I have a few on my legs, too. To keep them from biting, I chew basil. Mosquitoes are attracted to your breath, and they hate basil. So I chew a few leaves while I’m doing yard work or hiking.

Then, when I have bites I put a little toothpaste on it. Sounds weird, but it works for me at least. I normally put it on for about 25 minutes. Honey works too (we get organic, raw, local honey so I don’t know if store bought would work)

I make homemade bug spray with organic basil, lavender flower and leaves, parsley, rosemary and a cinnamon stick. You can use ground cinnamon. I cover it in water, boil for about ten minutes, then let cool completely. You can pour it into ice cube trays and freeze it, then take it out when needed, or you can refrigerate it and just take a little bit out and put it on your body.

Thats how I deal with them! I haven’t made the bug spray for about two weeks now though, so I do have a few bites.

Sorry I can't help. But a little trivia. Did you know only female mosquitoes bite...males don't as they are herbivorous. LOL.

I've used a bar of Fels-Naptha bar laundry soap. Wet the bite, rub the Fels on it, let sit a minute and rinse off. Its an old poision ivy itch remedy. Maybe a paste of baking soda and water. Or soak a spoon of old fashioned oats in a few spoons of water...rub the milky liquid on the bite and allow to dry. I would put a bandaid on it for a day or two just to prevent you scratching. Hope you get relief soon.

I am so sorry to hear this. With mosquito bites they stop itching for me within a few minutes after putting on Benadryl cream. I posted here a bit more than a week ago about mysterious insect bites that were itching like crazy (and a lot of swelling). I tried all kinds of things from Benadryl cream, vinegar, jewel weed salve, a cream called pro cure ( a hydrocortisone cream+ calendula), some spray and a couple of other things. None of these things worked better than the other, so I am of no help. Once again so sorry for you. My itching finally stopped after 6 days, so I know how miserable you must feel.

If you're in an area where you're likely to get bitten, why not use a product with Deet in it?

Elmer, here in my area the mosquitos laugh at repellants. Especially with all the rain. Kathy might be in the same boat. One of them also always seems to follow the dogs inside. And one is all it takes to make you miserable.

Edited to clarify that spray certainly reduces the numbers of bites, but if you react as strongly as Kathy to them, it just takes a few.

Some people find that oral Benadryl can also be useful. Also rubbing with an ice cube immediately after being bitten, and making a paste of baking soda, can help.

What's best is to try to find the source of mosquitoes in ones yard and get rid of them. Also, to spray before going outside - I keep a variety of repellent sprays for my yardman as with the lush vegetation in my yard, getting rid of mosquitoes would require an application of Agent Orange and I've worked hard for this lushness. He does find it helps tremendously.

I know that on Chappaquiddick Island, most people have resigned themselves to having their property sprayed. It really is about the only way one can get from the door to the car without a swarm attacking. People in Massachusetts call mosquitoes the "State Bird"!

We live on a lake and there is a swamp behind us. Can’t run away from the skeeters! Plus a creek on the other side of our next door neighbors.

i’m sitting here just waiting to take some Benadryl and go to bed.

I have a lot of allergies and asthma, so try to avoid using repellants. But I will use them when outside for a length of time. This little bugger was in the house! Only the second one we’ve had in the house!

DH gets bit and an hour later it’s no problem!

Basilcook3, that’s funny. Just yesterday we saw my DSIL and she offered me a basil plant! Guess I should have said yes.

My doctor lives a few houses down from me, she came into work with a tick on her neck! Ticks are plentiful up here. Last year I had one crawling up my neck when I was sitting in my recliner! Guess I should be grateful it wasn’t a tick.

Those little suckers always go after hubby and leave me alone. He must taste better than I do! Now, of course, when he's not around they'll bite me as a last resort.

Hope everyone suffering from bug bites finds relief one way or another.

Don’t you wish they would come up with something for us like we give our pets sometimes?

I remember two different business trips I took (one to Houston and the other to Florida), more than 5 years apart, when each was experiencing a greater than normal incidence of mosquito-borne encephalitis.

We have few mosquitoes where I live and the prospect of contracting something serious in this way concerned me. When I went out in the evenings, I first bathed my skin (figuratively) with great amounts of a Deet product and liberally sprayed pant cuffs, sleeve ends and on the back and around the neck of my shirts. I got no bites and I'm here to talk about it, but having mosquitoes around as a normal thing wouldn't be something I'd like.

I am pretty fortunate that mosquitoes don't seem to find me tasty. However Noseeums love me. I had problems with sand flea reactions as a child and it seems I still do as an adult. Last year we had them in our yard for some strange reason. It takes months, not weeks for me to heal from them. It's funny I never get bit at barns. Only in yard. Hopefully they don't make an appearance this year. They are not common around here but last year was an invasion.

I've posted this remedy frequently for insect and spider bites. It works extremely well.

Purchase a container of unseasoned Adolphs meat tenderizer with papain as the active ingredient. Bromelaine is also effective. Both of those naturally occurring enzymes break down the proteins found in insect venom.

Immediately after being bitten or stung, make a paste with water and some Adolphs and apply it to the bite. Rub it in for a few moments, then let it dry while you go about your business. That's it. I've used it on fierce fire ant stings, mosquito bites, wasp stings, no see-ums and chigger bites, and most spider bites.

