Itchy Scratchy Season, not all bites like salves
When I moved out to my first little homestead almost 20 years ago, one of the biggest challenges were the bites. As a budding herbalist, I was prone to put plantain salve on everything. After moving to Missouri and facing my biggest bite challenges, I learned from old timers, friends, and trial and error that there are different types of base formulas for different bites. As bite season is coming, I thought I’d share what I’ve learned about salves, teas, vinegars, and oatmeal. Also, a handy tip on keeping activated charcoal with you for snake bites is at the end.
I am not a clinical herbalist and seem to have forgotten more than I’ve learned. But I would like to share some of what has helped my friends and me over the last few decades navigate living in the woods.
Giant Plantain Leaf
PREVENTION
Like they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so let’s start there. First off chickens or other roaming birds, I can’t emphasize this enough. They dramatically reduced the bugs around the house and on the trails.
I love nature just as much as the next person, but 2 riding mower’s width for a trail really helps keep the ticks and chiggers off of you. Tall grass, unless you are properly suited up for it, can be your downfall.
Though these measures might seem extreme, when you are living deep in the woods and have experienced the pain some of these bites inflict, these measures are amazingly easy by comparison.
I’ll talk about the difference between chigger bites and oak mite bites below. If you are trying to avoid chiggers, then the fewer tight-fitting garments the better. Those include socks, undies, and anything with a tight waistband. Chiggers generally take 3-4 hours of crawling on you before they settle in for their feast.
Keeping a dry bandana and doing a dry scrub, at least around the waist and sock areas, if you are out in the woods will help. But if you are working at home and can do it, keep a clean set of clothes in the bathroom, and every 3 hours or so, strip down outside, do a quick dry scrub (leaving the clothes outside), and take a shower putting on the next set of work clothes for the day. I had a pile of “chigger” clothes I left outside that I would grab when doing laundry.
Buy Diatomaceous Earth (D.E.) and flowers of sulfur (sulfur powder) in the biggest bags possible from the feed store (40#) and store them in big metal trash cans with a tight-fitting lid somewhere they won’t get rained on. When outside, make a dusting powder out of ½ D.E. and ½ Sulfur powder. Break up all the sulfur balls in the blend by plunging your hands into the mix and squeezing them. Put the blend in an old sock, tie off the top, and dust all over with it. Chiggers do not like sulfur and the D.E. slows ticks down. The D.E. will eventually kill ticks but not immediately and hopefully, you’ll find them before the day is out. Make sure to search yourself every day!
Keep a big gallon bag of the mixed dusting powder at the back door and dust off the dogs (noses upwind), they love it! All I have to do is say “DUSTY POWDER!” and the dogs line up, pushing the others out of the way. I dust the cats too, but they aren’t generally fans. Roll your pants legs up and put a generous amount of powder in the crease. Rub it all over your shoes, pants, waistline, and finish dusting off with the filled sock.
On dry days, I also used to generously dust the grassy areas near the house where the dogs played and would dust all around the outside of the house.
When trying to avoid ticks, wear light-colored clothing and keep as much skin covered as you can. I had a whole stack of super lightweight and light-colored long pants and long sleeve shirts for these occasions. Fold the bottom of your pants and tuck into your socks, tuck your shirt into your pants.
A rose just for its beauty.
Seed ticks and Oak Mite bites are the absolute worst and if you don’t know how to treat them, you could end up at the emergency room if they cover you enough. The seed ticks are so small they are almost imperceptible and chiggers aren’t visible at all. When either one of these destroys you, it’s hard not to scratch your skin off. Sometimes the whole area gets covered in dozens of bites, will swell, and can get infected and hot.
Oak mites,known as Pyemotes, fall off of oak trees looking to make a meal of another insect. They bite us, don’t like us, and drop right off looking for a better meal. “Wind can carry mites through the air for miles. Even that trusty leaf blower of yours can spread mites to your neighbor's yard or house. Because they are SO small, mites can blow right through a screen window.” ~ Barnes Greenhouses
Unlike chiggers, oak mites bite you on exposed skin. Keeping covered will provide some protection. If you have dozens of bites that are very similar to chigger bites, but are in an area that was not covered, it’s probably oak mites.
I realize that sometimes all of these creatures exist in the same space and time. But in my experience, it seems that one dominates the other during certain times of the year and in different areas of the farm. I dress differently for tick town than I do for chigger village and when oak mites are out, that’s all I care about in any location. The worst bite experiences of my life, and in my very unscientific survey of friends, were oak mite bites.
To remove seed ticks, my partner likes to gently scrape them off with a knife, I like to use box tape. They are too tiny to pick off. Then I also scrub like crazy in the shower. I’ve also heard of people covering them with cedar, neem, or garlic oil. I’ve only ever had seed ticks below the knees. If you’ve never seen a seed tick before, to me it’s the smallest perceptible size you can pick up with your eyes and there will usually be at least a dozen of them or more.
