Posted on October 18th, 2008 by admin

When my daughter was very young, she was running in the grass and a bee stung her on the sole of her foot. It was very painful as well as frightening to her. A quick call to a doctor’s office got us these words of advice from his nurse: Pour some cold water into a pot, dump in some baking soda, stir, and add a tray of ice cubes. Soak the foot. The swelling and pain were stopped almost instantly after we plunged her foot into this icy bath.(If the stinger of the honeybee remains in the skin, it should be scraped out, not pulled out.)

If you don’t have baking soda or cold water handy, try applying a fresh-cut slice of raw onion to a sting. Hold it or tape in place and you may find swift relief.
No onion? Try smearing the sting with honey and then putting an ice bag on top, or else plunge the honey-smeared part in ice cold water. Wheat germ oil may work just as well as honey.

Some people swear by plantain, the common broad-leaved weed, for treating all kinds of insect bites. It may help as much for a beesting as for the itching of a mosquito bite. Plantain fanciers use this tried-and-true technique: Tear off a few leaves, bruise or break them, and then heat (but don’t burn) them with a match until the leaves are wilted. Squeeze the juice from the weed and apply it to the sting or bite.
If you are bitten by a venomous insect, such as the brown recluse spider, you are well advised to seek immediate medical attention.

The itching of mosquito bites may be relieved by applying a poultice of cornstarch, fresh lemon juice or witch hazel.
Let’s digress for just a paragraph or two from our format as a “healing” book and suggest that a good way of preventing bites from most insects is to take large amounts of thiamine, or vitamin B1. If you are going on a picnic, for instance, take one 100-milligram tablet or the equivalent before leaving the house. If you’re going camping, take a bottle and swallow one tablet two or three times a day. When you take this much thiamine—far more than a normal supplemental amount—the body excretes part of the overload through the pores of the skin. It seems that the thiamine has an odor that most insects can’t stand. I would consider this to be a highly reliable preventive measure, especially for mosquitoes and flies. It also keeps fleas off pets. If your pet is small, you may find that simply adding some brewer’s yeast to the diet will be enough to rid him of fleas.

Rubbing crushed pennyroyal leaves on the skin is also said to keep away mosquitoes and gnats. Messegue, the herbalist, advises hanging a bouquet of dried tomato leaves in all rooms of your house to keep out bothersome bugs. One woman told me that she unexpectedly drove all the ants out of her pantry when she placed a box of goldenseal tea bags in it. Black pepper sprinkled near ant entrances is also useful in keeping the critters at bay.

Tags: insect bites, insect stings, mosquito bite, the stinger of the honeybee