New Treatment For Insect Bites?
Was reading in the newspaper the other day a commentary about itching insect bites. There was a suggestion by a man (full name given) here in KC that for years has heated a fresh insect bite with a hair dryer to the point of 5-10 seconds of minor pain from the heat. (I.E. don't get your flesh so hot it damages you). He said that after that the itch goes away and stays away. He said that the heat "denatured" the poison.
I am usually pretty skeptical about such advice, but I had a big, fresh mosquito (I think) bite on my back near my right shoulder that was starting to itch pretty bad. I couldn't reach it so I had the wife hit it with the hair dryer for a few seconds to the point where I yell "youch! that hurts!". She stopped with the hair dryer and after a few seconds I was able to tell her "I can't believe it but the itch is gone!". And it stayed gone until the next morning when I put my shirt on and after awhile the shirt rubbing the bite area caused just a little minor itching. But now even that is gone. I believe this process actually works and I wanted to share it with any interested person.
Wonder if it would work with say a brown recluse spider bite? The advice I always see given in such a bite is to ice the area and get to the physician so I don't know if applying heat to the spider bite would be a good idea or not?
I am usually pretty skeptical about such advice, but I had a big, fresh mosquito (I think) bite on my back near my right shoulder that was starting to itch pretty bad. I couldn't reach it so I had the wife hit it with the hair dryer for a few seconds to the point where I yell "youch! that hurts!". She stopped with the hair dryer and after a few seconds I was able to tell her "I can't believe it but the itch is gone!". And it stayed gone until the next morning when I put my shirt on and after awhile the shirt rubbing the bite area caused just a little minor itching. But now even that is gone. I believe this process actually works and I wanted to share it with any interested person.
Wonder if it would work with say a brown recluse spider bite? The advice I always see given in such a bite is to ice the area and get to the physician so I don't know if applying heat to the spider bite would be a good idea or not?
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awsome. also for beestings or any stings amonia or any cleaing product w/ amonia will nutralize the sting 0 -
i don't know about spiders, but it is 100% effective for rattlesnake bites. 0 -
Only one way to find out for sure. Don 0 -
I'm not going out to get bit by a rattler just to find out.[:)] 0 -
I'll be on the St' Joe River, in another week, or so, so I'll try it out.
We don't have biting insects here.
[8D]0 -
I heard several years back that a shock will kill snake/wasp venom, and a few years later saw a product on the market just for that purpose.
The story goes that a farmer had just been copperhead bit, was working on the tractor, got shocked and it neutralized the venom.
Tried it on my son after a wasp sting (with a lawn mower) and it seems to work.0 -
electroshock is an old wives tail. I have watched guys at rattlesnake round-ups under the hood of their trucks getting the shock to cure the bite. When they collapse the ambulance comes and they get taken to the hospital for conventional treatment with antivenom, which is the ONLY think that works if venom was injected. A good percentage of venomous snakebites are dry, meaning no venom was inject. On those, you could rub raspberry jello, and proclaim a cure, which is what happens with all these folk rememdies, and believe me I have heard them all from bezoar stones to electroshock, to half a just killed chicken sucking the venom out. The old cut and suck kits did more damage than good, and so do all these other "remedies."
I cannot speak to heat on the insect bites, but I am skeptical.0 -
quote:Originally posted by He Dog
electroshock is an old wives tail. I have watched guys at rattlesnake round-ups under the hood of their trucks getting the shock to cure the bite. When they collapse the ambulance comes and they get taken to the hospital for conventional treatment with antivenom, which is the ONLY think that works if venom was injected. A good percentage of venomous snakebites are dry, meaning no venom was inject. On those, you could rub raspberry jello, and proclaim a cure, which is what happens with all these folk rememdies, and believe me I have heard them all from bezoar stones to electroshock, to half a just killed chicken sucking the venom out. The old cut and suck kits did more damage than good, and so do all these other "remedies."
I cannot speak to heat on the insect bites, but I am skeptical.
I was also skeptical about the insect bite and I only tried it once, but it seemed to work. I usually expect a large, itching bite to itch a couple of days before it quits. Yet I had just gotten that bite earlier that day and after the hair dryer treatment it has pretty much quit itching. I of course will now try it numberous times and if it works I will continue to use it. Otherwise I will quit using the process and will of course report back here on the results.
