Bees may leave a stinger behind. Try to gently scrape the stinger off.
Wash the wound with soap and water or salt water.
Apply an ice pack or cold compress to the site of the sting. Alternate on and off to prevent tissue damage and don’t place the ice directly on the skin (use a cloth or a bag full of peas/food from the freezer). Usually 20 minutes on and 20 minutes off.
If one has a sting on arms and/or legs keep the limb above your heart level to allow any swelling/fluid to go back into the body.
Arm: Sit up straight and/or lie down and keep your arm above your heart level by raising it with some pillows or lean against an armrest.
Leg: Lie down and keep your legs above your heart level by raising it with some pillows.
Consider over the counter medication i.e. Antihistamines (see Medtick programme: Bite and skin treatment)
See doctor if condition has not improved in 3 days even if products used.
Do not wait, if one develops swollen lymph nodes, streaks on skin from injury site and feeling unwell, one may have lymphangitis, you will most likely need antibiotics. If antibiotics do not work, it may be fungal and/or viral. Please let the healthcare professional know what may have caused this.
If skin is stinging
Use calamine lotion and dab on skin with cotton wool or other soothing creams. Calamine cream can be used (but check ingredients to make sure one is not sensitive to ingredients)
Use hypoallergenic products; avoid scented skin products, washes and bubble baths.
Use non biological washing powders.
Try to avoid allergens i.e. If washing up liquids wear gloves, throw all rotten foods away.
To not to scratch, keep nails short, wear mittens/gloves.
Wear non synthetic fabrics, cotton is best.
If recommended an antihistamine medication, please not to drink alcohol as can make you drowsy.
If suffer from anaphylactic shock, wear some form of information about condition.
Shower and wash hair before going to bed (if head affected)
Wash face regularly and avoid scratching your eyes if those areas affected.
If runny nose or congestion affected, use petroleum jelly around nostrils, allergan will stick to petroleum jelly and protect nostrils.
Prevention
Wear wraparound sunglasses to protect eyes.
Wash/comb animals that have been in long grass, keep them out of your bedrooms.
Don’t stroke pets or let pets get close to your face or try to keep them out of the house as long as possible.
Keep away from swamps, ponds flowers, high insect areas and long grassland areas, heavy vegetated areas and use establish paths.
Wear long trousers and tuck them into socks or use gaiters.
Elasticated waistbands and cuffs will help to deter insects/ticks crawling under clothing.
Smooth waxed materials makes it difficult for insects/ticks to climb and light coloured clothing makes it easier to see insects.
Use DEET (products) 25-50% if appropriate
Don’t smoke and stop other people from smoking can irritate eyes nose and airways.
One can do an allergy test at pharmacies and or buy test kits to see what one allergic is to (plants).
Bed bugs
Bedbugs are not associated with poor hygiene.
The only way to know for sure if your symptoms are, in fact, a result of bed bugs, is to find the bed bug infestation in your room or furniture.
Check bedding, mattresses, furniture, and crevices in walls for bed bug infestation.
Check just before dawn, which is when they are the most active.
The bugs will be larger and slower after feeding.
Bedbugs will quickly flee from light, so live bugs are best located in the folds and seams of mattresses and sheets.
Bedbugs are about the size of an apple seed, about 1/4 inch long.
They change from light brown to purple-red after feeding. You may also see their eggs, which are about the same size as the adults.
The eggs will often be in seams, cracks, or crevices
You are more likely to find their molted exoskeletons and dark specks of their feces.
Check for rust-colored blood spots on bedding and mattresses, which can come from the blood in their feces or from having crushed a bedbug who was feeding.
A room with a heavy bedbug infestation might have a sweet, musty odor.
Specialist companies are required to clean the room with specialist chemicals.
What one can do:
Prepare the rooms by reducing the clutter in the room and discard any cardboard boxes as they can harbor bedbugs. Vacuum the area and seal the vacuum bag in a plastic bag and discard it.
Nonchemical treatment means include:
Heat treatment: Heat of 120 F for two hours will kill bedbugs. Wash items in hot water (120 F or above). This may not be enough, though, so it’s recommended that you place items in a clothes dryer on hot heat for at least 30 minutes. In a hot climate, you can bag items in a black plastic bag and leave them in direct sunlight for 24 hours. For travel or home use, there are portable heating units that can be used for clothing and luggage. A garment steamer can also be used on some items, such as luggage.
Cold treatment: Bag items in plastic and freeze (below 0 F) for four days or at 20 F for seven days. Ensure your freezer is set cold enough. If leaving items outdoors to freeze, ensure they are in a dry, shaded area.
Barriers: You can purchase bedbug-proof encasement covers for mattresses, box springs, and pillows. Also get bedbug interceptors to place under each leg of the bed or furniture items. These also allow you to see if there are any remaining bedbugs as they get trapped in the double rings of the interceptor disks. Ensure the bed is at least 6 inches from the wall and the bedding doesn’t touch the floor.
Prevention
Wearing an insect repellent is not completely effective, although you might try oil of lemon eucalyptus or DEET to prevent bites. Avoid bringing home second-hand items such as used furniture, mattresses, or any item that someone has kept in a bedroom.
