Pretty much anyone who has met me knows that I react pretty badly to mosquito bites.
After many attempts at trying over-the-counter meds and at-home remedies, I have only found one thing that soothes an itchy bite: kosher salt.
Seriously, that’s it!
Mix about a teaspoon of kosher salt with a little bit of water (enough to make a paste) in the palm of your hand and rub the scrub into the area of the mosquito bite. Leave the scrub on your skin for a minute or 2 then rinse away. Kosher salt acts as an abrasive and dries out the bite – The itch should stop almost immediately!
On days when I am dealing with a lot of bites, I bring a mug of salt into the shower with me and apply the scrub there for easy clean-up.
If you have particularly dry skin, try mixing a little honey with the salt before applying.
Give it a try – Let me know what you think!
oh i suffer loads too…. will try that next time!! What is kosher salt? Looks like normal salt flakes is that right?
Kosher salt has a larger grain size than regular table salt – I like to use Kosher salt on my bites because the larger size makes for a better exfoliant :)
Any idea if straight up sea salt (or Morton’s, or whatever) will work as well? I get wicked mosquito bites too, at least in Korea. (I didn’t grow up with these mosquitoes so apparently that makes the reaction worse, like each mosquito bite in childhood is an allergy shot.)
Normal table salt should work fine for soothing the bite – I prefer Kosher salt because the larger grain size makes for a better exfoliant (and it’s what we have on hand in our kitchen!)
Great tip! I am extremely prone and sensitive to mosquito bites. I will try this next time I’m attacked. Thank you!
No problem Olivia!
this is fantastic advice! thanks for sharing…i always have kosher salt laying about my house and have terrible reactions to mosquito bites as well. going to have to give this a try when i get bitten…
Glad I could help!! We mosquito bite sufferers have to stick together ;)
Ah! I am so trying this next time I get a bite! I also discovered that rubbing salt (with a dash of vinegar) gets those white chalky deoderant marks out of my black work polos. Go salt go!
Ooo good tip about the deoderant marks – Happens to me all the time!
It’s been so dry that most of the wetlands areas in this state are not harboring many mosquitos this Summer. We normally have good size ones in great numbers. I saw a small child being carried off by a mosquito 2 years ago. Anyway – kosher salt is not easy to find here. Would rock salt work? It melts ice and snow for the cars, and I think it would not leave much hair, either. What do you think?
Ha! I think the drying properties of any salt (including rock salt) would help soothe the itch – I’ve been treating my bites like this for about a year now and I have yet to lose any hair because of it!
Reblogged this on bowlcolonial and commented:
Some thoughts about mosquito bites. With this rain finally coming there will be bugs after all………..
Reblogged this on This beautiful life.
Oh I wish I had this about a couple weeks ago! I got 23+ bug bites at the same time on my feet/legs. It was awful. I ended up using store bought products like a benadryl based goop and sticky green itch relief stick that was probably way too old to function properly. I ended up just splashing cold water on my legs till they stopped itching :/