We all are bitten or stung by insects every now and then – we are just too plentiful a source of food for insects to ignore. However, some individuals react fairly unfavourably to an insect bite, whereas others do not appear be all that much troubled by them. The most widespread insect bites are from mosquitoes, ants, fleas and gnats or midges and now bed bugs are making a comeback as well..

If you are not overly allergic to these bites there is no need to do anything about the bite itself although you might want to eradicate an plague of ants, fleas and bed bugs. Mosquito and other insect bites normally produce an itchy, red swelling, which should go down within one to three days, although some individuals do have them for much longer.

We say that insects bite, but it is not always true. It is slapdash speech. Some insects bite (like ants), some insects sting (like wasps) and other insects suck blood (like mosquitoes, fleas and bed bugs). Most people are most likely to show a reaction to blood sucking although the stings are the most painful.

Blood-sucking insects squirt some saliva into you through a pore before sucking blood. This saliva contains an anticoagulant to cause the blood flow more freely and it may contain an antiseptic and an analgesic as well to ease the pain of a possible infection or reaction to the bite. It is this saliva that causes the swelling and itching in most cases.

This is like an allergic reaction, but doctors do not deem it to be an allergy. Some individuals really are allergic to the bites of blood-sucking or stinging insects and they might need to be hospitalized. They experience far more than an itchy swelling for a day or two. You will soon know if you are allergic. You may even pass out or pass into a coma.

Anyway, the main concern for most of us after being ‘bitten’ is to alleviate the itching and reduce the swelling. It seems that some items work better on some individuals than on others, so it is a question of testing different things until you find one that suits you and the type of bite that is afflicting you.

Tiger Balm works on many insect bites for most people, but some individuals just have to rub a slice of lemon or an ice cube on the bite to make the condition more tolerable. If you are going to treat mosquito and other insect bites, you should do it as soon as you can after having been bitten. Attempt to get that saliva out so that it does not have time to trigger your bodies natural defences.

Some creams appear to neutralize the saliva while others appear to pucker the skin enough to squirt it back out. If the spittle is back outside it cannot cause an infection although most infections like this are caused by scratching with unclean finger nails

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on a number of topics, but is currently involved with finding a home remededy for mosquito bites. If you would like to know more, please go to our web site at Getting Rid of Mosquito Bites.