Mosquito Bites

On Thursday I got my first proper mosquito bites of the season, there are only four but I reacted quite nicely to them and one had a swelling about 4 inches wide around it.  On Thursday night they itched  so much I hardly slept and stole all the sheet from Tom trying to wrap my arm up in cool bits of cloth.

My usual 'dowse them in olbas oil' remedy that never fails failed so I looked up some more to try on wikiHow...

• Rubbing on Vicks vapour rub didn't work but I guess it's the same as Olbas oil so no surprise there
• Toothpaste didn't work either and it makes you look an idiot when you forget it's there and remove your sweater in public
• Baking soda mixed with water didn't work and stung slightly but even that was a welcome change to be honest
• Dabbing with white wine vinegar (didn't have any of the apple cider variety) didn't make any difference but made me smell like classy salad dressing

I was thinking I should have just bought some antihistamine in town when I tried this one.  Get a wash cloth/flannel and soak it in the hottest water you can bear, hold it (still wet) on the the mosquito bite until it tingles.  Repeat once or twice.  It worked like a dream, all but one of them has stopped itching completely and the swellings have completely gone down.  Apparently, the heat confuses your nerves and causes all the histamine to be released at once, not sure exactly what that means but as I'm no longer going mad with itchiness I don't care.  Wish I'd know about it when I used to get attacked by harvest mites in Arnside.