It reminds me of something I used to do against mosquito bites when I was younger and more sensitive to them. I dipped a spoon in boiling water, and gave the mosquito bite a few quick touches with the hot spoon.
Nowadays I just use anti-acne wipes with salicylic acid against mosquito bites, it reduces the inflammation for me.
The Bug Bite Thing seems to have a similar miraculous effect for my family. I was initially skeptical, but it works surprisingly well. Also, no need to fiddle with batteries.
My son gets horrible blisters from mosquito bites (skeeter syndrome). Bought him a bug bite thing out of desperation on our last trip south and was blown away to see how well it worked to keep the swelling down.
I have tried various anti-inflammatory/ anti-histamine creams in the past. But I've never found them that effective. Preparation H isn't suitable for vegetarians due to one of the ingredients being Shark Liver Oil.
I read a number of studies one time after a trip back home to Florida left me itching everywhere. Surprisingly, it seemed that the strongest evidence by far was for topical ammonia, with antihistamines, heat, cold, and other common remedies showing limited effectiveness. Ammonia is a rather unpleasant choice, but I've also found that Windex makes short work of cockroaches that laugh at Raid and the like.
From my experience, the best defense against mosquito itch is living in Florida -- you rapidly become resistant, and eventually the bites fade within a couple hours. However, this has other downsides.
I'm unsure if this is true anymore? The ingredient list and information from their website seems to indicate that this is no longer an ingredient (although some of their products do use lanolin/beeswax)
Not sure if you're joking - but vegetarians / vegans tend not use use any product which is made by killing an animal.
People can argue about whether shearing a sheep or obtaining shellac is harmful - but I think everyone can agree that there's no way to extract the liver of a shark without killing it.
Virtually every product is made by killing animals. I'd say vegetarians/vegans only really care about products that ~require~ the killing of an animal, and care very little about the products that only kill animals incidentally.
It's still human dominion over animals. And veganism is still veganism. e.g., don't tell me that "some vegans decide it's OK to wear leather" because they're not "a collective entity" or something like that. Veganism is very much a black & white ethos. There is no acceptable gray area for veganism.
Maybe not (unless you want to get at that 'roid from the long way around) but some people are vegetarian because they want to avoid killing animals as much as possible. It seems that shark liver oil comes mainly from sharks already considered "vulnerable" by the IUCN[1]. I'd feel weird about rubbing the liver oil of a top tier predator on my ass now that I think about it.
I did look at that. Seems to be about the same price as the USB one in the UK. But it also doesn't recharge nor does it have fine-grained controls for session length / intensity.
Looks similar to piezo "clickers" that are supposed to help against mosquito bites. But is the working principle based on temporarily damaging nerve endings? If so, is there a potential for a long-term negative effect with active use?
I also thought about the piezo clickers I had many years ago, but I think the principle is different: from what I heard at the time, the clickers were supposed to use a small amount of electricity to break the molecules of the substance causing the itch/inflammation.
As I heard it, it's about chemistry. I forget the details. The mosquito injects something that ① keeps the blood flowing a little longer than it would otherwise, ② causes the body to react in a way that itches and ③ breaks down when heated. So to prevent the itching, you heat the area.
There's a verb for this heat process, but I can't remember it.
I think you are looking for denaturing. Some claim it denatures the proteins causing the itch. I can at least verify that for me it cuts down healing time but I do need to re-apply it a few times.
Interesting - it reads like it's the same approach I've taken for stopping poison ivy itching, and my sister users for her eczema itching.
If you put the affected area under the hottest water you can, you cause the nerves to effectively burn out, overloading the signal to prevent the itch from triggering.
Especially for poison ivy it worked wonders when you have a bad rash, although you shouldn't put hot water on (opening the skin pores) if there's any chance you still have the oil on you, as it'll just get deeper in. This is for the days after once you're suffering.
Being a Brit and moving to the US I had no idea what poison ivy is, and learned the hard way. Standing under the hot shower and burning the ivy itch away causing a feeling that's basically pure ecstasy. It's an incredible feeling of relief, coupled with every nerve going nuts.
Could also be something specific to mosquito bites, I've read the denaturing argument too. My brother in law swears by holding a lit cigarette tip just above the bite to have a similar effect. It never worked particularly well for me, but bathing area with hot water always works for a bit.
> The treatment of insect bites using heat-based devices such as heat it® leads to significant itch and pain relief. This is proven by the world's most comprehensive study on the effectiveness of thermal insect bite healers.
> "Efficacy of Concentrated Heat for Treatment of Insect Bites: Results of a real-world study" - Metz M et al. | Published June 26, 2023 in Acta Dermato-Venereologica by the Society for Publication of Acta Dermato-Venereologica.
> This study shows that concentrated heat induced by a heating device reduced pruritus caused by insect bites and stings, even if the insect bites occurred more than 6 h previously. Across more than 12,000 treatments registered, less than 1% of participants reported side-effects. Further investigation of these side-effects showed that none posed a serious risk to the participant.
For a while I had a gnarly case of AF between my two biggest toes that was resistant to over the counter cream and I wasn't able to get to a doctor for a bit. Running the hottest water I could get in my apartment over my foot was a bliss I had never known, and truly hope to never know again. It would be so intense I would get visual flashes.
Nothing worked quite the same, I always assmumed it was a rush of endorphins to the location to attempt to protect us from feeling burning pain. Given that we both felt sensations of ecstasy and endorphins are involved in pain relief, it makes sense ot me that having the endorphin rush for the heat pain relieves the itching as well, increasing our expected return for the endorphin output, causing acute feelings of ecstasy and bliss?
There's gradations of poison ivy reactions. I'm so allergic to it that turns into bubbles on bubbles like a cluster of fish eggs. (I don't think I'd want to put hot water on that.)
My late father was so sensitive to poison ivy that it skips the bubble phase and melts the skin and flesh off his body. One time he got poison ivy on his hand, and it resembled the scene from Terminator Genisys when the good T-800, "Pops," holds the T-1000 under the acid shower and lost the flesh covering on its cyborg arm.
I'm surpised nobody has commented that the title of the this post is clearly bait/wrong and should be renamed to indicate that the USB-C protocol is not curing insect bites but instead a device that uses the protocol is.
Maybe because its not from a major news publication site?
I've always wondered about the people who do this. Do they realise what the purpose of a headline is? It is to encourage the reader to invest time in a story. Usually that involves summarising it down to the bare minimum while still making it interesting.
I suppose I could have written "You'll never believe how this USB gadget cures holiday nightmares!" but that does feel like click-bait.
I considered writing "A gadget which is powered by USB-C cures the common effects of mosquito bites in a sample size of 1" but that felt needlessly verbose.
So, my question back to you is this - how would you rewrite the headline? What short sentence would you use which maximises the twin constrains of accuracy and brevity?
I would say that the interesting part of this article is that you can treat mosquito bites with hyperthermia. Anyone who's had any contact with technology already knows that you can power electronic devices via USB.
I found that these bite-zappers stop the itching in the moment but it just comes back stronger later and the bite takes far longer to heal that it would have if left alone.
But mosquito bites are painless... is this an article about itch control? Curious it has nothing to say about preventing bites which would carry mosquito borne diseases. The cure for mosquito bites is to not get them, and there are natural options for that.
Nowadays I just use anti-acne wipes with salicylic acid against mosquito bites, it reduces the inflammation for me.