We eagerly await summer, synonymous with warmth, holidays and outdoor dinners with friends. Inevitably, however, with the warm season come mosquitoes and other insects, bothering us with their bites.
The first piece of advice is always to create a barrier between mosquitoes and our home, where they tend to hide. So, equip yourself with plants that give off scents unpleasant to our enemies — for example, aromatic plants that are easy to grow and can be used in everyday cooking, such as basil, rosemary, mint, lavender and citronella. We can enhance these fragrances, which are certainly pleasant to humans, with essential oils that should be refreshed daily. Lavender oil is generally the most widely used — practically a classic that never goes out of style. Put a few drops on a paper tissue, a cotton wool ball, or better still on a wooden or cotton ball to keep on the windowsill or, if needed, on the bedside table.
In pots on the balcony or in gardens, geranium, marigold, catnip and, not least, catambra can all thrive — a plant with a lush, dense crown and a mosquito-repelling plant par excellence, available in various sizes to suit your needs and the space at your disposal.
Let's not forget that a diet rich in B vitamins makes the smell of our skin — truly imperceptible to us — unpleasant to mosquitoes, which can detect it from several metres away.
Consume basil, mint and rosemary in abundance, and use lavender for a pleasant herbal tea to sip even cold. Chilli pepper, garlic and black pepper will also help to make you less appealing.
Available on the market, generally in herbalist shops, there are a range of sprays to apply directly to the skin, containing active ingredients that are highly irritating to mosquitoes. These products, which are entirely non-toxic, should also be sprayed generously under tables during outdoor summer dinners. In these situations, specific incense sticks and citronella candles are always useful too.
Tea tree oil is an excellent repellent and also works fantastically on an insect bite itself, providing immediate relief. Its very strong aroma keeps mosquitoes and insects in general at bay, just as neem oil does — less pleasant but equally extremely effective.
You can dilute a few drops of these oils in a moisturiser or simply in an aloe gel that you use daily to protect yourself.
Another classic and well-established mosquito repellent is ledum palustre, a homeopathic remedy in granule form, which when taken orally makes perspiration unpleasant to the delicate, sensitive receptors of mosquitoes. It is generally used in a 5 CH or 9 CH dilution, with 3 granules taken 3 or 4 times a day under the tongue, away from meals. If the problem is more complex and your insect bites tend to swell, it is worth taking Apis mellifica 200 CH as a single dose, then continuing with Istaminum 5 CH globules, 3 granules every 2 hours until a clear improvement is seen.
Black currant mg is an excellent ally when combating a strong reaction to mosquito or other insect bites. If you know you are at risk, it is advisable to take it together with rosehip mg from the beginning of the summer season as a preventive measure. The dosage should be calibrated according to the age and build of the person taking it.
Australian bush flowers can also help, so always keep the emergency preparation to hand, both in cream and in drop form. The cream should be applied immediately after a bite, and the drops taken sublingually (7 drops every 10 minutes, 4 or 5 times), until the reaction subsides. If the itching is very intense, add Spinifex to both the drops and the cream — a grassy shrub with needle-like leaves native to the Australian continent, which has a purifying and soothing action on physical complaints.
There is a wide choice of creams to use to soothe and calm itching: from homeopathic ointment based on arnica/urtica to aloe creams and gels with tea tree oil, or lavender essential oil.
After-bite sticks, also always on a natural basis, are excellent too.