How to Prevent Mosquito Bites and How to Treat When Traveling

While most people worry about the more venomous bugs like a banana spider when they go abroad, they take for granted that even the most common insect, which is the mosquito, can be harmful.
In most tropical countries, mosquitos are very rampant and they bite people very often. What’s worse is that dengue, an illness carried by mosquitoes, may infect us when a carrier mosquito sucks our blood.
How to Prevent Mosquito Bites While Traveling

In order to prevent that, it’s extremely important that you know how to prevent mosquito bites while traveling. If ever you do become a mosquito buffet, here are also a few tips on how to treat the bites:
● Throw Water Out
The thing about mosquitoes is that they breed extremely quickly. As long as they find stagnant water, they will go there to create a breeding ground and lay eggs. In just two weeks, the eggs would hatch and eventually let out more mosquitoes that can bite you. So the most important thing to do at this point would be to make sure that you don’t provide the mosquitoes with a breeding ground. If ever you have a bucket or a bottle of water lying around somewhere, make sure they’re covered. Also, it’s advisable that you don’t keep pails of water lying around unless they have a cover. Filled pails make excellent breeding grounds for mosquitoes. By leaving water around, you’ll also be attracting more mosquitoes resulting in possible multiple breeding grounds.
● Use Mosquito Repellent

Another thing that you should do would be to use mosquito repellent on the place you’re staying. Mosquitoes often fly around at 5 PM and at dawn. So around these times, spray your place with repellent. There are some people who don’t want to use chemical repellent because of health hazards. As an alternative, you can buy one of those organic or natural repellents made out of essential oils or citrus essence. These also work pretty well in deterring those pesky mosquitoes from the area.

● Use Anti Mosquito Lotion
As another deterrent, you may use anti-mosquito lotion on your skin so that they won’t even dare go near you. Most lotions are safe, so you won’t really have to worry about any side effects of some sort. If ever your skin doesn’t respond well to the lotion though, there are actually other alternatives that you may use. Eucalyptus oil with lemon extract can be an alternative to the usual anti-mosquito lotion. You can either buy one in those eco-friendly stores or you can make your own concoction. Another alternative would be aloe vera gel. If you apply aloe vera gel on your exposed body parts, mosquitoes will probably avoid you like a plague. A lot of general stores sell aloe vera gel, so you can buy a bottle before you go traveling.
● Wear Only Light Colored Clothing
Some studies have stated that bugs are only attracted to dark colors. So if you wear something like red, black, dark blue, or even grey, mosquitoes will swarm around you like a pack of rats around cheese. That’s why it is highly recommended that you wear bright colored clothes when you travel to a place where there are a lot of mosquitoes. Somehow, they won’t be attracted to you so much if you wear colors like yellow, white, orange, and other similar shades.
How to Treat Mosquito Bites
Now that you know how to prevent mosquitoes from biting you, the next step would be to learn how to treat the bites. While mosquito bites are generally not harmful, they can be extremely irritating, especially when they get super itchy. That’s why you need to treat them right away so that you won’t be bothered. Here are a few ways on how to do that:
● Apply Ice
The first thing that you can do would be to apply some ice. Mosquito bites often result in swelling, so the ice will help bring down the swelling and help with the itchiness. Just make sure you don’t scratch after you take away the ice.
● Aloe Vera
Alternatively, you can also use aloe vera as aloe vera has very strong anti-inflammatory properties. So if you have a mosquito bite and you don’t have a pack of ice, just bring a bottle of aloe vera gel and you should be fine.
● Honey
Another natural mosquito bite treatment method would be honey. All you have to do is apply the honey on the affected area and wait for the bite to settle down. Just make sure you watch out for ants because ants will want to get a taste of that honey after some time.
● Antihistamines
Antihistamines are also pretty useful in healing mosquito bites. The itchiness and swelling are usually caused by histamines which are released by the body whenever an insect bites. The job of the antihistamine is to bring down the histamine levels in order to stop the itching and swelling.
● Hydrocortisone
Aside from antihistamines, you may also use hydrocortisone to treat your inflammation. It’s a topical medicine that can help stop the swelling and also ease the itching you would experience from a mosquito bite.
● Medical Attention
While mosquito bites don’t usually require medical attention, some people who are allergic to insect bites may experience some bad symptoms. Watch out for symptoms like nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and fever. If you notice that you have any of these symptoms after you’re bitten, go see a doctor. If you don’t know what a banana spider looks like, Google some pictures to identify one.
Conclusion
There are actually a lot of ways to prevent being bitten by mosquitoes when you travel. These days, mosquitoes can get a little bit dangerous because they carry various diseases and infections. So if ever you travel to a different country, watch out for them! If ever you are bitten by one, then these tips will help you calm your skin down so that you won’t be irritated by the bite.