosquito bites – but not with us. A little information can help to avoid making a elephant out of mosquitoes, and there are plenty of tips on how to reduce unpleasant bite sequences.

What happens when you get a mosquito bite?

Before looking at the home remedies, let’s take a look at what actually happens when “a mosquito attacks a person” – it helps a lot to classify the remedies. Usually two things happen:

The mosquito sucks blood

The (female) mosquito stings us – the proboscis with its fine spikes scratches the skin in a few places, if there are no nerve cells there, we don’t notice the sting. Mosquito injects a little of her saliva, which dilates the vessels, inhibits clotting and relieves pain, she can now “suck the blood out” of us in peace. Not really, even if it catches us in our sleep, it can’t handle more than about twice its body weight, less than one-thousandth our blood.

After all, by donating blood you are helping Ms. Mosquito to be a mother, she needs a protein meal after fertilization, otherwise the little mosquitoes will not survive. Actually, they eat nectar like the male mosquitoes. The mosquito that is willing to give birth pays a high price for the blood meal: we raise its body temperature from 22 to 32 °C in one fell swoop. Instead of enjoying pregnancy, the mosquito goes through a violent attack of fever until it lays its eggs.

It itches and itches…

… but only if you scratch: The annoying itching is a reaction of the skin – the saliva secretion injected by the mosquito is a foreign substance that causes defense reactions. Histamines are released, leading to increased blood flow to carry away the foreign matter, causing itching and sometimes swelling.

How much itching and how much swelling should also depend on you: If you are one of the “heroes of self-control” and manage not to scratch the mosquito bite, it should itch much less and for a shorter time. When you scratch, the mechanical stimulus causes more defense reactions, more histamine release, stronger blood flow. When you scratch, you spread the histamines over a large area under the skin: scratching causes more scratching.

The itching also depends on how many foreign substances have to be broken down, which in turn should depend on you. Anyone who notices the mosquito after the bite should let it suckle until it is full – then it should pull the secretion out again itself, the skin reaction should hardly be noticeable. Interested scientists with a high degree of self-control will certainly try it, but each body reacts differently to the unknown secretion.

Immediate help

If you have caught the mosquito biting you, you can try to pull the secretion out of the wound immediately:

  • Osmosis, sugar or salt on the sting should draw out the secretion
  • Sucking out and spitting out have the same effect, subsequent air cooling causes blowing

First aid for mosquito bite

If the mosquito sucked for a longer time, the following measures carried out in a timely manner will help:

  • Cool immediately to keep yourself from scratching
    • Theoretically with ice cubes
    • Practically more successful is the handle in the refrigerator or freezer
    • Cold drink, frozen soup
  • Cold prevents you from feeling the nerve reaction (itching).
    • Blood vessels narrow, which reduces histamine release
  • An onion is also said to relieve itching and have an anti-inflammatory effect, such as healing earth, menthol gel, aloe vera gel
  • Also, there are many ointments and gels that cool and contain antihistamines
  • In an office without a tea kitchen/medicine cabinet, a simple ballpoint pen can provide emergency services
  • Retract mine, press the tip several times onto the skin in and around the center of the stitch
  • In this way, the secretion is pressed into the depths where the skin is better supplied with blood, it is broken down and transported away more quickly

If you are on the paddle boat in the middle of the “mosquito lake” and none of these remedies are within reach, a crossed fingernail replaces the pen and a strong “shot of spit” replaces the ice cube – preferably your own, with your very own painkillers and Killing germs, preferably with blowing, that cools you down right away.

Combating the cause

The above first-aid measures address the itching (disruption of nerve signal transmission) and inflammation, or they reverse the effect that histamines have on the body.

All fine, but ultimately treatment of the symptoms, and frozen soup in the bag on the way to work is not so good either. Therefore, here are a few ideas that deal with combating the cause. This doesn’t mean the mosquito, it’s killed or gone, but the substances that their bite leaves in the body of everyone who can’t watch the mosquitoes work quietly:

The mosquito secretion consists of protein proteins that can be denatured. Denaturing means that the proteins can no longer fulfill their biological tasks, which is exactly what we want. Works with heat, according to general laws governing proteins of organisms Heat above 39°C (maximum activity in undamaged state).

The foreign proteins can be denatured with the following methods:

  • Heat, from about 42 °C it becomes critical, as we know from human fever
  • For example, it is recommended to heat a coin to 50 °C and press it onto the sting
  • All that’s missing is someone to tell you how to heat a coin to exactly 50 °C…
  • Hot water from the tap is more manageable, as hot as you can stand it
  • Electrical stitch healers, which act on the proteins at 49°C to 53°C, work more precisely
  • The time can also be set according to the sensitivity of the user
  • Proteins can also be damaged when the pH of the environment changes
  • by acid e.g. B., as with (raw pickled) Bismarck herring and Rollmöpsen
  • So vinegar, lemon juice, cola (roughly the same pH value as the aforementioned)
  • Or – going the other way, basic – soda, baking soda, baking soda (anything that has soda in it)
  • Simply dab on the bite and wait, if it starts to itch again, then “something is still alive in the mosquito protein”

For the body, denatured foreign substances are also foreign substances that have to be transported away – but this is probably easier if they are no longer (so) active. The now no longer necessary further histamine release is also prevented by the heat.

When the mosquito becomes the elephant

The latest panic among Germans, the fear of allergies, is also noticeable when it comes to mosquito bites. There is an insect venom allergy, affecting 1.2 and 3.5% of the population, to all sorts of Hymenoptera, bees and wasps and very rarely even to ants. But they also belong to the Hymenoptera = Hymenoptera; Mosquitoes don’t, they belong to the group of Dipterans that are quite reticent when it comes to “causing human allergies” – allergic reactions to mosquito bites are extremely rare.