Launder all used clothing before storing or wearing it. Use mattress, box spring, and pillow encasements on your bed. Fill in any cracks and crevices in your bedroom.
Bedbugs can linger without feeding for several months in most environments.
When traveling, inspect the bedding prior to exposing yourself or your belongings. Seal your dirty clothes in plastic bags. You may even consider encasing your luggage in a plastic bag while you are in a hotel room. Launder your clothing as soon as you get home.
You can treat your suitcase by vacuuming, using a clothes steamer, or handwashing it with hot water and soap. You might also consider encasing luggage in a plastic bag between trips.
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Ticks
If you remove a tick in the first 24 hours after attachment, you reduce your risk of infection. While you may not be able to avoid going into areas where ticks are present, the following tips can make it easier to discover and remove ticks before they attach to your skin:
Wear light-colored clothing. Ticks are dark-colored. Light clothing helps you and others notice ticks on your clothing before they can attach themselves to your skin.
Avoid open-toed shoes or sandals. Ticks generally live in grassy areas or fields and can attach themselves to your feet and legs when you brush by. Wearing open-toed shoes or sandals increases the risk of a tick attaching to your bare skin and working its way under your clothes, out of sight from detection.
Apply repellent. Products containing DEET (Off! Deep Woods, Repel) or permethrin (Repel Permanone) often repel ticks. Permethrin is for use on clothing only. You can use DEET on your skin or clothing, but follow recommendations on the label.For children, use a DEET repellent containing less than 30 percent DEET, and use the product with caution. Don’t use DEET on your or your children’s hands or faces.
Wear long pants and a long-sleeved shirt. The less skin you expose, the less area a tick has to bite. For added protection, wear shirts, pants and socks with permethrin impregnated in the fabric.
Tuck your shirt into your pants and your pants into your socks. By doing this, ticks will be less able to crawl onto exposed skin. However, be aware that if ticks get on your clothing, they’ll climb upward until they reach exposed skin. Check your clothing often while you’re outdoors.
Stay on clear trails whenever possible. Ticks prefer grassy areas and may be less common on well-beaten paths.
Inspect your body. Do a complete visual inspection of your body. Be sure to check your head and neck because ticks will continue to climb upward until they find a suitable burrowing site. Use your hands to feel through your hair and in areas you can’t see when you return from your outing or garden.Ticks can be as small as a strawberry seed, and they usually attach to hidden skin. Be sure to check all the possibilities. A shower alone will rarely dislodge attached ticks from your head and body.
Inspect your clothes and gear. Check your clothes, backpacks and other gear when you get home to look for ticks that hitched a ride. Spinning your clothes in the dryer for about an hour will kill any ticks you missed.
Don’t forget your pets. Do a daily inspection for ticks on any pet that spends time outdoors.
Removing a tick
When dealing with a tick, the main aims are to remove the tick promptly, to remove all parts of the tick’s head and body, and to prevent it from releasing additional saliva or regurgitating its stomach contents into the bite wound.
The risk of infection increases the longer a tick remains attached to the skin.
Do:
Use an approved tick removal tool (available from Lyme Disease Action or many vets and pet shops), and follow the instructions provided. There are two common types of removal tools available — the hook and the loop — that are designed to be twisted to facilitate removal (see Figure 2). These tools will grip the head of the tick without squashing the body;
Use alternative methods if the tick removal tools are not available:
With pointed tweezers (not blunt eyebrow tweezers) grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible. Without squeezing the tick’s body, pull the tick out without twisting (it is difficult to twist tweezers without separating the tick’s head from its body). There may be considerable resistance;
If no tools are available, use a fine thread (e.g. cotton or dental floss). Tie a single loop of thread around the tick’s mouthparts, as close to the skin as possible, then pull upwards and outwards without twisting;
Start by cleansing the tweezers/tool with antiseptic. After tick removal, cleanse the bite site and the tool with antiseptic;
Wash hands thoroughly afterwards;
Keep the tick in a sealed container in case a doctor asks for evidence (label it with date and location). Public Health England is also currently running a tick surveillance scheme to record tick distributions on a national scale (ticks can be posted to them as per instructions on their website).
Do not:
Squeeze the body of the tick, as this may cause the head and body to separate, leaving the head embedded in the skin;
Use your fingernails to remove a tick. Infection can occur via any breaks in the skin (e.g. close to the fingernail);
Crush the tick’s body, as this may cause it to regurgitate its infected stomach contents into the bite wound;
Try to burn the tick off, apply petroleum jelly, nail polish or any other chemical. Any of these methods can cause discomfort to the tick, resulting in regurgitation, or saliva release.
Two common tick removal tools. A) The hook. Approach the tick from the side until it is held by the hook and lift the hook very lightly and turn it to remove the tick. B) The loop. Release the lasso and carefully pass the loop over the tick against the skin. Tighten the loop, rotate and pull the tick out vertically.
The Pharmaceutical Journal, October 2018;Online:DOI:10.1211/PJ.2018.20205560
