My friend Kelli’s youngest child is a little girl adopted from China. Kelli and her husband have 3 older children of their own, but since Sarah is their first child from another country, they have occasionally experienced challenges and adjustments based on the inherent cultural and genetic differences.Â
One such challenge is Sarah’s extreme reaction to mosquito bites which apparently is not uncommon for those of Chinese heritage. As such, using an effective natural mosquito repellent is important, but doesn’t always work in every situation.
Living in Florida and being very sensitive to mosquito bites can pose a challenge. Mosquitoes can be a year-round problem particularly if the winter is rather warm as it has been so far this season. Even with spraying by mosquito control, getting nasty bites is a common occurrence.
Telling a young child not to scratch is a losing battle most of the time! Unfortunately, Kelli did not find any of the Western style remedies for mosquito bites to work very well for Sarah.
As a result, just a few mosquito bites could send Sarah to the doctor for examination as they would sometimes get infected from her scratching. Â The picture above is of Sarah’s leg after a recent run-in with a hungry mozzie!
Besides being a busy Mom of four, Kelli is also an Adoption Specialist, so with her international connections, she was able to consult with her Chinese friends about Sarah’s problem with mosquito bites.
Their suggestion?
An old Chinese mosquito bite remedy that is rubbing the bites with the inside of a banana peel!
I asked Kelli to let me know if the banana peel remedy worked the next time Sarah was bitten, and within a few days, Kelli reported back that the banana peel worked! The picture to the right shows Kelli applying the inside of a banana peel to Sarah’s bite. Â The peel is folded over backward which is why the inside of the peel is also facing the camera.
The banana peel not only worked, but it also worked FAST!
Here is Kelli’s email to me about her experience with this mosquito bite remedy:
Well, sure enough Sarah got 2 bites this evening….ÂThey immediately began to swell and the area all around the bite was quite red, of course some of that was from her itching.ÂI applied the banana peel, as advised by my Chinese friends, and within 2 minutes the bite stopped itching. About 5 or 7 minutes later, the site was significantly less red. When I glanced at it again before bed, though I could still see the bite, her skin was no longer red. Best of all, she didn’t seem bothered by it.ÂSince she is so young it is hard for her not to scratch, and I will forward you a picture of a current bite which landed us at the doctor’s office out of fear of infection (we’re in the clear for now). She has been on antibiotics once before from a bug bite getting infected after her scratching it, and I try to avoid antibiotics so was not happy when this recent bite started looking so bad.ÂFrom now on, we will honor this Chinese remedy…I wish I had known this secret years ago!
The most interesting thing about this mosquito bite remedy to me is that it is fairly well known that eating bananas is a surefire way to be a prime mozzie target at sundown. Â While eating bananas seems to attract mosquitoes, rubbing the bites with the inside of the peel heals them!
Does your child have problems with mosquito bites too? Â The next time the mozzies leave their calling card on your child’s skin, skip the ammonia sticks and other chemical-based remedies that will end up in your child’s bloodstream and simply try the inside of a banana peel!
Do you know another mosquito bite remedy that works well too? We’ve often used this homemade herbal salve which is incredible for all types of skin irritations, rashes, and bites. Dabbing witch hazel on bug bites is a remedy that my Grandmother used.
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VERY SIMPLE…..A PIECE OF SCOTCH TAPE….ITS NON TOXIC AND IT WILL STOP SWELLING AND STOP ITCH AND NOT MAKE A MESS LIKE SO MANY ABOVE TIPS.
My best remedy is toothpaste applied liberally and allowed to dry. It takes away the itch and the crust prevents infection getting in. Maybe it’s the toxic fluoride in the toothpaste that does the trick!
I too am a mosquito magnet. When i ask my pharmacy patients who too are mosquito magnets their blood type, invariably those of us that have a negative blood type seem most prone to being bitten. My own little research project but it’s interesting. I’ve been asking my patients for over 6 years now. Tea tree oil is my go to relief remedy.
