Hi. What do people find the best at keeping mosquitos away from you on holiday? I get bitten for sure if they are around and am a bit wary now I'm on biologics.
I got bit by something outside on my little finger yesterday and it's very sore and red and a bit swollen. So if I get bitten here I need something good for Spain.
Also if i do get bitten what's the best to stop it going funny? I got a bite on Greece once and ended up with a 3 inch blister on my leg.
Ps reading this back in thinking why do I bother going abroad 🤣🤣🫣
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Haz58
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I use what’s on sale in the local pharmacy or supermarket. I moved to France 2 years ago and bought with me lots of expensive insect repellent. None of it really worked. Bought some much cheaper stuff from local supermarket - works a treat.
61 and still searching for the magic solution 😃 A roll on called Mosquito Milk (Amazon) seems to be working for me well at the moment. However I have found that I get bitten less since RA diagnosis 5 years ago. Not sure if it’s the drugs I now take that make me less tasty or just old meat now …. Either way not complaining 😆😆
I don’t get bitten much but my husband does and he reacts to them quite badly. We use Avon Skin So Soft oil spray. It has to be the original one. This was recommended to us by a friend who lives in the west of Scotland, a place infamous for midges! She does a lot of outdoor activities there and always uses skin so soft.
Canadian here, grew up spending three months of the year in the wilds working at summer camps. We found that by the end of the summer our immune systems didn't react to mosquito bites. At the same time the new group of campers came in every week, itching and scratching away, amazed that we didn't seem to be getting bit. I think we were getting bitten, we just didn't react so we didn't notice.
And oh boy, those that were British, they had the biggest reactions of everyone. They really suffered.
So I think we may have our immune systems to blame for how we react to insect bites too. And there will be a genetic component to that as well. So maybe for some their aren't reacting anymore in the same way due to their immune system damping down, or maybe the bugs smell the drugs. Or maybe we have been bitten enough that we don't react. Or more likely, a complicated combination of it all!
I don't get bitten, I'm sure it's all the drugs in my blood. But my husband is super tasty. He ueses mosquito repellent bracelets, one on each arm, one on each leg. (You can buy them in packs off Amazon.) He also swears by jungle formula as the best spray.
My husband uses Avon Skin so Soft. I use a few drops of neat citronella on my wrists and ankles ( and neck and forehead if lots of biters), and cover up at dawn and dusk..this has worked for me in the Amazon, and in Tanzania. I found ditto with lavender oil when I lost my citronella.
For the occasional bite, Aloe Vera gel works well for me, and other folks I've travelled with have 'borrowed' from me as it works so well. It's also good for sunburn.
I first came across it back in the '70s when travelling in Ecuador and being bitten to distraction by sandflies..I had run out of anthisan cream and everything was swollen and itching unbelievable... .a local lady came to me with what I later found was Aloe Vera leaves, and as you say, the sap works its magic. It turned out to work better than the anthisan, as well as bring readily available in the area.
I get terrible reaction to mozzie bites. The skin so soft may help a little but I need the real McCoy I’m afraid, I have to go with the Jungle spray with deet, morning and night, I even have a mozzie net on bed and plug ins around where I’m staying. My bites are really bad if I don’t spray and spoil my holiday. I find the Boots own make of antihistamine cream good if you get a bite. Get it on quickly, I feel I’m the mozzie medic when I’m on holiday, I carry this cream everywhere, if I hear someone complaining of bites, I give them some of my cream.
Mozzie nets are good. Millets stock them. And you get a lovely safe feeling once you're under them. They keep the other insects out too of course, and spiders. And cockroaches if you're in that kinda territory 🤣🤣🤣
Mosquitan patches. Ever since I started using them I haven't got bitten and I normally have a bad reaction when I do. You can get from Amazon. I got from where I worked. You stick on bottom of your clothing.
I find being on RA treatment the best thing for bites!! I used to have horrible swollen bites & now hardly ever! Not sure if it’s my toxic blood or that my swelling was an autoimmune thing….
That said - smidge is best for midges & ticks and DEET for mozzies - but keep it away from babies & plastic (it melts the latter)
If you get bites that swell - alcohol eg hand sanitiser is good - or really hot water
Alcohol hand gel. That's interesting. Input germoline on the bite I got here and it soothed in a couple of hours. But I had used hand gel too not long before that while I was out.
If you have a shower , turn the water up to the hottest you can cope with on the itchiest bits - that can settle it for a few hours (ie to get to sleep) then use alcohol (wipes or gel) if it breaks through
Biting insects love me, too! Avon Skin So Soft (original one) works well to keep the blighters off me in England but I use something with DEET in it for mozzies. As for dealing with a bite, I bought an 'Aspivenin' kit from Boots and use it as soon as I realise I've been bitten - it uses suction to get the venom out. Then I smother the bite with antihistamine cream and take an antihistamine tablet too. I know all that seems like overkill but after a very bad experience of being bitten in Turkey 20 years ago, I throw everything at bites now!😂I've still got the scars on my legs from the Turkish bites😱
Thats why I'm worried now being on Benepali. I got bitten in Corfu years ago and came home with a 3 inch wide blister on the back of my calf. It was so painful. I saw a Dr there and he told me just to keep it covered.Waiting for the coach to take us to the airport it burst! Wow the pain! My GP sent me to hospital and the consultant said it was a very well kept together blister and next time if I got a bite that started to blister to use a sterilised needle and pop it. Eek
I wonder why I bother too and I have a holiday home in Spain!! 🙈 I have tried absolutely everything natural and was still getting bit so I’ve resorted to anything with Deet. You have to cover all your skin because if you leave a little bit you’re guaranteed the little beggars will find it.
Secret weapon - B12 supplement! Last year after yet another bite blew up into a giant blister I took a friend’s advice and started a B12 supplement and when I went back to Spain I never got bitten once!!
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