flipping mosquito bites driving me nuts ... any ideas?

[shelscrape]

I've recently arrived in New Zealand with DH and DS. Lovely place, crappy mosquitos. I seem to be breakfast, lunch and dinner for them at the moment. DS has been completely unaffected by any bites. DH has been bitten, but gets tiny little red bumps only. Whenever I get bitten I get vile itching for 3 days at least, swelling, and then a vile bruise that never seems to fade. Clearly I'm a wee bit sensitive to the pesky things. I used to put up with one or two bites on UK cmaping holidays, but now the constancy is driving me nuts.

I have anti mosquito plug ins in the house, spary myself with deet based stuff twice a day and use antihistamine cream and take an oral antihistamine once a day. Is there anything I can do to stop the mozzies biting me and/or soothe the bites when I do get them. Any natural or homeopathic remedies anyone knows about?

Take a look here they have lots of suggestions of homeopathic remedies.

Let us know if they work - I'm off to Oz soon and seem to be the only one in our family that ever gets bitten!

When I first lived in Cyprus I was bitten stupid by Mossies. After talking to a few locals / long term ex pats, I was told that Vit B12 was a really good way to keep them away.

From then on I took a regular tablet and also used a lot of Marmite (love the stuff!) and it definately got easier.

The local stables used to mix marmite in with the horse feed to stop Mozzies and Horseflies. Seemed to do the job.

I think saltwater (on the skin) is also supposed to help - do you live anywhere near the sea? Would a daily swim help?

I get a similar reaction to mossy bites too - really swells up and takes ages to go. My stepdad used to dab them with vinegar when I was a child - I think that used to help but would really, really sting if the skin was broken. You can get those clicky things nowadays which aren't 'medicine' but are based on changing the electric charges in the skin or something - I've bought one but not had to use it yet (anything's worth a try though!).

The only thing that really helps is completely ignoring the bite - absolutely no scratching or rubbing it at all. The scratching for me is only momentarily relieving and then it comes back even more itchy and makes it even more swollen and lasts so much longer. If I really don't scratch then they go much, much quicker. Much easier said than done though!

When I lived in aus (years ago) there was a product called RID that worked both as a repellent and a post bite treatment. It was brilliant. It may not be around any more.

Lemon Grass, they hate ,.....I discovered it when traveling years ago, the locals wore bracelets & anklets woven out of it to keep them at bay & it worked :)

I now buy lemon grass aromatherapy oil & mix it into a spray bottle & top up with water, if you add rosemary & lavender too, it works well all round, even for travel sickness

add about 10-15 drops of oils mainly lemon grass to a 100ml spray bottle & top up with water, shake & spray over yourself & clothes

Also eating garlic is meant to repel them too, though never been convinced that 1 worked as well for me personally

When we lived in Thailand, we found tigerbalm took the itch out of them quickly.
Just don't handle your lady garden with it on your fingers. Make sure you wash your hands after application. Ouch.