Comments About Our Fire Ant Bite Home Remedies

Here is what people have said about their experience with our home remedies. Click to see all our suggested home remedies.

Worcestershire Sauce

Hello,

My daughter just called from Girls Camp in Houston (5:33 am) being awoken by several ant bites/stings on her hands while sleeping.

We FORGOT to send her with our home remedy that we use with nearly 100% success - Worcestershire Sauce. As you noted, the sooner the better.

I found your site on the internet and read her some other solutions. I appreciate the information from your site. From your request, I thought I'd share a "testimonial" about the remedy that works for us ... it probably works because it contains several of the home remedy items on your list.

We've noticed the quicker you apply it the better.

True experience (2 years ago) I had a friend who's 7-9 month old baby was set down near some tree branches on the ground where there happened to a fire ant pile. After a PRAYER of the parent, I got a frantic phone call for help with the baby SCREAMING in the background. I got to their house about 7 minutes later with a bottle of Worcestershire sauce. He had bites all over his body but mostly on his torso, legs, and feet. I imagine he had more than 200-300 bites/stings. Every 1 - 2" square on his body had about 10 stings.

We found some children's Benadryl and gave that to the baby. At the same time, we took off the diaper of the baby and sat him in a large bowl. We then took paper towels and laid them over the baby and poured the Worcestershire sauce over his legs, feet, etc. wherever he was bitten. Soaking the paper towel allowed the solution to stay in contact with his skin which we assume neutralizes the venom. He was also sitting in the extra sauce as it ran off his body. We used almost a full bottle. (Generally, it only takes less than a quarter cup). Once we put some all over his body for about 10 minutes, they took him to the ER. It was packed, so they left the hospital and went to an urgent care facility for some stronger anti-histamine and cream. I'm sure this was also beneficial.

True to the recovery that we've experienced, he had the red marks but they were not itchy. He looked like he'd had a bad case of the chicken pocks. There were only 5 - 7 bites that he itched and became bothersome. These were between toes. We think that we probably missed those areas with the sauce.

I have found, if you can put the sauce on in the first minute or two from getting bitten, the bump will go away. The longer you wait, the red and bump may stay, but it will not sting or itch anymore.

I have not tried this after several hours. I don't know about that.

Thanks again for your information. I hope this "testimonial" helps too.

A Family from Texas

I applaud your efforts to help people deal with the dreaded enemy of mankind, the fire ant. I would like to pass on a way of dealing with the horrible itching that occurs. List this as a home remedy, albeit one that requires skill, patience, and perseverance to use.

This will work for anything that itches, including ant bites (stings). Run your hot water tap until your find a temperature that you can barely stand without screaming.

Now we need to emphasize here that you do not make the water so hot that you get burned or scalded. As hot as you can stand it, but no more. We do not want you to get hurt!

Put the affected area under the running water. You will first feel the itch INCREASE; don't chicken out at this point! After a few seconds the itch will feel like it has been washed away. That is because it has; the histamines have literally been brought to the surface of the skin by the very hot water and washed off. You will feel relief now for hours. Don't leave your skin under the water past a few seconds of relief, because there is no additional benefit to be gained by this. The itch may return hours later, but you can repeat the treatment then.

The neat thing is that it seems to return a little weaker each time. This can make the difference between being driven to distraction by the itching and not being able to sleep, and being able to live a normal day.

Baking Soda Paste

Thank you so much for your site!

Yesterday my 3 year old daughter sat on a rock under our tree. Well, lo and behold, the rock was the cover for a fire ant colony! The blood curdling scream that ensued sent me running! Her foot was covered in ants. Being from CT, this was my first encounter with GA fire ants! I knew that many natural home remedies existed so I googled it and your site came up. Quickly I ran her inside, washed her foot with cold water, and then mixed up a batch of baking soda paste as recommended from your site. Just like globbing on paste on paper as a kid, I covered each welt on her foot (while watching for swelling or any other allergic reactions) We left the paste on for about 45 mins and the pain subsided quickly. Here we are the next day and she only has 2 raised welts from the more than a dozen stings she received. And those welts don't hurt her at all! So glad I found this easy remedy for fire ant stings.

This remedy will forever be my go-to if fire ants attack again.

MM, Woodstock, GA

Two Days Later :

Here it is 2 days later and she hasn't complained of itching or pain. The welt is raised and hard to the touch, but no pain! The redness has subsided and the scab has fallen off. No pus center.

Lime

Living in south Florida, the lime suggestion has proven to be remarkably effective and practical. I still have scars from scratching off my first severe encounter about twenty years ago -- 62 bites in a matter of seconds. Recently, I had my second worst encounter. I ran to the Internet. I ran to the refrigerator and grabbed a lime! Low and behold, I barely had an itch and I never got the hard white bumps. I no longer fear fire ants too much.

R.H.

Hot Water

I applaud your efforts to help people deal with the dreaded enemy of mankind, the fire ant. I would like to pass on a way of dealing with the horrible itching that occurs. List this as a home remedy, albeit one that requires skill, patience, and perseverance to use.

