Reader Question and Answer

I've struggled with mange my whole life. It happens whenever I wear socks on the floor and then wear those same socks to bed.

Tricks that I've found to stop the itching:
-hottest bath possible and scrub the buggers out
-peppermint foot lotion over the whole affected area
-spray bedding down with a small (trial/travel size) bottle of water containing 8 drops of tea tree oil (can also spray this on skin)

The itching should be over instantly.

Problem is, this last bout ended up with my CAT getting it and I have no idea how to get her into a bath.

Your observation that the family got scabies from the hotel is a correct one. The news media has not mentioned this but there is really an outbreak of scabies since many hotels, motels, nursing homes, etc. do not know how to handle this problem. Which actually is quite easy to deal with. Your scabies conditions is caused by a microscopic scabies mites, which lives under the skin and also in the bed feeding off human scales as well. Its eggs matured in 21 days and lays it under the skin. So if these scabies had a chance to lay eggs under your skin, you are in trouble as scabies will either get worse or persistent. There are many types of mites, some are the bed bugs, etc. The over the counter, permethrin you use is actually an insecticide which you are probably aware of it. However there are many reports that mites are now resistant to it. This is quite often. You may read about resistance to permethrin compounds here: You can look at this link:

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/320/7226/37

You can find some basic information to the following links: http://www.medicalconsumerguide.com/primary_care/skin_diseases/scabies.html

My remedy is a simple one, use pure lavender oil on affected area or you can mix with alcohol. Apply often enough for it to penetrate through the skin and remain saturated. This will kill the mites and the eggs. Another way is to try tea tree oil, using the same method. I am not sure how well it works, but I have tried it and has worked also. Lavender may work better. On clothes, you can kill them using by soaking them overnight in ammonia and detergents, before washing. The house should be sprayed of bug sprays, lightly of course, but especially on carpets, rugs, etc. For prevention of spreading, your beds, or hotels bed really have to formulate a orange oil compound and sprayed on to their beds. Orange oil contains d-limonene, which kills mites instantly. You cannot use pure orange oil and must be diluted and mix with other compounds to also kill the eggs, safe and natural. Try mixing it with alcohol, water and maybe 5%-10% d-limonene (or orange oil). My house do have mites and I sprayed it quite often. The reason is simple: mites comes from the window in form of dust mites, or something, and whenever the windows are opened mites just find home on the bed. This is especially true during the spring or summer and especially when the whether is warm and humid. If you want to prevent future eggs laying, you can try to lightly sprinkle the bed with borax dissolved in water.

There is other natural method that might work, such as neem oil, however neem oil prevents mites ability to lay eggs by altering insect hormones. As such this has limited use. I mentioned in case you don't have successes with the others recommendations. Again if you are still having problems, you might consider a diluted solutions of bergamot, lemon oils, etc. applied to skin. However, I don't recommend this as these citrus oils causes skin irritation. You can reduced this by diluting them with grapeseed oil or aloe vera oil. Aloe vera oil is good because it penetrates through your skin, and hopefully reached the mites. Don't try to attempt to find out what species of mites it belongs to (I already tried it), many are not yet discovered and it is not productive. It is best to just get rid of it. Unless of course you are an entomologist.

More update info on scabies: Other medication that seems to work well with scabies caused by mites or morgellon, is povidine iodine. Apply it on to saturation. Pine needle oil, lemongrass oil, oregano oil, white thyme oil are other possibilities of applying in case the previous lavender oil mentioned does not work. Although the possibilities do exist for skin irritation for lemongrass, oregano and thyme oil. There appears to be a strong insecticide properties of pine needle and lemongrass oils. Use with care to avoid skin irritation by adding some aloe vera oil if that is the case. However diluting too much will not kill the parasites.

I've recently caught scabies from a hotel stay and have tried permethrin cream also. Finally after my 3rd use of the cream I started puttin a few drops of neem oil in my shampoo and a few drops also in my skin lotion and rub in all over. This helps the itching process and helps your skin..The neem oil doesn't smell nice but really helps. Some people use only neem products on scabies. For cleaning...I vacuum constantly, everything like computer keyboards etc.. and I went out and bought a steamer ($150.) I steam chairs, rugs and beds..even my couches. I'm on the road to recovery and have smooth soft skin from the neem oil..You can kill them easily but the difficult part is
always getting them back..

I am not sure what to do. My boyfriend has been diagnosed with Scabies. I have seen a rash that looks more like Herpes on his penis and he has no other symptoms or a rash anywhere else on his body but his thighs. When I last say him (one month ago) he had this rash and it has not gotten worse at all. Now one month later I have no symptoms of Scabies or anything else. How fast does Scabies really come on? What should I see after one month of exposure to a not so severe case of this? Should I expect something in particular??

I have begun every natural treatment on myself. Borax &citrus soap baths, orange oil, tee-tree oil, alchohol serilizin, peroxide baths, cleaned every piece of clothing etc. But if something looks like a pimple I am freaking out! AND don't want to give this to friends if it is a mite. I think he might be mis-diagnosed. He lives on a Carribean Island and while his risks of this and that are high... It sounds like he has something else. Any thoughts might help from people who know this mite. Thanks!

I do not have a way of soaking my laundry over night in ammonia. Will borax in the wash cycle (with hot water and hot drying) kill them? If so, how much borax should I use? Thank you. Jo

I finally got rid of scabies! I live in Mexico and it hasn't been easy to find different ingredients for cures. I have used borax, H202, diatomacious earth, tea tree oil and ACV-organic. None of these completely worked. I had been soaking cotton in H202 with borax on the pad and leaving it on for a while with tea tree oil and the DE afterwards. I'd keep thinking this was working but then there would go the little line again. Finally I scrubbed the areas, every little bump and line, with the cotton soaked with H202 until my skin was raw and the bump/line turned white. Then with the tea treee oil and DE. It has worked! I really think it was mostly the scrubbing with H202 until it opened up the skin. Good luck.