Ant bites

[pumkinlover]

Looking forward to a good day on the allotment this morning and the garden this afternoon.

Having a tidy up on the plot, when I felt the tell tale  sharp pain, three bites on my arm. Decided to go home and take a antihistamine  because I always react quite badly.  One piriton later and I slept all afternoon, woke up for tea and fell asleep again, total wuss when it comes to medication!

Just annoyed that I wasted half a day.

[pumkinlover]

[Borlotti]

Poor you, was it red ants, hope you get better soon.

[Palustris]

If it helps, the ants use acid (Formic acid to be exact) so rubbing Bicarb of soda on the bites does help a little. It neutralises the acid.

[gray1720]

You have my sympathy re the piriton - it has a similar efect on me to drinking on an empty stomach, except I talk less balls before I fall over.

Adrian

[Digeroo]

I hate ant bites too, they blow up into a huge itchy lump six inches across.  My biggest dread is getting a stray one in the bed.  Once ended up with eight bites and only one the one ant.
I also crash out with antihistamine.  I had the most expensive one on prescription which was guaranteed not to make you dozy and I slept like a baby.  In fact it was worse than the cheapest one.

[pumkinlover]

It seems I am not alone!. The tablet did the trick in the bites are hardly noticeable but I am still sleepy today.

[Paulines7]

It used to be just the red ants that bite but I have found that some of the black ones in the garden these days can also be just as painful.

[Obelixx]

I take a daily Boots One-a-Day anti-histamine from April to September inclusive as it helps with all the bites I get, mostly flying insects.  It helps reduce reactions to inevitable bites and doesn't make me sleepy.   

I always have a cortisone based cream handy in the kitchen and another in my handbag in case a bite flares up when I'm out asw ella s insect repellent spray and a milder gel ointment for bites that haven't got angry.   It pays to be thus armed as I had over 30 bites on my body and behind my knees in October.  No idea what bit and never felt the usual sting but boy were they itchy and painful without the meds.  Needless to say, OH was untouched.

[Vinlander]

If it helps, the ants use acid (Formic acid to be exact) so rubbing Bicarb of soda on the bites does help a little. It neutralises the acid.

Ammonia works too, and very quickly - the household 5-10% "cleaning" version is OK as a single drop on a tiny area (when it evaporates it's gone unlike other alkalis). Ideally you should dilute the stronger versions to 1/3 or 1/2  to reduce the original concentration to 4% - or half that for large or tender areas - 10% will sting like hell and not work any better. The version sold for sting relief is about 3% but 50x the price per ml  - though the pen it comes in is very handy, worth buying if you have access to a syringe to re-fill it.

Vinegar works opposite to ammonia and will only make ant stings worse - it's useful for jellyfish stings.

Some people recommend a vinegar and bicarb mix - but they neutralise each other so it's useless - if it works it's the placebo effect because the reaction looks impressive - mediaeval smoke and mirrors.

I also suffer badly from antihistamines - the old ones (1970s-90s) made me into a zombie, the newer ones that say non-drowsy are safer but otherwise even worse - they make the inside of my head feel somehow itchy (and my skull's too thick to scratch through) - I feel like banging my head on the wall even more than usual 

Cheers.