Insect bites, and how to ease an inflamed itch

I’m not talking about your common, garden variety mosquito bite here. I’m talking about the kind of bite that becomes swollen and red and itches more than you thought possible. The kind of bite that drives you crazy.

Two days ago, I was working in the garden, pulling weeds from one of the flowerbeds when I felt a couple of stings. One was inside my gardening glove, and I think it was an ant. The other three were one my torso, and I have no idea what bit me, or how. I took an anti-histamine when I went inside and it seemed to be okay. By the next day, however, all the bites had turned nasty.

I tried vinegar, my normal go-to, but it only eased the itch for a short time.

Then I tried making a paste out of bi-carb and spreading it over the bites. It did work for a while, but once the paste dried the itch returned, plus I was covered in dried bi-carb powder.

By this time, I’d taken Telfast during the day and Polaramine at night, but nothing much was working. In desperation I looked up cures for ant bites and found a post that recommended placing something cold on the bite…

It worked!

That first moment when the cold pack touched bare skin was pretty intense, but after that the itch disappeared like magic.

It’s not a permanent cure, but each time you do it, the angry, swollen flesh around the bite shrinks a little more. And it doesn’t make a mess, or smell like fish-‘n-chips. 🙂

Later me lovelies. Time to do some more gardening.
Meeks