The Bites Of Mosquitoes And Other Insects

We all are bitten or stung by insects from time to time – we are just too plentiful a supply of food for insects to ignore. However, some people react quite badly to an insect bite, while others do not appear be very bothered by them. The most widespread insect bites come from mosquitoes, ants, fleas and gnats or midges and now bed bugs are making a comeback as well..

If you are not overly allergic to these bites there is no need to do anything about the bite itself although you might want to eradicate an plague of ants, fleas and bed bugs. Mosquito and other insect bites normally produce an itchy, red swelling, which should go down within one to three days, although some individuals do have them for much longer.

We say that insects bite, but it is not always true. It is slapdash speech. Some insects bite (like ants), some insects sting (like wasps) and other insects suck blood (like mosquitoes, fleas and bed bugs). Most people are more likely to display a reaction to blood sucking although the stings are the most agonizing.

Blood-sucking insects squirt some spittle into you through a pore before sucking blood. This spittle contains an anticoagulant to make the blood flow more liberally and it may contain an antiseptic and an analgesic too to ease the pain of a possible infection or reaction to the bite. It is this spittle that causes the swelling and itching in most cases.

This is like an allergic reaction, but doctors do not consider it to be an allergy. Some individuals truly are allergic to the bites of blood-sucking or stinging insects and they might need to be hospitalized. They suffer much more than an itchy swelling for a day or two. You will soon know if you are allergic. You may even pass out or go into a coma.

Anyway, the priority for most of us after being ‘bitten’ is to alleviate the itching and reduce the swelling. It appears that some things work more effectively on some people than on others, so it is a case of testing different items until you find one that suits you and the sort of bite that is afflicting you.

Tiger Balm works on most insect bites for most people, but some individuals just have to rub a slice of lemon or an ice cube on the bite to make the bite more tolerable. If you are going to treat mosquito and other insect bites, you ought to do it as soon as you can after having been bitten. Strive to get that spittle out so that it does not have time to trigger your bodies natural defences.

Some creams appear to neutralize the saliva while others appear to pucker the skin enough to squirt it back out. If the spittle is back outside it cannot cause an infection although most infections like this are caused by scratching with unclean finger nails

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on several subjects, but is currently involved with finding a home remededy for mosquito bites. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Getting Rid of Mosquito Bites.