After your lovely summer day, you will hopefully be left with wonderful memories. All too often, you’re left with a little more personal reminder of your fun in the sun: mosquito bites. Mosquito bites are annoying, but typically not serious unless the mosquitoes are carrying a disease that can be transmitted to humans. In the U.S., fortunately, this is rare. So most of the time, you are just dealing with a minor annoyance that can be handled with any number of home remedies for mosquito bites.

The irritation of a mosquito bite is due to a localized allergic reaction to the saliva of the mosquito. Not to put too fine a point on it, you are itching from bug spit. The mosquito has enzymes and chemicals in its saliva that keep your blood from clotting, making it easier for the mosquito to take your blood for its own nefarious purposes. You, however, do get the short end of that stick.

An Ounce of Prevention

The first and best course is to not get bit. The best home remedy for mosquito bites is to keep your home and lawn from becoming places where your local neighborhood mosquito will want to nest and breed. Avoid standing water, for example.

The next best thing is to use a repellent. There are a variety of repellents available, from sprays and lotions, to sunscreens that contain repellents, to sprays and candles for your yard. Some people prefer to avoid these chemicals and seek more natural ways to repel mosquitoes. Ingesting apple cider vinegar, garlic, or taking certain vitamins is said to help repel mosquitoes, but their effectiveness is marginal at best. So, if you are outside and it is summer, you might as well resign yourself to getting bit.

The Pound of Cure

So you’ve done your best to stay away from mosquitoes and make yourself a less appetizing snack. Still, you’ve got a mosquito bite or two. Never fear; there are home remedies you can use to stop the incredibly insistent itching and sooth your skin. One old remedy your author has used is tobacco juice. Tobacco juice will deaden your skin and stop the itching. It will also cause a nasty stain and leave you explaining to your mom or wife just what you were doing with tobacco in the first place, but it does work.

Another traditional home remedy for mosquito bites is baking soda. Just make a paste of it with a bit of water, and put it on the swelling. Salt is another good substance to make a paste from, as well as meat tenderizer. All these have shown a lot of effectiveness. Apple cider vinegar and ammonia are other common substances that will stop the itch from mosquito bites right in their tracks. Toothpaste is a household product that will relieve that itch as well, though you might want to avoid any strongly flavored varieties.

An over the counter antihistamine lotion or gel will reduce the swelling at the site of the bite, reducing the irritation. The histamine is the basic actor of the allergic response and anything that can reduce that will lessen the discomfort.

Do not, however, rule out emollient lotions. An ointment with a beeswax base that contains other nutrients like bee pollen will go a long way to soothe the localized irritation of a mosquito bite. Another natural product is also from the bee, propolis. It is a substance used by bees to seal and protect the hive. Its benefits are wide ranging and go well with the other supportive nutrients of several of these natural ointments.

Anyone with an active life will encounter mosquitoes and will invariable get bit from time to time. Home remedies for mosquito bites are a good thing to have readily available on hand as the summer goes along.