Sorry Margaretha – we are both A+ and AB+ in our house and complete mosquito magnets! I’ve heard that theory before, but it is absolutely untrue for me. My husband is also AB+ and rarely bitten. We find metabolism (body heat) to be the biggest trigger.
I too am a mosquito magnet and have just discovered that what I suffer from actually has a name skeeter syndrome, I don’t feel like such a freak now. I am also rhesus negative blood group, interesting don’t you think. wonder if any pharmaceutical companies would/have given this any trials
I have always been told that it was because you have good cholesterol. If your cholesterol levels are bad they wont bite you but if they are good you are a definite magnet. It is true in our house, both my husband and father have bad cholesterol and they don’t bother them at all while my daughter, mother and I are walking buffets for the little pests. I love this trick we will defiantly try it out! Thanks for sharing.
My wife has a different blood type to mine and she used to get bitten a lot and me not so much.
The kids have been getting bites too, so sorry folks but believe me it has nothing to do with blood types!
Read up on it all here with one f the world experts, Dr Cameron Webb (a respected and much published entomologist specializing in mosquitoes!): theconversation.com/health-check-why-mosquitoes-seem-to-bite-some-people-more-36425
As a family, and after much research (and bites) ourselves we have resorted to natural rather than chemical based repellents and balms such as these here which work great for us: thesolidbarcompany.com/collections/bug-bars
Best of luck to you all anyway whichever method you use, and stay bite free 😉 Rick Mac
I’ve used vaseline to kill the itch and stop swelling. Dab a q-tip in and just rub it over the bite. It does take a little while for itching to stop, but it stops it totally and reduces the swelling and redness. It works for me, hopefully it will work for you. The thing about vaseline is most people already have it.
IT also WORKS for me !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thanks a lot.
OMG, all my other usual measures weren’t doing a thing, possibly because I had so many bites… and the banana worked! Thank you!
A slice of lemon, applied as soon as possible after the bite(s). It may be something in the peel or something in the pulp…don’t know…..just rub on liberally and it will change to a small red, non-itchy dot within a few minutes.
Be sure that if you are applying citrus juice/oil to the skin that the skin it has been applied to does not come into contact with sunlight! Many children and even adults are seen in the ER’s during warmer months due to 2nd and 3rd degree burns caused by the reaction of citrus mixed with sunlight. Just a head’s up!
You will not believe how well this works. As you know, when you’re bitten, the mosquito injects an anticoagulant to keep blood from clotting so they can suck the blood back out. It also causes the swelling and itching. While swollen, the skin cells are more susceptible rupturing and bleeding if you scratch the bites… which, as we all know, can leave scars and get infected (like the picture above) . Since you can’t suck the anticoagulant back out of the bite, the key is to move the anticoagulant elsewhere.
Using the back (round) end of a ballpoint pen, or the erasure end of a pencil, apply gentle pressure to the bite for about a minute. This will create little 1/4 inch round indentations in your skin, and will force all of the fluids with anticoagulant away from the bite and into the surrounding skin tissue. This dilutes the anti-coagulant so the it can be carried away by circulating blood… it will also intensify the itch for a minute or two. Rub (not scratch) the itching area with your finger tips to increase the blood circulation. This process can be repeated 2 or 3 times if the itch come back, and each time it dilutes the anticoagulant a little more… reducing the itch. If it’s a large bite, you may have to press the pen/pencil to several spots to force all of the anticoagulants out of the bite.
I know this sounds like hitting your head with a hammer to get rid of a headache, but it really works… no more bleeding mosquito bites, seriously :o)
Onion! I’ve always kept a raw onion wrapped up in my fridge just for bug bites. We cut a slice off the side of the onion to get some juice and rub that on the bite. It stops the itch and swelling. I’ve always been a mosquito magnet and would have horrible reactions with swelling all summer-absolutely nothing every worked, from home remedies to drugstore medication. This is the only treatment we use now. It’s worked on mosquito bites, bee stings, spider bites, rashes, chickenpox, you name the skin rash or reaction, we’ve probably used the onion for it. A great all-purpose skin cure.