The first step to treating fire ant bites is to remove all your clothing
and make sure every single ant has been removed from the body. This
will help to prevent any kind of further stinging and problems.
Take an antihistamine (like Benadryl) to help prevent allergic reactions and swelling
# After washing the bites, as soon as possible:
* Worcestershire sauce. Cover the bite(s) with a paper towel and saturate with the sauce. Read more.
* Hot water. Read more.
* Put a penny on each welt and tape it on with scotch tape. This can
provide almost immediate relief with the welts being gone in a few
hours. Read user comments.
* Bleach and water (half and half)
or full strength, followed in 15 minutes by a slathering of Arm &
Hammer Advance White toothpaste with baking soda and peroxide. Read user
comments.
* Cut open a fresh lime and rub the area in
several different directions until you feel the burning and itching
stop. Once you've saturated the area with the lime and lime juice, you
won't even get any pustules or scabs. Also, you won't get scars! Read
users comments about fire ant bites and lime.
* Ammonia
alone, or alternately applying ammonia and hydrogen peroxide with two
rags, cotton balls, or paper towels. A reader writes: "A touch of
ammonia on the bite immediately (within 15 minutes, or the body begins
to heal by covering over the wound) will neutralize the venom.
* Plantain extract. Read user comments.
* Soak in a tub of warm water with 3 cups of 20 Mule Team Borax. Borax
is actually the mineral boron. So you are taking a mineral bath. This
draws out the venom.
Read one man's rather entertaining
account of his first encounter with fire ants after moving from
Washington state to Texas.
* Topical steroid cream such as a 1/4% or stronger hydrocortisone cream.
* Baking soda and water (thick paste)
* Meat tenderizer and water (thick paste)
* Alcohol
* Vinegar. (This is the suggested solution for use with box jellyfish.)
* Crushed aspirin (thick paste). May help even after a day.
* Salt (thick paste)
* Tea Tree oil (may also be good for other insect bites, such as, chiggers, fleas and mosquitoes)
* Aloe jell
* Liquid dishwashing soap (not dishwasher soap). Read user comments.
* Freshly cut onion
* Peroxide
These can reduce the pain and itching. You can carry a small spray
bottle of some of these mixtures with you to use immediately if you know
you will be in an infested area that is not close to the house.
# Apply an ice cube to reduce pain and itching
The
first step to treating fire ant bites is to remove all your clothing
and make sure every single ant has been removed from the body. This will
help to prevent any kind of further stinging and problems. Make sure
you get the remaining ant off and then lay down and elevate the part or
parts of the body that has been stung by a fire ant.
Graeme Stephens has been running the largest owned carpet cleaning company in new Zealand for 24 years. IICRC qualified "master restoration technician"