For full-sized ticks, I know there is a caution against this, but I “flip” them to see which way they are facing and swiftly pick them off going toward the head. Do not twist, pull straight off. If an animal gets a tick on a tender area and you can’t pull it, slather that thing with salve or oil and it will generally fall off. My teacher Steve Lee had an amazing set of tweezers he kept on his person for just such occasions.
When I do get a full-sized tick off, by that time of the season I have a tick cup at the sink. A jelly jar or cup, half filled with water and 1-2 drops of dish soap. When the bigger ticks are between your fingers, having just been picked off, sometimes it’s hard to put them down somewhere to smash them. They’ll either completely disappear (probably dropping straight down) or make a run for it. Submerging your fingers under the water before releasing the tick is super easy. They can’t escape the soapy water.
Peach Leaves ready for harvest
AFTERCARE FOR BITES AND RASHES RELIEVED BY ASTRINGENT TEAS
Peach Leaf tea for Oak Mite or Seed tick bites and Poison Ivy rashes
I first encountered oak mite bites in 2011. Plantain salve barely helped and sometimes it made the bites very angry. Poultices didn’t help either. Sitting in the cool creek and cool epsom baths were the only relief, and only very temporary. By August 2013, I was calling them super chiggers and local friends started complaining about them too. Nothing worked! Not only did salve not help and the bites were worse than chiggers, but I also noticed the bites were in areas that were NOT covered with clothes. Unlike oak mites, chiggers need something to push against, like a tight waist or sock band. It was taking days, or up to a week for these oak mite bites to calm down and I was sick to my stomach from the pain. My friend Ken got destroyed by the same bites and said the plantain salve “just angered these most unholy of bites”, I agreed. Much later someone finally informed me these were the oak mites that had arrived in Missouri. I did a little research and verified that is what it was.
I found a solution during a particularly miserable moment in life when I also had poison ivy. Peach leaf tea was on hand because I had already discovered the tea worked better than jewelweed or sweetfern for poison ivy, better for me even than steroids. For lack of anything else to try, I used this cooling astringent tea and there was immediate relief! The first time I used Peach Leaf Tea I wrote “Holy mother the relief. Just covered my legs in it and my heart literally leapt from the relief of it. I'm currently in paradise.”
Directions to make Peach Leaf Tea:
Harvest the long, fully mature, dark green peach leaves after they have been exposed to some real heat (like 80F). Use the leaves fresh or dry them at 120F till crumbly to use year-round. In a jelly jar’s worth of hot water just off of boil, throw in a handful of chopped fresh or 2 Tbsp of dried peach leaves. Cover and steep for 20 minutes. Strain and chill. Apply with an old sock or a paper towel and dob on the skin very generously till it drips.
Use this tea topically for oak mite & seed tick bites, or the first weepy phase of poison ivy. Apply as often as needed. The tea will last about 3-4 days in the fridge. DO NOT DRINK IT, only apply topically. It won’t kill you, it’s just super astringent. I found that at first, I was applying every 10-20 minutes, but then after a few doses, it would be hours before I needed more. Just keep the old sock or paper towel on top of your little jar in the fridge for the bites to keep it nice and cool as well.
After the poison ivy rash starts to dry up and turns red, switch to plantain salve. If you continue putting a drying astringent tea on the new red skin that is no longer weeping, you will dry it out too much.
If you don’t have peach leaves, try any tea, as most are astringent. Peach is so nice because it’s also cooling. I think it works, and this is just a theory, because it keeps those little bites open and the pus drains freely. Plus when the bites are open and wet, the slightest breeze cools them more. Plantain salve heals up the little bite too quickly causing the pus to backup into the skin, triggering the severe itching to open them back up. Again, just a theory! If someone has knowledge of what is going on, please share.
I’ve tried making peach leaf tea when the leaves were young, light green and summer hadn’t really heated them up yet. They had zero impact on the bites. So mature and dark green leaves are key. If you have a peach tree, even one that doesn’t produce peaches, it's worth it just to harvest the leaves. Do it every year to have enough to share!
Here is a fun way to use peach leaves. If you have a cool sipping tea you like for the summer, harvest one of the leaves and put it in your cool tea for a few minutes to release a pleasant peach leaf essence. You would never apply heat to a peach leaf for very long if you intend to drink it, too many tannins will be released making it impalatable.
Oatmeal bath~ poison ivy, chigger & oak mite bites
For relief from poison ivy or chigger and oak mite bites, make an oatmeal bath. Cook ¼ - ½ cup of oatmeal in 3-4 cups of water. Strain the oatmeal off and put the strained liquid in your bathwater with some Epsom salts. Some people say the hotter the better, but hot water always seemed to inflame my bites. You can put the strained-out oatmeal in a big sock by folding the top down first, when full, fold the top back up and tie it off. They are kind of fun to squeeze the goo out of on a long soak. Do not put oatmeal directly in the bath.