But it needs to be applied right away....not after thirty minutes, or when you get home from the beach, or the next day. A small container of the stuff is easy to keep handy.

I can't use DEET. It affects me like a toxic chemical, makes me sick. It affected about a third of my three dozen employees that way, too. If you must use DEET, try just spraying it on your clothes instead of your body. The active ingredient is absorbed into the body.....avoid getting it on your face, lips, scalp, and hands.

I have very good success with anything with lemon eucalyptus in it...cinnamon oil, lemon thyme, citronella, and other such ingredients are a plus, too. I apply it every hour, lightly.

People with type O blood seem more attractive to mosquitoes, for some reason. The females require the protein in blood to produce eggs but also feed on nectar with the males.

I feel your pain or itch! I currently have 4 mosquito bites on 1 ankle. The itch wakes me up at night. My only advice is topical anti itch cream next to my bed.

I use Afterbite also. It works well for me. I have also used hand sanitizer with aloe. I know that sanitizer sounds odd but I had no Afterbite that day and someone recommended it and it worked. I use Avon Skin So Soft to repel insects and it works well. It is greasy but not toxic.

Rhizo, where do you find the meat tenderizer? I knew it was too late for my last encounter, but wanted to get some for the next. I looked all over the spice aisle. Should it be with this stuff?

I have heard that the Adolphs works well. It is in the seasonings aisle in every grocery store around very popular product.

My mom always used vinegar on our bites and it worked well. I still use it.

Going out today will look for Afterbite. My house is a scent free zone, because of my asthma. I too, sleep with my Cortisone 10!

Thank you one and all!

I'm late to the party, but what works for me? fingernail polish over the bite. Clear. It's instantaneous and works until I take a shower and I have to reapply it.

We use this

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Benadryl-Extra-Strength-Itch-Relief-Stick-Travel-Size-47-fl-oz/10294030

and this.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Benadryl-Original-Strength-Itch-Relief-Cream-Topical-Analgesic-1-oz/10294032

I'm pretty sure that the meat tenderizer is in the aisle with the spices and seasonings. I haven't had to buy it in years.

My DD used to use her fingernail and press an x into the bite. It is something you always have with you and it always seemed to help.

I use a product called "After Bite." I think I got it at Walgreens last time, but it should be readily available on the internet or pharmacies.

Nail polish? Really?

will see if I have some. Summer has just begun, so can try lots of things.

Meat tenderizer has always been in my beach. It work very well on jelly fish stings!

I am a mosquito magnet! I put a dab of Vicks Vaporub on the bites. Works great for me!

Mosquitos love me too. I've tried the store bug sprays and they always manage to find the cm of skin I didn't get. I really don't like using those bug repellants either. I've tried a hippie one that I bought and it did nothing.

Burning a citronella candle nearby helps a lot though. :) Also putting Milk of Magnesia (Dollar General brand - no bleach in this brand) on bug bites works for me. :D

Sorry for your itchy condition. If you itch this much from a mosquito, I hope that you never get chigger bites. (Actually, the main irritant of a chigger bite is from the microscopic egg it deposits under the skin. Its the hatch-ling that causes the irritation.)

Went to the store today and bought After Bite and the Benadryl one. I have oatmeal in the house too. Will be trying many of these ideas through out the mosquito season! Thanks for all the ideas. Kathy G in MI

I have found aspirin to be effective, I keep a small medicine bottle with crushed up aspirin in it, when I get a bite I squeeze the bite to push out as much mosquito itchy stuff as possible then wet my finger, press it into the crushed aspirin and rub it well into the bite, usually makes it stop itching right away.

Also, hot water is effective for itching, run as hot as you can stand over the bite for a minute or so (this worked really well when I had a poison ivy rash on my wrists and calamine lotion wasn't doing much (and too wide-spread for aspirin). Just be careful not to burn yourself. Vinegar is also supposed to work, but aspirin works better for me.

I am a mosquito magnet, and we have a lot of them in this neighborhood. The swelling and itch usually subside after an hour for me (faster if I can keep dabbing it with spit -- really!) My DD, however, gets enormous welts that itch and last for well over 24 hours.

I am convinced that I had a case of West Nile some 10 years ago. In between the "so mild it is not noticed" and "landing in the hospital" in severity-- and it took months to resolve. One of the infectious disease specialists at work realized that that might be what was wrong with me, but at the time the only means of diagnosis was a lumbar puncture, which I would not do -- especially since there was, and still isn't, any treatment. So I am afraid of perhaps getting it again, and pretty much bathe myself in repellent when I have to work in the yard.

OMG, jemdandy.....where did you hear that horrifying myth about chiggers? Adults aren't even the culprits. It's the juvenile chigger that climbs on board, clambering all over until it can find a good place to feed on skin cells.

They do not burrow into the skin, nor do they insert eggs, ever. What causes the horrendous itching is a reaction to the digestive juices that they inject in order to be better able to feed on skin cells. The itching and redness occurs after the tiny arachnids have long been gone.

Yellow flies are even worse! Good luck finding something to relieve the itch. try putting a band-aid on it, it will make you aware your scratching.

Again, thanks to all for the great ideas. I did use the After Bite and it seems to be working. Although it could be that it has been 5 days since I was bitten!