The Great Mosquito Bite Remedy Experiment of 2010

We live in an area where mosquitoes abound. The "Mosquito Control" truck, with its trademark, low-pitched hum and clouds of fog, is a common sight in summertime, though how effective it truly is, I can't be entirely sure. As someone who really can't stand the uncomfortable heat and sticky humidity of Midwestern summers (and someone who works from home), I'm not overly affected by mosquitoes, as I don't really spend that much time outdoors in the summertime. Spring and autumn are my preferred times of the year. 

I have to confess that Leo provides a distraction for the mosquitoes, as they like his warmer-than-normal body temperature much more than mine, so when I am outdoors, I am rarely victim to mosquitoes, as they naturally gravitate to Leo. As such, Leo is a big fan of repellents of various sorts, but we had yet to locate an adequate remedy to the itching, which, on Leo's foreign skin (which is, even after two summers here, still not entirely used to our domestic mosquitoes), is practically unbearable. Leo is so susceptible to mosquito bites, in fact, that when he first moved here, he was working in the yard and got a couple of bites on his face that swelled up so much that he looked a little bit like the Elephant Man. And though he's gotten a bit more used to them (I suppose he's slowly developing an immunity of sorts), his bites are much larger than normal and seem to cause him a great deal more distress.

So when Jay and Raemie came inside last week with their first American mosquito bites of their visit here, I  immediately started searching the web for some fast solutions to the scratching. 

The Common Plantain Weed

In my search, I was surprised when I happened upon a description of a remedy that involved simply squeezing the flower stalk of a weed and rubbing it directly on the bite, but more surprised when I looked up the weed and discovered it was something we have in our yard in abundance.

It's the common Plantain Weed, and it grows right outside our back door! I immediately asked Jay if he wanted to participate in a scientific experiment and of course he agreed. So we went outside, found ourselves a plantain weed, and rubbed it on two of his four mosquito bites. The itching stopped right away, and by the next day, the bites were remarkably smaller.

Last night, we conducted our secondary experiment, this time on a bite Leo had just received on the back of his hand. Raemie rubbed the weed on Leo's hand and poof! The swelling went down and the itching stopped, and this morning, his hand looks like he never got bitten. 

So there you go - a brand-new, totally free mosquito bite remedy! The flower stalk of the common plantain weed, squeezed and rubbed onto the bite. It couldn't be simpler, and it's been totally effective in our family.