How to treat a mosquito bite

Get quick itch relief from a few familiar ingredients you have in your pantry: baking soda, vinegar and Epsom salts. (Photo credit: Nicole Bridger)

To prevent being "treeprived," you grab yourself some Vitamin "N" and end up with a mosquito bite. (Living in Canada, we're fortunate an annoying itch is likely all we'll get...)

This shows:

You need to brush up on mosquito bite prevention techniques.
You taste better. (One study shows skeeters find blood type O more enticing than A.)
You're an animal.

I brush up on mosquito bite remedies every spring or summer I travel to Alberta to visit family and friends. (In Vancouver many people don't even have screens on windows!)

Get quick itch relief from a few familiar ingredients you have in your pantry:

Vinegar

Dab a little white or apple cider vinegar on a cloth. Apply to bite. Reapply as needed or dampen an organic cotton ball in vinegar and tape it on.

Baking soda

Add enough water to a tablespoon of baking soda to make a paste. Apply to bite. Allow to dry. (Many bug bite relief products are five per cent baking soda.) You can also add 1/2 cup of baking soda to a warm bath.

Epsom salts

Add one cup of Epsom salts to enough tap water to dissolve them. Soak a cloth in the solution and dab onto bites. Or add one to two cups Epsom salts to a bath.

Note: Find Epsom salts at most grocery or drug stores. Read the ingredient list to avoid added scent. It's often a toxic mix of ingredients labelled as "fragrance" or "parfum."



What's your simple, effective bite relief solution?

Sincerely,

Lindsay Coulter, a fellow Queen of Green

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