First, use DEET products to keep from being bitten.

Second, treat the bite as soon as you realize you have been bitten. I am a mosquito magnet also and I can feel the bite before I can see it. I use the Cortizone-10 ointment the minute I feel a bite and it usually keeps the sting/itch and swelling away. Usually the bite will go away overnight. If I don't get it right away, it takes the bite longer to go away. This also works well on my young kids.

Couple of choices for treatment:
Cortizone-10 primary active ingredient is hydrocortisone cream 1% (I prefer the ointment to the cream)

Sting Eze comes in a small, dropper-type bottle and relies on camphor as its primary active ingredient (camphor does not work for me)

After Bite—in a pen-type applicator and contains ammonia as the primary active ingredient (this does work for me)

More info on mosquitos can be found here http://www.vh.org/pediatric/patient/...quitobite.html

Have a great trip! And good luck with the bugs. I have seen tourists just eaten up and I always feel so sorry for them because I know how miserable it is.

As basically everyone has said- DEET. Deep Woods OFF in the green sray can has worked well for me in the Everglades during the summers.

One tip: start looking around for inexpensive, light colored, lightweight fabric, loosefitting long sleeve shirts and long pants. Spray the OFF onto the clothes. Much better than wearing shorts and t-shirts and having to spray DEET onto your skin every day. Another option that might not be fashionable but works great is a mesh head cover (they might be available at sporting goods stores in the SE U.S.). You might look kind of silly, but you won't have bugs flying into your eyes or up your nose.

one other thing - several have mentioned that DEET will damage plastic and fabrics. More specifically, the plastic on cameras can be damaged if it comes in contact with DEET. So be careful spraying around cameras, sports watches etc.

Eat a lot of garlic.

Use a smelly fabric softener like BOUNCE on all your clothes.

Spray the DEET on your hat/cap.

Bathe in Avon SKIN SO SOFT for a week before your travels, do not use sweet soaps or fruity shampoos.

Forget all the stupid old wives tales and use deet.

Deet is the only thing scientifically proven to repel insects.

The higher the content, the longer it works.

Deet is the ingredient found in the most effective insect repellents such as OFF or Deep Woods.

Just a follow up - catnip oil is scientifically proven to work 10 times better than DEET.

Don't believe me, read the article:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0828075659.htm

Deet is the only thing scientifically proven in studies funded by the OFF company.

GARLIC! BOUNCE! NO FRUITY SHAMPOOS! Trust me !

Birder

where do you buy catnip oil? I've tried everything else and only Deep Woods works for me, I would like to try something 'friendlier'.

Does it smell like my catnip plant - I have 4 cats are they going to be more affectionate?

Catnip oil! Who'd have thunk it? You can find companies that sell it on the internet, though who knows if their product is as claimed? And who knows if it is really safe? Someone living in Mosquito-land (the south) should try it and report back!

I found this article about it:

http://www.cherylsherbs.com/Catnip_and_Mosquitoes.htm

It says that there are reports that catnip oil is attractive to cats, so Scarlett's picture of a person surrounded by cats is not farfetched. Good thing there aren't tigers in the south!

I'd guess that Julie is not allergic to mosquitos. I have always found the mosquitos in the south to leave monstrous, itchy bits, whereas Pacific Northwest mosquitos cause bites that hardly itch and that go away in no time. I think there are a lot of varieties of mosquitos.

One easy solution, Julie, is to come to the Pacific Northwest next time. We lead relatively bug free lives without the use of any insect repellents.

I second the B vitamin idea. My daughter is very allergic to bites & we tried it last year on the advice of her doctor. It was amazing. Start taking the pills one week before you go.

For anyone wanting facts about the efficacy of DEET as opposed to alternatives, check out

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/347/1/13

The _New England Journal of Medicine_, probably the most respected medical journal on the planet, states:

"Currently available non-DEET repellents do not provide protection for durations similar to those of DEET-based repellents and cannot be relied on"

In fifty years of use by tens of millions of people in the U.S, there have been about fifty cases of toxic reactions to use of DEET, with no reported fatalities. In less than five years, more people than that have DIED in the U.S. just from West Nile virus. So decide for yourself which is a bigger threat: DEET or mosquitoes carrying West Nile.

