I live in an area where mosquitoes are common. You don’t want to be outside at dusk without repellent, or you will get eaten up. And I hate mosquito bites and the itches. A bite will bother me for 2-3 days. I am better at dealing with pain than itches. Thank goodness for DEET to keep the nasty critters away. In the event that repellent doesn’t work or I didn’t put it on, there is another alternative: After Bite.
After Bite is a liquid that you put directly on the bite after it has occurred. It reduces the itching. In my opinion, it really reduces the itching, depending how soon you put it on. If I notice an itch coming on within a few minutes after getting bit, and I put on a couple applications of After Bite, the itching generally goes away in less than an hour, and the swelling also goes down. This all may sound like a TV infomercial, but the stuff really does work for me, seriously. Of course, don’t scratch the bite area even with this treatment.
From what I can tell, the active ingredient is ammonia, it’s not an anti-histamine like Benadryl or an anti-inflammatory like Cortaid. I don’t think it smells as bad as repellent, and I wouldn’t have guessed that ammonia would have this effect, I can just say that it works for me. I have found After Bite at Eckerd and Target, so I would assume you should be able to find it at similar retailers. In the stores it’s generally located next to the repellents.
Hmm, maybe the dad in My Big Fat Greek Wedding was on to something with the Windex…
marcelk.org 