mosquito bites

mondayguy

i'm going to sharma el sheikh in egypt next week ! last time i went on a sun holiday , i was ripped apart by the mossie's , looking for any tips on what i could take to avoid the same fate ?
thanks in advance
mondayguy

Zaph

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Lingua Franca

mondayguy wrote: »

looking for any tips on what i could take to avoid the same fate ?

The plane to Iceland should do the trick.

mopi

Mossies dont like oil (sticks in their wings) so a can of duckhams will do the trick if one does manage to bite you anti-histamines e&oe worked wonders for me.

endacl

Only surefire solution was to travel with somebody who smelled more appetizing to the little sh1tes.

Baybay

I don't get bitten but have numerous friends who do. They swear by different things so I'm guessing that not everything works for everyone.
The sprays & lotions seem ok for some.
Another takes vitamin B as seemingly they cause a taste or smell the mosquitoes don't like but you would need to start taking them immediately as it needs a little while to build up in your system, apparently.
Another friend favours clove oil. She dots it round the pulse points on her body every day & leaves the bottle open in her room overnight.
They all get one or two bites during holidays but nothing compared to the one or two hundred they usually get.

sudzs

Get some Deet repellant spray, high strength. Boots should have it. Though I have heard recently that some mozzies are immune to it. Cover up - wear long sleeved tops and trousers.

Bring tea tree oil for any bites you do get. Dab it on and it kills the itch. It's also antibacterial and anti-fungal so an essential item when traveling as a bit of a cure all!

keithclancy

sudzs wrote: »

Get some Deet repellant spray, high strength. Boots should have it. Though I have heard recently that some mozzies are immune to it. Cover up - wear long sleeved tops and trousers.

Bring tea tree oil for any bites you do get. Dab it on and it kills the itch. It's also antibacterial and anti-fungal so an essential item when traveling as a bit of a cure all!

Try a small bit on your skin before you go on Holidays to check for allergic reaction.

Don't want to be on holidays and break out in a rash !!

solerina

Citronella...use as much citrus as you can (lemon shampoo/shower gel, deoderant etc) and avon 'skin so fresh' spray is brilliant... I have never gotten a bite using it and its far nicer than Deet (and safer too).

Blingy

Tropical medical bureau sell 50%deet insect repellant. However it's probably not very kind to the skin.
I used Off patches before which I thought were good.
Bring a box of anti histamines (eg. piriton) and take one at night if you do get bitten. The itch and soreness will be gone in the morning.

tatli_lokma

start taking anti-histamines about a week to 10 days before you depart. This will mean that if you do get bitten, the effects of the bites will be less. Continue taking 1 a day whilst away.

An antihistamine lotion is also good if you do get bitten.

Vitamin B as mentioned helps, as does eating garlic or taking garlic tablets (as it acts as an anti-inflammatory in the blood. This deterrs the mozzies in the first place, but again if they do bite the effects are minimised).

Don't leave stinky shoes or sock in the rooms! And wash your feet! I know this sounds bizzare, but the pheromones contained in sweat, particularly from the feet attracts them. And male pheromones are like an aphrodisiac to the female mozzies (the ones that give the worst bites).

Deterrent spray on top of all that to discourage them in the first place.

Also avoid strong perfumes and deodorants as they also attract them - stick to mild or unscented deodorants and avoid perfume/aftershave.

Those plug in things for the rooms are also good, as they don't stink out the room but will deterr them from entering your hotel room.

And I find that Elizabeth Arden 8 hour cream is magical stuff. I always bring plenty on hols - it is great for bites, stings, mild sunburn, rashes, scratches or grazes and even the odd pimple!

thaiwolf

drink gin and tonic! they don't like the tonic when it sweats out from the pores!

Gatica

Locals often use those stick incense diffusers, it's only practical though if you're staying in the same room.
If you're walking a lot outside Deet 50% is the most effective, as long as you don't react badly to it. Apply it somewhere that has good ventilation as it's not great to inhale it.
Make sure you apply to feet if you're wearing sandals, that's a frequently forgotten part of the body...