They are not uncommon in media that is willing to sell, where a nasty mosquito bite that is completely independent of allergies can turn into the bite of the Asian tiger mosquito, with terrible consequences. There are Asian tiger mosquitoes in Germany. Since 2007, 14 individual mosquitoes have been found at truck rest stops on motorways, but it could not be determined that they overwintered in Germany. Asian bush mosquitoes were also sighted, since the transmission of diseases has not yet been proven, their health significance is currently assessed as rather low by the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment. You can see that the authority is still keeping an eye on exotic mosquitoes in the script of a training event for the public health service in 2014 at www.bfr.bund.

If a mosquito bite looks big and red and weird, a trip to the doctor is in order, but usually it is not an allergy to blame, but vigorous scratching with unwashed fingers or fingers disinfected with household chemicals – in both cases other unwanted foreign substances enter the body. If ointments with cortisone or antibiotics are then prescribed, the mosquito has made it to the elephant.

The danger of exposing people to unwanted foreign substances lurks elsewhere in the human-mosquito relationship: when repellents (repellent or defense sprays) or insecticides are used against mosquitoes, humans themselves distribute the unwanted foreign substances into the environment. The sprays currently sold include sprays with chemical agents, which according to the labeling of hazardous substances should “avoid release into the environment”, and the mosquito repellents with essential oils are described as “irritating to the skin, toxicologically not harmless, with allergenic potential”. This leads again to (media) rumors that mosquito bites are becoming more aggressive because mosquitoes absorb dangerous substances from the environment (there is no scientific confirmation for this, it also seems rather illogical,

mosquito fairy tale

1. The sweet blood
Neither diabetics nor those with an extreme sweet tooth are bitten by mosquitoes more often. Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as “sweet blood”. Blood is a lively cocktail of 90% water with proteins, hormones, nutrients transported to the cells and waste products transported to the sites of elimination. This cocktail is different from person to person, and there is something to it that mosquitoes like certain blood. However, it is the particularly fat and not the particularly sweet blood. People with high cholesterol levels are said to be bitten more often. Even if you don’t yet know how the mosquitoes recognize the high cholesterol level.

2. The enticing scent
Perhaps via the signal source that mosquitoes usually use for orientation, the scent. Mosquitoes can smell from miles away, but they are particularly fond of some scents, e.g. B. determine breathing scents and some sweat scents, such as really nice “smoky socks” (foot sweat), for example. In every scent test conducted so far, mosquitoes fly more at men – and then bite the women because men have thicker skin and more hair.

3. “I always get bitten, never the others”

This complaint, which women often hear, is not out of the world. Not only men with smelly mouths attract mosquitoes, but women in all possible “conditions”. Between the 13th and 18th day of the cycle and during pregnancy, mosquitoes like the smell of hormones, always certain cosmetics and perfumes and many women and children because their skin is warmer.

Dark colors and full bodies are also popular; in the case of unmade-up, unperfumed, freezing and non-pregnant skinny people who walk around freshly washed in white T-shirts, genetics ultimately decide. Mosquitoes like one body odor better than the other.

4. “You can protect yourself effectively against mosquito bites”

There is a lot of good advice on how to get through life without being bitten by a mosquito, but it usually doesn’t help when it comes to enjoying life:

  • Take a cold shower to lower body temperature: If it helps for more than 60 seconds, a cold will follow
  • Tomato plants, garlic, vinegar, lemon juice, beer on the table: I like the latter…
  • Essential oils of various origins: Highly allergenic substances with little effect
  • High-frequency mosquito beepers: subconsciously annoy people nearby, mosquitoes don’t
  • Mosquito Bracelets: The strip of skin they cover up doesn’t protect the remaining 99.9% of the skin’s surface
  • Only wear long-sleeved clothing in mosquito areas: If in doubt, bring a heat shock, questionable whether that is healthier than the mosquito bite
  • Fly screens or mosquito nets in every room: if you have the time to put them on…
  • Only clothes made of light-colored fabric: Particularly practical for the barbecue evening and the children’s party
  • Mosquitoes hate cold air from air conditioning: Smart mosquitoes, in offices with air conditioning, sick leave is 40% higher
  • Mosquito candles: Why not, there should be noses that can take them
  • Avoid traveling to mosquito-rich regions/countries: And always stay at home, a car accident is worse than most mosquito bites
  • No walks along stagnant water: rather along the highway?
  • No perfumes and fragrant cosmetics: And stay single if your partner has migrated to well-groomed people

Some of these tips make sense when traveling to certain tropical countries, for which they were published before they were published on the Internet. For most areas in temperate and northern zones, however, the following applies: Don’t be fooled, if you walk on the beach with a full body covering, the mosquito can only bite you on the nose…

Conclusion
There are many home remedies for mosquitoes, more than have been mentioned, and you can try them all, each of the remedies works with one of the mechanisms mentioned above. There is also panic about mosquito bites, but this is almost never appropriate – in order to avoid unpleasant consequences of mosquito bites, you have to control yourself, especially when scratching.

Kira Bellingham

I'm a homes writer and editor with more than 20 years' experience in publishing. I have worked across many titles, including Ideal Home and, of course, Homes & Gardens. My day job is as Chief Group Sub Editor across the homes and interiors titles in the group. This has given me broad experience in interiors advice on just about every subject. I'm obsessed with interiors and delighted to be part of the Homes & Gardens team.

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