This will work for anything that itches, including ant bites (stings). Run your hot water tap until your find a temperature that you can barely stand without screaming.

Now we need to emphasize here that you do not make the water so hot that you get burned or scalded. As hot as you can stand it, but no more. We do not want you to get hurt!

Put the affected area under the running water. You will first feel the itch INCREASE; don't chicken out at this point! After a few seconds the itch will feel like it has been washed away. That is because it has; the histamines have literally been brought to the surface of the skin by the very hot water and washed off. You will feel relief now for hours. Don't leave your skin under the water past a few seconds of relief, because there is no additional benefit to be gained by this. The itch may return hours later, but you can repeat the treatment then.

The neat thing is that it seems to return a little weaker each time. This can make the difference between being driven to distraction by the itching and not being able to sleep, and being able to live a normal day.

S. T.

NOTE: C.M. concurs with all of the above. Make the water as hot as you can stand it, but don’t let it burn you. The first time it could last 30-45 minutes. Then you can repeat the treatment. Each time it will last longer and the itching will be less.

Penny on the Welts

A home remedy that worked for my young daughter a few years ago was to put a penny on each welt, taping each penny down with scotch tape. Worked like a charm. The pennies provided almost immediate relief - the welts were gone in a few hours. She was fine from that point on - like it hadn’t happened at all! She had 9-10 welts if I recall correctly. We live in Maryland, but this took place in North Carolina where we were vacationing with family.

Carla

Bleach and Toothpaste

I live in Huntsville, AL---tornado alley and fire-ant hell. Well, the fire ants got me yesterday when I inadvertently stepped on their mound. Thankfully, I am not highly allergic, but they ARE problematic with the resulting itching!! Here's what worked and stopped the manic itching, then scratching for me: Bleach, full strength, applied with a Q-Tip on five bites (foot); then followed in 15 minutes with slathering of Arm & Hammer Advance White toothpaste with baking soda and peroxide! Immediate relief. Stopped the itching and scratching within minutes. Why? I'm not sure, BUT perhaps the toothpaste acted as a poulstice and drew out the poison and/or histamines. For whatever reason, it worked!

I felt nothing but relief when I daubed the bleach on with a Q-Tip.  I didn't rub it in; just made the spots very wet and let them air dry.  Yes, the itching started again in about 15 minutes, and that's when I slathered on the  Arm & Hammer Advance White with Baking Soda and Peroxide Toothpaste (already contains the baking soda and peroxide).  It comes this way.  No need to add your own baking soda or peroxide, but, hey, you could!  Only "problem" I had was keeping my dogs from licking it off my foot.  They like lotion and such.  I do need to add that I have a strange high threshold to pain, so my technique while not bothersome to me may be to someone else; I doubt it though.  However, itching I can certainly feel! This remedy may work for someone else, so I'd like for others to know about it. If so, great! I've had no itching since I used this technique yesterday

Pam

Dishwashing Liquid

My husband rubbed dishwashing liquid on my foot about 15 min after getting bit a bunch of times and it worked. There is no more stinging and my foot feels wayyyyyyy better. Thanks for the advice.

I also did the hydrocortisone creme for a couple of days after and that helped, too.

Christine

Pantain Extract

Thank you for the wonderful information about fire ant bites! One you definitely should add to the list of home remedies is Plantain extract; I have used this many, many times and keep a bottle on hand, especially in the summer. Plantain extract is a proven fire ant bite remedy which people can find at natural foods stores and some pharmacies. Keeping a saturated cotton ball or Band-Aid in contact with each bite heals them even faster, but the best part is that it completely stops the burning and itching, even if applied days later! Hope this is valuable enough to print, because it has saved a lot of suffering for me, several people I have shared this tip with, and apparently many others.

Thanks!

Tried It All

Hello, my name is Brandy. Two days ago my 4 yr old stepped in a huge FireAnt pile in the backyard. I looked up your site and tried the Hydrocortisone Cream, ice and Benadryl. His foot was so swollen he could not walk and we were unable to count the bites. Anyway, we instantly applied the Cortisone cream and gave Benadryl. Elevated the foot above chest level and put ice on it. By morning, all the bites had pus risen to the surface. We popped the bites to release the toxins, sprayed peroxide on them all and let them dry. After they dried, we applied more cream - gave another dose of Benadryl - elevated the foot and applied ice again. We did this every 6 hours. As of today, the foot is not swollen anymore and he can walk on it. We counted the bites and he was bitten 24 times. Some were so huge I'd be willing to say they were areas of multiple bites in one location. Anyway, we are still repeating the exact same process and the bites look great. I'm sure in another day or so we will be back to normal minus the red spots where the bites are. Thank you for being specific in what you posted except that I really think in cases like mine - if you don't pop the pus bubbles the foot does not seem to lessen as far as the swelling goes. That first night we didn't pop the pus bubbles cause your site said not to since u risk infection, but my husband was in the Infantry and said you have to release those toxins. Either way, I chose to pop them and it helped us dramatically. Thank you again.

Brandy