Vitamin B is not medically considered to be very effective against mosquitoes and anyway taking too much of any supplement is not really very good for you.

mfceiling

I wish i'd read this thread a few days ago. Just back in rome from tuscany and i'm eaten alive from the feckers. The legs are in ribbons...ah well i suppose i can try out some of these tips next year!!

tatli_lokma

Gatica wrote: »

Vitamin B is not medically considered to be very effective against mosquitoes and anyway taking too much of any supplement is not really very good for you.

No one is suggesting taking too much of anything. Many people don't get enough b vitamins in their diet anyway so a normal supplement won't do any harm. It won't prevent being bitten but is believed to minimise the effects of the bites.

anne burnell

take vitaim b about 2 weeks before you travel... heard that does the trick....

CLARiiON

Nay, you want to be taking vitamin B at least a month before your trip.
I always do and rarely have any problem ... mind you I use Deet repellent spray too!!

zenno

If you're blood-type is 0 rhesus negative then you are fecked, the mosquitoes will bludgeon you any and each way, so you would be out of luck if this is the case i'm afraid.

Gatica

tatli_lokma wrote: »

No one is suggesting taking too much of anything. Many people don't get enough b vitamins in their diet anyway so a normal supplement won't do any harm. It won't prevent being bitten but is believed to minimise the effects of the bites.

Sorry, I may have been mixing up other posts with taking copious amounts of Vitamin B with this thread. I had read such recommendations somewhere before, something to the effect that you'd need to take X amount, which was much higher than the recommended daily allowance, as pointed out in this article:
http://www.examiner.com/article/can-vitamins-be-used-to-repel-mosquito-and-ticks

One claim says that a 100 mg. a day tablet will keep mosquitoes from biting...
The body typically needs only about 1.5 mg of thiamine per day.

Taking it as a standard supplement, well, I guess no harm in that. In any case, Vitamin B is still not considered effective as a preventative.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/health/12real.html
http://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/prevguid/p0000409/p0000409.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insect_repellent#Less_effective_methods

Beruthiel

I am allergic to mozzie bites, taking antihistamines help with the size and itch.

tatli_lokma

Gatica wrote: »

Sorry, I may have been mixing up other posts with taking copious amounts of Vitamin B with this thread. I had read such recommendations somewhere before, something to the effect that you'd need to take X amount, which was much higher than the recommended daily allowance, as pointed out in this article:
http://www.examiner.com/article/can-vitamins-be-used-to-repel-mosquito-and-ticks

no worries - tends to get a bit confusing at times when the same topics are discussed in several threads.

Gatica wrote: »

Taking it as a standard supplement, well, I guess no harm in that. In any case, Vitamin B is still not considered effective as a preventative.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/health/12real.html
http://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/prevguid/p0000409/p0000409.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insect_repellent#Less_effective_methods

As I said, its not intended as a preventative, but there is anecotal evidence that it helps to minimise the effects of the bites (rather than prevent them).

zenno wrote:

If you're blood-type is 0 rhesus negative then you are fecked, the mosquitoes will bludgeon you any and each way, so you would be out of luck if this is the case i'm afraid.

never heard of that and would be dubious of it TBH. Both myself and my husband are RH O Neg and I get bitten and he almost never does and if he does gets a tiny bump where I get a massive carbuncle!

Gatica

tatli_lokma wrote: »

never heard of that and would be dubious of it TBH. Both myself and my husband are RH O Neg and I get bitten and he almost never does and if he does gets a tiny bump where I get a massive carbuncle!

could be down to allergic reactions then for all we know...
Don't know my blood type but I get bitten and it itches a little but my OH gets really big blotches, that look more like hives than mosquito bites. I think also depends on where in the world you get bitten. He wasn't as bad in SE Asia as in Russia.
He took anti-histamines, it helped a little. We also tried that cream, fucibet or something, it helped me a little with the itching. For him though we couldn't tell if it was a bad reaction to the cream (but the hives turned red like a bruise) as well so he had to stop using it just in case. Weren't there long enough to check again if it was the cream or not...

tatli_lokma

I have had a few that went purple - its from the scratching, it damages the skin and brings blood to the surface of the skin. Hence the purple blotch. For the anit-histamines to really work you need to be taking them before even travelling.

When we lived in Turkey, I would find that the winter mozzies would bite much worse than the summer ones.