Jewelweed Ice Cubes ~For poison ivy and seed ticks
Before I found out about peach leaf tea, I kept jewelweed ice cubes in a neighbor's freezer. Once when I had about 50 seed ticks bites around my ankles I ran over and got those cubes and it was fantastic relief. You can also use it for poison ivy. I’ve always read that jewelweed grows near poison ivy, but in 20 years I have never seen the two near each other. I’ve always found jewelweed in the shady, wet places near a creek and poison ivy on the edge of the woods. Here is a good recipe online for jewelweed ice cubes https://sweetsong.ca/how-to-make-jewelweed-ice-cubes/
Herbal Oils
AFTERCARE for bites that are relieved by OIL BASED SALVES
For “regular” tick, ant, or mosquito bites, dry skin, rashes, cuts & scrapes, and light burns that have cooled; the old standard of an oil-based herbal salve is the best. Since plantain or calendula salves are readily available in health food stores (or in my Etsy shop), and articles on how to make them abound, I won’t go into it too much.
Basically though, I wilt plantain leaves for a few days, chop them, and loosely fill a quart jar. Then top off with sunflower seed oil (so I can use it on my face as well, not as likely to clog your pores) and date for 6 weeks out. Strain with an unbleached coffee filter. Warm the oil with 9-10% wax in a double boiler and pour into a tin. Or, you can just use the oil by itself, though it is a bit messier.
White Burdock in bloom
AFTERCARE for stings: Bee, wasp, hornet, and yellow jacket relieved by VINEGAR BASED POULTICES
Also helps light sunburns that haven’t created boils.
From an old Susun Weed book, I learned to roll up burdock leaves like a cigar and put them into a quart jar of raw unpasteurized apple cider vinegar. Store them in the vinegar until they break down, which takes a long time, but start using as soon as they soften up just a bit.
For wasps stings, the relief is instant. You can re-use the wraps as long as there is no bodily fluid on them like puss or blood or until they break down. They wrap nicely around the hand, arm and leg and stay in place on their own.
When they dry out, roll them up, put them back in the vinegar and grab another if necessary. We’ve also used these for sprains and bruises.
White Burdock plant
I remember my neighbor Wendy was stung by something, made a quick screaming phone call to me and I was there in minutes. She dropped her head back with the relief of the wrap and couldn’t believe how fast it took the sting away.
Vinegar is also great for light sun burns that haven’t caused the skin to break or when stung by a jelly fish. If the sunburn is bad enough to cause boils that break the skin, vinegar is painful.
Freshly harvested rose petals
When the roses bloom, harvest some of the petals and put in vinegar for a few weeks. THIS cooling vinegar is a miracle for sunburns. In a bowl, mix ½ rose petal vinegar and ½ water (or just plain vinegar if that’s all you have). Using a soft cloth or papertowel, lay in the bowl to soak, give a light squeeze and lay on the sun burn. When you can feel the heat through the cloth, refresh it. When you go camping or to festivals, take a small jar of rose petal vinegar (or plain) and a plastic bowl. You will be the most popular person there when the sunburns start!
If you think of any other tips for dealing with bugs in the country, let me know!
Dried Rose Petals for making face cleaner
AFTERCARE FOR VENOMOUS BITES USING ACTIVATED CHARCOAL.
To stay prepared for brown recluse or snake bites, I purchased some empty 35 MM unused plastic film canisters and activated charcoal. Put a little bit of charcoal, around ¼”, in the container with the snap-tight lid, put it in a zip lock baggie, and keep with you on walks through the woods. Keep water with you as well. I don’t want to go down the rabbit hole of snake bite care here, but it’s easy enough to do your own research.
However as a quick snippet, don’t cut and suck the venom out of the bite, keep the bite below heart level, and the CDC says to not submerge the bite in water or ice it. I was “fortunate” enough to be bitten by a copperhead at an event where a presenter was doing a program on activated charcoal AND was attended by healthcare professionals and herbalists!
If you get bitten, add just enough water to the film canister to make a thick slurry and pour it into the bite asap, the first few minutes are critical. Do not make it so watery that it pours all around the bite, but not so thick it won’t pour into the bite. DO NOT power shake the water and charcoal in the little container or it will explode when you open it. Just a very gentle swishing to mix. You might want to practice outside first before you ever need to know how to use it, just to get a good thickness and see how easily you can make the canister explode if you shake it too hard.
Queen Anne’s Lace
As a side note, I’m moving my products off of etsy. For now they are in Will’s Homestead Iron shop, but we’re working on a new Herbs and Iron shop!
Not all items have moved over yet, so if there is something missing, it might be in the Etsy Shop.
