I can definitely recommend that. I use it as I get bad reactions to mozzie bites. It works better than any of the other creams I think. You can get it OTC in French pharmacies. The other thing about bites is that if you’re quick after being bitten, then dabbing the area with medicinal alcohol, the 90% plus stuff, helps to neutralise the proteins that cause the allergy.
2 Likes
hairbear do you mean 90%? local pharmacist said they are only allowed to sell 70% and there is not much difference.
Needless to say I went on to acquire 90% alcool modifié, 70% of same, and some hydrogen peroxide eau oxygénée, from other sources. However 2 days ago wondering which I should wipe across a small old infected bite a Google source said 70% is for skin and 90% for surfaces as too harsh for skin.
Which should I be trying on my old bite?
Don’t have access to the one I use at the mo, someone sleeping in the other bedroom where it is. I’m sure mine is 90 or 95% alcohol (ethanol). You can also get Isopropyl alcohol, which is different and will irritate the skin. You don’t want to be using this, as it can cause the skin to crack in high concentrations with repeated use.
If you have an Alo Vera plant, cut off a frond, refridgerate it and then cut off small pieces of the lovely, cool gel inside the frond and apply it directly to the itchy parts. It works well for me, at least.
2 Likes
Antihistamine perhaps. Cetirizine for example.
1 Like
As the heading says - harvest mite / aoutat. It’s that time of the year unfortunately. My reaction to them is violent and they are virtually invisible. Renowned for crawling up trouser legs and biting when they get trapped - crotch and waistband. And they don’t bit just once - I got five bites on my arm.
Unfortunately this happened Saturday late and my arm just went crazy Sunday - hence my reaching for help here. In fact I was daft - senior moment - I have more or less everything in stock because I’m also allergic to wasps and I need to react very fast when I’ve been stung.
So thanks for all your suggestions reminding me what I needed to do. I finished up throwing everything at it - antihistamine cream and tabs, steroid cream, ice.
The ice was a revelation Stella and certainly gave me the fastest immediate relief. I also put my arm under the cold tap during the night and didn’t dry it off and that enabled me to get back to sleep.
Without doubt my arm is better today, though still swollen and a bit hurty as well as itchy, but nothing like as bad as yesterday.
I have just tried aloe vera , thanks @St-Loup and I must say my arm feels calmer.
I’ve been to the pharmacy today and got some more cortico-steroid cream. Probably no more than I already have but my current tube is years old. I’m not going to use it as I’m on the mend, but I’m sure there will be a next time - this heat and the tall dry grasses are paradise for the mites.
Thanks everyone for your help, with your new information and for reminding me what I already have in stock at the back of a drawer somewhere. 
cheers @SuePJ but my question/remark was actually in reply to @DrMarkH who told of suffering a bite which resulted in a red swollen area on his leg, the size of a saucer… !!! 
Sorry. I think he went on to say it was a spider.
1 Like
Who cares what it was… with a reaction like that… I’d be down the surgery/pharmacy like a shot… 
It is something totally alien to me… nuffink like that reaction is in my medical history and I don’t want it in my future history neither… not no-how… not never… 
Glad to be of some help!
1 Like
You are so lucky! It’s extraordinary how these tiny, tiny creatures can play havoc with our immunes systems so that they go into overdrive. No doubt one day some microbiologist will come up with the solution so we have prevention rather than cure. And prevention that does not entail lathering oneself in some noxious chemical.
When I was a youngster my elder brother accidentally dropped me in a large (very large) patch of stinging nettles… that probably gave me some immunity against stuff… who knows… I remember it well… ouch… dock leaves didn’t really work well enough…
and also being stung by a wasp which was hiding under my bed (heaven knows why) and when I tried to retrieve a toy… I got zapped by that…
How come I can recall such events with clarity… yet I don’t always know which day it is… 
1 Like
I have found that if you put an elastoplast on the bite it really helps. It has to go on quite tightly, but I do this and the itching stops and I can get to sleep. These things are always worst at night when nothing else is happening and it is warm.
3 Likes
I don’t seem to be tasty to aoutats, though I am to mosquitoes.
However one of my cats was very allergic to aoutats. So it’s worth checking your companion beasts. Ours now get Broadline every three months (stops ticks as well).
1 Like
I was bitten by what i think was a spider last October - left 2 puncture marks about 1.5cm apart and coinciding marks like a buen where i had bent my elbow. The skin on the puncture marks turned a pearly green/blue colour before sloughing away. I cant remember what i treated it with though! Possibly antihistamine cream and Sudocrem.
I got about 9 or 10 bites on Monday, but did not realise until Tuesday when they were really itchy, and a couple were really swollen.
Used Sudocrem on them, stopped the itching and the swelling went down.
2 Likes
I get a terrible reaction to them too…along bra edges and straps, seams, waistbands etc… can count easily 40 odd miserable bites. My heart goes out to you.
1 Like
I was going to ask what you treated your pussycat with and I have just noticed…Broadline… Good to know as dogs are suffering too.
Yikes, all! I have been stung by a wasp while I was innocently enjoying a coffee on my friend’s terrace
I did nothing to anger the wasp that I did not even know was there until the sting but I had copiously sprayed myself with citronella mosquito spray earlier, which may actually attract wasps 
Very painful even 3 days later. The boulangère says “Ce n’est pas jolie!” and insists I see the doctor or at very least the chemist. Very French 
When I’ve had wasp stings before I’ve always initially treated with washing, then applying some sort of cloth/tissue soaked in vinegar, followed by holding something frozen on the bite such as an ice cube on it - works well for me and I normally take an antihistamine such as cetirizine.
1 Like