Once I got into the habit of following the remedies I mentioned earlier, I still got bitten but it wasn't as often and would only result in a small red bump, not very itchy as opposed to the huge carbuncles I used to get.

I think you are right about the allergies and also levels of histamine naturally in your system. I suffer with an auto-immune disorder so I naturally have higher histamine levels in my blood - they seem to like that... A LOT!!!

CLARiiON

Wearing dark clothes attracts them ... I was in the jungle on a tour, and we were requested to wear white clothes because of the mosquito's ...

tatli_lokma

CLARiiON wrote: »

Wearing dark clothes attracts them ... I was in the jungle on a tour, and we were requested to wear white clothes because of the mosquito's ...

Duh! that's not the mozzies its for - its so the hunters don't accidentally shoot you! But they didn't want to frighten you and tell you so they blamed the mozzies :P

zenno

tatli_lokma wrote: »

no worries - tends to get a bit confusing at times when the same topics are discussed in several threads.




As I said, its not intended as a preventative, but there is anecotal evidence that it helps to minimise the effects of the bites (rather than prevent them).



never heard of that and would be dubious of it TBH. Both myself and my husband are RH O Neg and I get bitten and he almost never does and if he does gets a tiny bump where I get a massive carbuncle!

The same here, i get some really nasty big bites and i'm type O negative as well. A science related article on this...

Blood-type markers are chemicals released by people of a specific blood type – so if someone with AB blood emitted a marker, it would be different than that released by B.

One study found persons with Type O blood suffered more mosquito landings because of the odorant markers they emit than any other blood type, making their juices a hot commodity for blood banks, as well as Asian Tiger Mosquitoes, which carry West Nile Virus.

Not only were Type O’s more likely to be landed on, but the study found that for any blood type, people who secreted a chemical marker about their blood type through their skin (both blood type and secretor status are determined by genes) were bitten much more than non-secretors; 24 percent in the case of the Type O’s.

Other researchers estimate about 15 percent of the population, based on their genes, don’t emit chemical markers of their blood type through their skin and saliva, so something else has to be calling the mosquitoes to them.

Source: http://scienceline.org/2007/09/ask-knight-mosquitoes/

JillyQ

mondayguy wrote: »

i'm going to sharma el sheikh in egypt next week ! last time i went on a sun holiday , i was ripped apart by the mossie's , looking for any tips on what i could take to avoid the same fate ?
thanks in advance
mondayguy

I get really bad reactions for them the last time i got bitten i ended up in hospital, I now have to take Augmentin if i get bitten by the little ****s again.

Fagashlil

CLARiiON wrote: »

Wearing dark clothes attracts them ... I was in the jungle on a tour, and we were requested to wear white clothes because of the mosquito's ...

Apparently this is true, they're attracted to dark colours.

I got eaten alive in Cuba, lost count of them, and still have some scars. One of the staff in the resort brought me some antibiotic cream which worked a treat. Also putting neat alcohol on them worked a treat, got the swelling right down.

Gatica

I've heard that too - wearing light colour clothing is usually recommended in SE Asia guides and my grandmother always used pure alcohol (easy to get in the US, but haven't found it in Ireland) on moz bites, rubbing it in with a bit of cotton wool.

salacious crumb

Anti mosquito spray works for me...

curiousb

Apparently it has to be vitamin B1, no other. I can't vouch for this as I only heard it after my mosquito bitten holidays myself.

A well travelled friend of mine swears by a glass of Berocca each morning to ward them off.

I'll be trying it next year..

Gatica

My OH swears by Berocca for general travel... just to keep going on long trips that take a toll on the immune system and general well-being.

tatli_lokma

Gatica wrote: »

My OH swears by Berocca for general travel... just to keep going on long trips that take a toll on the immune system and general well-being.

Especially on planes which are rife with bugs from so many people breathing reconditioned air. I once was on a flight where the air filtering system was clearly not working. Got off the flight and within a few hours had a seriously bad ENT infection and had to be hospitalised overnight a few days later. I later found out that 40 other passengers on the flight wound up sick to differing degrees, one elderly woman was hospitalised for a few weeks with a severe respiratory infection.

Anything that improves your immune system when travelling is definitely a good idea.