Being a regular hiker and mostly outdoors person, I use a bug repellent whose name I can't remember immediately, but it is a product that one sprays on one's clothes.

I buy it from my local REI sporting goods store when it has it. A lot of times, especially into the summer, REI runs out. That's because the US Government has ordered so much of the stuff to send to US Troops in places like Iraq.

The spray does not smell and will stay on the clothes through several washings. It's better than having to lather yourself in DEET juice.

BTW, REI also carries an excellent DEET product called Jungle Juice. Comes in a very small container.

If the mosquitoes swarm, REI also has a mosquito netting that you can wear around your head and hat, something like the net that beekeepers use. I've had to use one in the jungles of SE Asia and it's quite good.

After being bitten, I've also used both Sting Eze and AfterBite and find both very effective. AfterBite works better for me.

A local "home remedy" is banana skin. I'm told that, if one is bitten, one can rub banana skin on the bite and it'll ease the swelling and itching. Haven't tried it yet - maybe someone can further enlighten us on whether this method works or not? :)

Lastly, in Asia, there are inexpensive mosquito repellent coils which are burned like incense. I've been trying to get some for backyard barbeque time - which is coming up soon!

Julie,
I notice that your legs seem to be the target of the bites. Sure they aren't fleas? If you happen to see the "mosquitos" in your bed then they may be the culprit's. If in fact they are Mosquito's the Deet suggestions are valid.
Easy (REI Seattle?)...try Fred Meyer. My daughter gets the coils in the ceramic container there I think.

Seems to me that the people who swear by, oh, catnip oil or Skin So Soft or vitamin pills are the same people who hardle ever get bit by anything anyway--like my BIL, who swears up and down he's never had a mosquito bite in 30+ years of living.

Another funny thing I've never understood: bugs seem to like "fresh meat," but why? What I mean is, natives of the buggy places I've been get bit, but not as much as the visitors. From the bugs' point of view, that just doesn't make sense.

Skintastic, made by Off. I'm from misquito invested Minnesota and it works great. no bites.

E - you must not have read my post about catnip oil. If there's a group of 10 people, I'll be the first one bit, the last one bit, and most likely the only one bit. See my post above.

I am not a salesperson for catnip oil. I was surprised it worked. Nothing else but DEET has ever worked for me.

But I must say that when we go to the Everglades this coming May, I will be bringing both the catnip oil and the DEET. If the mosquitoes overcome the catnip oil, then I will bring out the DEET. But in terms of being outside in my Tampa yard, I do get bit terribly when I don't use anything, and I don't get bit at all when I use the catnip oil.

Someone asked where I got it from - my husband bought it - he is going to look up where he got it (someplace on line).

I hate spraying on repellent, but I think that the DEET products are best. I have found a nice compromise: there are little bracelets you can buy (I think by the OFF company) that have the repellent on them. You can wear the bracelet on your ankle and it keeps bugs away from your whole body! The bracelets look similar to those stretchy, spiraled, slinky-like keyring holders that many people use for their work keys. (Not a great description, but maybe you can make sense of it when you see them in stores.)

I noticed in my latest Land's End or LL Bean catalog (can't remember which) they had clothing with bug repellent in that supposedly lasts for 25 washes.

So far the mosquitos aren't bad at home but the gnats really are out. I'm using SSS on my limbs and spray Off on a hat when I'm out working. Working so far - but I do want to try the catnip oil!

I can sense all the cats of the world wrinkling their noses in a little sniff; smoothing down their whiskers; and beating a path for the Deep South! State legislatures will take under consideration bills to change the State's tag line to the "State of Kitty Love." People will be able to purchase vanity plates for their cars with blissed out cats on them. And what about all those poor starving mosquitos? They'll be swarming north!

By the way, I agree, it's creepy to slather on the DEET, but who knows how safe catnip is? Meow!

Those bracelets are not bad! Very lemony smelling :)
Yes, Orcas, I keep picturing the cats! ((@))