I'm thinking that an insect bite injects a small cocktail of chemicals into the bite site. In chemistry class we learned that heat is one cataylst that can sometimes change how a particular chemical functions. I'm thinking that the heat from the hair dryer has the possibilty of changing the chemical composition of the insect venmon to where it might now be somewhat harmless to living tissue. If the heat was able to alter even one of the various chemicals that make up the venom in an insect bite, that small change might render the venom harmless.
If this is the case, I would think it might have the ability to do the same thing to a snake or spider bite. Even though the venom from a snake would be in a larger amount, the same basic process should still apply. Remember that for centuries when ever someone got a cold or flu and the person's body developed a fever, physicians frantically attempted to lower on eliminate the fever. It has only been a few years ago that medical science discovered that often such a fever is the body's way of trying to fight off infection. So maybe heat in our bodies can help for insect and snake bites if we learn how toproperly use it.
Just a thought as I am no scientist.0 -
If you are bitten by what may have been a poisonous reptile, go to the Emergency Room immediately. Do not, rpt NOT, waste your time on home remedies, it could end up killing you.[:(!][:(!][:(!] 
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Opossums don't get rabies because of thier high body temperature. The virus can't survive. 0 -
If its true, they will install them in ambulances. Better yet just hold the patient close to the exhaust. 0 -
heating an insect bite wouldn't "introduce a catalyst", there are no chemicals coming out of a hair dryer. heating the skin wouldn't bring around any chemicals that would act as a catalyst either. in fact, such chemicals are usually toxic. you don't want that.
heat does degrade chemicals. ("degrade" is the scientific term for it) lots of organic chemicals are degraded with heat. for example, every pharmaceutical that is sold is stuck in a cabinet with higher-than-normal temperature to prove it doesn't degrade too fast, before it goes on the market. they even do that to every lot before it goes out the door to verify.
however, if you aim a blow dryer at your skin to heat it up, whatever chemicals just underneath the skin won't get as hot. but maybe still hot enough to degrade them, immediately, which would have an immediate effect, if it's specifically the composition of the bug slobber that causes the itching. who knows, it could be degraded to all hell and still make you itch.
or it could be that heating up the skin so much dilates the blood vessels, causing the stuff to be dissipated. so it's not enough to make you itch anymore, it's spread out all over.
all that matters is if it works or not. I get bit all the dang time by frikkin' mosquitos, I'll try it.0 -
I use saliva 0 -
quote:Originally posted by buschmaster
heating an insect bite wouldn't "introduce a catalyst", there are no chemicals coming out of a hair dryer. heating the skin wouldn't bring around any chemicals that would act as a catalyst either. in fact, such chemicals are usually toxic. you don't want that.
heat does degrade chemicals. ("degrade" is the scientific term for it) lots of organic chemicals are degraded with heat. for example, every pharmaceutical that is sold is stuck in a cabinet with higher-than-normal temperature to prove it doesn't degrade too fast, before it goes on the market. they even do that to every lot before it goes out the door to verify.
however, if you aim a blow dryer at your skin to heat it up, whatever chemicals just underneath the skin won't get as hot. but maybe still hot enough to degrade them, immediately, which would have an immediate effect, if it's specifically the composition of the bug slobber that causes the itching. who knows, it could be degraded to all hell and still make you itch.
or it could be that heating up the skin so much dilates the blood vessels, causing the stuff to be dissipated. so it's not enough to make you itch anymore, it's spread out all over.
all that matters is if it works or not. I get bit all the dang time by frikkin' mosquitos, I'll try it.
A catalyst does not have to be a chemical. For example, the catalytic converter on your car does not contain any chemicals. What it does is to allow the hot exhaust from your engine to contact the platinum in the converter. The platinum and the heat from the exhaust converts much of the carbon monoxide into a much less harmful gas.0 -
quote:Originally posted by Old Fool
If you are bitten by what may have been a poisonous reptile, go to the Emergency Room immediately. Do not, rpt NOT, waste your time on home remedies, it could end up killing you.[:(!][:(!][:(!]
