Directly after an insect bite, you may experience itching, burning, or swelling. If you have ruled out the more serious bites, such as scorpion or poisonous spider, which would require a doctor, you are faced with figuring out how to get rid of the itching and swelling of an insect bite using home remedies.
Reduce Itching and Swelling of Insect Bites
1. Lavender Essential Oil – is antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, and reduces itching and swelling quickly.
Use: Apply one drop, every hour, for several hours.
2. Tea Tree Essential Oil – is highly antibiotic, and fights allergic reactions.
Use: Apply one drop, every hour, for several hours.
3. Chamomile Essential Oil – is calming, while reducing inflammation, redness and swelling. Cucumber Oil is extremely cooling, whereas Shea Body Butter is anti-inflammatory.
Use: Mix 15 drops of Chamomile Essential Oil into 2 oz of Cucumber Carrier Oil, or Shea Body Butter.
4. Eucalyptus Essential Oil – is painkilling, antiseptic, and heals skin tissue.
Use: Mix 15 drops of Eucalyptus Essential Oil into 2 oz of Cucumber Carrier Oil, or Shea Body Butter.
5. Epsom salts – draws toxins out of the skin.
Use: Dissolve half a cup of Epsom salts, in a basin of warm water. Soak the insect bite area, in the water, for 10 minutes.
If you have many bites over your body, dissolve 2 cups of Epsom salts in a warm bath, then lie in the water for 10 minutes.
6. Baking soda – neutralizes acidity of the skin, thereby relieving burning sensations.
Use: Use the same techniques as described above, in ‘Epsom salts’.
7. Salt – draws out foreign matter, especially pus.
Use: Make a salt paste, by adding a few drops of water, to a small amount of salt. Apply the salt paste to the bite, then stick a bandage over it, for several hours.
8. Peroxide – is extremely antiseptic, even in severe pus formation.
Use: Soak the bite in peroxide, for several minutes.
If the position of the bite, makes it difficult to soak it, then saturate a bandage with peroxide, and stick it over the bite, for several hours.
9. Antibiotic cream – its always best to be safe, and apply some antibiotic cream, but stick a plaster over it, to ensure the cream remains in place.
10. Ice – reduces swelling and burning inflammation.
Use: Apply ice pack to the bite, for 10 minutes. Always place a thin cloth between the ice pack and your skin, to prevent the ice from burning your skin.
11. Colophony ointment – is an ointment containing colophony, which draws out foreign substances, but stick a plaster over it, to ensure the ointment remains in place.
