To expect Nasty bitey bastard mosquitos to leave me alone? (And to ask for tips on dealing with the biyet carnage that is my body right now)?

[lightlypoached]

On a lovely, much yearned-for holiday. It’s beautiful. The mozzies (little fuckers) are out in force, and despite industrial quantities of near-lethal DEET we are ravaged. Anti histamine pills and cream aren’t touching it and I’m swelling up and so itchy I might have to tear my arm off.

Other than hot-spooning , any hints tips or folk tales we can try please to stop more and to deal with the ones we have?

And no ‘you’re lucky to be on holiday so suck it up buttercup’ posts please, we know we are

Alfresco works well for us and even smells nice www.alfrescoshop.com/

I used to react horribly to bites - one evening I was stood chatting to a neighbour for around 20mins, next to a street light. Fully covered (black leggings and top), next day discovered almost 50 bites on my legs and a few elsewhere - I reacted so badly my legs were swollen for a long time. Very painful! Doubled up on antihistamines, hydrocortisone cream and even spent hours in the evenings with bags of frozen veg actually clingfilmed all up my legs! After reading a bit more I discovered that actually they tend to go for dark/black clothing (which surprised me!), so thinking I would be fine as I was totally covered up in black actually had the opposite effect. The strong reaction I had to the bites led to a weird immune reaction for about 9 months afterwards and led to hives and hit and itchy legs every single night, keeping me awake most of the time - discovered it was that dermographism-something-or-other where the slightest touch to my skin would end up in hives and meant you could draw/write with your finger and it would come up red and raised. Hence the predictable and childish (but amusing when it didn’t disappear for a while!) drawing of a penis by my son!
Weirdly I’ve not been bitten for a good couple of years now and had no idea why, but I think it was @lettuceWrap above who mentioned the non-gluten thing and coincidentally I had to give up gluten a couple of years ago due to a discovered intolerance and I’m now wondering if there actually is a connection and that’s why I’m no longer tasty to the little buggers! Every summer before that I had them chomping on me and had severe reactions every time - once my thigh swelled to almost double size at the site of just one of the bites and I even had high fevers with them.
I’ve also heard the same about marmite and vitamin b, and also brewers yeast, but no idea if that’s any help to you now! A plug in zapper May help, ice your legs for as long as you can bear (cover with a towel, or similar, don’t put ice direct on your legs for any length of time). We also have the wristbands and the sticky patches you put on your clothing/bedding, but having not been bitten for a couple of years I’m afraid I can’t vouch for their efficacy.

Oh, meant to add, try undiluted tea tree oil directly on the bite and also 100% pure aloe Vera gel. If you’re lucky where you are you may find it growing everywhere and can just break some off and open it up and put it on direct from the plant. So much more effective than the lotions/aftersun etc that just contain aloe Vera as one of the ingredients.

Whatwaswrong...

Re the gluten/histamine connection, I have a general idea about how that might work (fairly logical but I think the science is somewhat limited!) Anecdotally, I know a number of people whose seasonal allergies and/or response to insect bites has reduced or normalised after they have adopted gluten free diets. Although, I am genetically related to most of them!

You might want to look up “histamine bucket” and histamine intolerance, HIT if you interested...

Never mind on holiday, something bit the fuck out of me sitting in my UK garden on sat night. The little bitey bastards. They seem to love me, and leave DH alone completely.

On holiday I find the jungle fever deet works - and a must-pack for me is those plug-in mozzie killers for the bedroom.

Simple as anything - lick and dab. As soon you feel the itch - don't scratch - lick you finger and dab the bite. Repeat ad nauseum

I’ve never managed to stop them, but I’ve had good luck with the following as treatment:

Honey
Aloe Vera
Vicks vaporub
Baking powder/water paste

A combination of the honey and aloe vera made a bite on my face (!!!) go down and heal completely within 2 days last summer!

Lemongrass plants repel mosquitoes.

Thanks @lettuceWrap that’s definitely something I’d be interested in finding a bit more about! Maybe we’re all just weird medical anomalies (or we’re related...hello...?!) 😁

Citronella oil/candles are supposed to be another repellent, though I’ve never really worked out if it works or not :/

Wow I'm surprised Deet isn't working. I've never known it not work for mosquitoes. Blackflies on the other hand... Bastards.

They can sense carbon dioxide from 200 meters. There is no stopping it.
each person is totally individual on how they’re attacked.
Hydrocortisone is the only thing that works.
Forget everything else
You could wear a face mask. To stop the carbon dioxide getting out.
It’s basically not to do with your skin!!

Don't know if you can get it still, but there used to be a spray called Wasp-Eze. Fantastic at stopping the bites itching but try not to breathe when you spray it as it tastes and smells rank!

Thanks everyone. So many replies and ideas. You are a resourceful,bunch of vipers We are far away from shops so I tried the hairdryer thing -worked so well. The bite on my face right by my eye (!) has gone down a lot.

I tried a kids repellant spray yesterday and that seems to work better than the Deet one (weird).

DH is covered and he doesn’t normally suffer. We look like Mr Blobby twins - all pink, and covered in purple spots. Glam.

The hairdryer trick is magic isn't it. It was told to me by a hospital consultant who used to live in the Bahamas and was regularly bitten by sand flies.