Well, yeah, I probably should have posted some kind of disclaimer. So, kids, do not try this at home unless you are a trained, professional stunt person.[:D]0 -
quote:Originally posted by bigtire
Opossums don't get rabies because of thier high body temperature. The virus can't survive.
Cliff, Cliff Clavin is that you?[:D]0 -
So how long would you keep the hair dryer on it? 0 -
quote:Originally posted by bigtire
Opossums don't get rabies because of thier high body temperature. The virus can't survive.
Believe that a possum doesn't get rabies because it is a marsupial, not a mamual. A concentration of rabies virus, 5,000 time the strenght found in nature will give a possum rabies.
Or maybe its cause them things are so ugly.0 -
quote:Originally posted by cartod
If its true, they will install them in ambulances. Better yet just hold the patient close to the exhaust.
"Yep, let's just pipe some of this right up into the ambulance".[;)]0 -
1. Opossums are mammals but they are also in the marsupial family and marsupials do not contract rabies. Their body temperature in fact runs 90-99F so it is in fact lower than the body temp. of most mammals.
2. Platinum is a metal and a chemical.
3. Mosquitos affect diffent people differently. For me the bite itches for a few minutes to an hour, then is unnoticable in 3 hours. Others take them more seriously. Mosquitos do not actually possess or inject venom, they essentially inject anticoagulent saliva which blocks clotting and starts to break down blood cells. I am dubious that a hair dryer blowing on the skin can significantly impact temperatures even .25 inch below the skin. I would expect cold to be more effective in treatment.
There is some evidence which indicates some components of snake venoms are drawn to heat (which would draw them into the body core, dropping prey more quickly), so heat is likely contraindicated on snake bites. Cold is simply not very effective with such a large volume of potent venom.0 -
I imagine it has something to do with denaturing a protein.
The mosquito bite is not a venom like bee sting or snakebite but rather an allergic reaction to something injected during the bite.
Heat tends to denature proteins (frying an egg is a good example, just observe the egg white) or destroy their folded structure that gives it a tell-tale shape. Without that shape your antibodies just ignore it instead of attacking, so there is no reaction.0 -
AHHH! He even identifies himself as a college-edumacated man!
Yeah, heat may denature a protein's folded structure. Electric shock may generate some heat inside your skin, and so denature poisonous peptides.
That said, I rub asprin on bee stings (salicylate compounds work well to lessen inflammation), benadryl on mosquito bites (diphenylhydramine lotions work, too), and for snake bites I rub my fingers against the buttons on my cell phone.0 -
quote:Originally posted by frankcastle13
So how long would you keep the hair dryer on it?
I guess the longer the better. But after just a few seconds the heat starts to get painful.0 -
quote:for snake bites I rub my fingers against the buttons on my cell phone.
You do realize don't you that you will be responsible for a new useless folk rememdy making the rounds, leaving a few victims dead or maimed, and having a new thread started here in 8 months when it has made the e-mail rounds?[:(!][}:)][:p]0 -
Have to try this. One bite on my wrist, one on the elbow, driving me up a wall.
FYI, CHEAP beer tends to work really well, too.0 -
would it work on brown recluse spider bite? hell no, you will loss a limb if you try that on a spider bit. if you get bite by a brown recluse, put ice on it. The lower temp keep the venom from doing damage.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002859.htm#Home Treatment
Home Treatment Return to top
Apply a cold pack, then seek immediate medical attention
Heat will increase the rate of damage to tissue, I have seen someone lose a arm to those damn things.0 -
quote:Originally posted by Kimbercolt
would it work on brown recluse spider bite? hell no, you will loss a limb if you try that on a spider bit. if you get bite by a brown recluse, put ice on it. The lower temp keep the venom from doing damage.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002859.htm#Home Treatment
Home Treatment Return to top
Apply a cold pack, then seek immediate medical attention
Heat will increase the rate of damage to tissue, I have seen someone lose a arm to those damn things.
Thank you sir. You may have saved someone from serious bodily damage or death.0 -
just tried it on half a dozen mosquito bites, it does indeed work.
you don't even have to get it all that hot. itch it for a minute or 2 more real good, then it stops. lump stays there but oh well.
thanks much!0
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