Posted on August 8, 2018 by Amy Weir
I have just returned from a camping trip, which means, regardless of precautions taken, I am now covered in itchy bumps. Mosquitos love me. I’m just one of those people. So my first course of action upon arriving home was to track down (look, my desk is a littlemessy) a roll of Scotch tape.
Who knew? This stupid-sounding folk remedy actually works for me, far more consistently than the more “proper” remedy, cortisone cream. Supposedly it has something to do with cutting off the bite’s exposure to air. Definitely it has to do with cutting off my ability to scratch the bite and make it worse. But whatever it does, it truly brings me both instant and long-term relief in most cases.
If you try to search the internet to find out why, you’ll find lots of derisive comments along the lines of, “but that makes no sense! That’s not how histamines work! This is fake because it’s nonsense!” But cortisone cream follows the rules. It works according to known laws of biochemistry. And yet, it doesn’t offer me anywhere near the relief a simple piece of Scotch tape does. So who are you to say what works?
Now, you will also find folks who deny that it works because they tried it and it failed. No harm done. Sometimes I have bites that are just too itchy for…
