What a relief, I am a normal person again! It started with an itchy splotch about an inch long on my stomach, then spreading around in my waist and up, with little bites and more lesions. Anyone who has had it knows its the most horrific affliction imaginable, with itching and creepy crawly sensations all over your body. Around a certain time of day it would feel like something tiny doing a back flip then it starts up.
But first, here’s what I tried that didn’t work:
– putting cayenne pepper and turmeric paste straight on it
– strong bleach solution
– nicotine patches in affected area, I read nicotine kills parasites
– sulfur powder mixed in vaseline
– the popular sulfur cream with the yellow label
– hydrogen peroxide in a cotton ball or tissue taped over the big spot, and rubbed around
– oregano oil, maybe 5-10 drops in any kind of lotion like Jergens, spread all over torso. Burns!
Also tried sweating in a sauna then putting sulfur cream on the area.
These things are incredibly hardy. As you can see I spent hundreds of dollars on everything under the sun, put DE in my room and bed, put my blankets and sheets in a trashbag and put them outside on freezing cold days to kill them, left the windows in my apt.m open all day in winter to freeze it out. Make a long story short you think you are going to go crazy. This thing can impact your mental health. And then knowing you are a pariah afraid to touch anyone or anything makes it worse.
I made a balm with 1/3 veterinary pine tar and 2/3 beeswax, mixed in a few drops of oregano oil and some powdered sulfur. They sell pine tar balm but it is very expensive for a little 3 oz. jar, not enough to spread on any substantial portion of your body. This worked on the affected area, but I could still feel flits and flutters, so I knew it was just a matter of time before they found some other place, then I got bites on my arms and sides. Oh dear Lord. Yes I prayed. Yes you find prayer during this ordeal.
You are always exhausted because the itching keeps you from sleeping at nights. These things are from hell.
During the worst of the maddening itching, I found relief by aiming the hot point of a hair dryer at my skin and moving it around in small circles, just short of burning. That gave blessed relief for awhile, but either they weren’t dead or news one hatched or moved in.
Ok here is what worked. You have to attack the life cycle, and you have probably read that only neem does that. This is the brand that worked for me, there are others: Dyna-Gro Pure Neem Oil Natural Leaf Polish, 8 Ounces
Put a tea spoon or two of the oil in a hot bath, then swish any kind of soap in there as a dispersant. Immerse yourself including putting your head and hair back in the water so your entire body is coated at bedtime. I did this nearly every night nearly two months.
You’ll find comments on the web saying the enzyme cleaner Kleen Free works to kill them, by causing them to lose their exoskeleton prematurely in the molting process. So I tried it, alternating nights with the neem of doing it in the morning. My recipe is 2 cups of Kleen Free for a full tub of water (remember the stuff at this link is concentrate, I mean 2 cups of the dilution per the instructions): Kleen Free Naturally,Natural Enzymes, Non-Toxic, Organic, USDA Ecologically Safe, Insect Eliminator, Treatment and Cleaner – (32 oz. Concentrate)
By jove, on those days I didn’t feel a thing. But I knew without the neem to interfere with reproduction, they’d be back.
Bottom line: it is hard to eradicate them because they can be anywhere, then they mate and it starts all over. The achilles heel is THEY CAN ONLY LAY EGGS IN YOUR SKIN AND THAT IS THE ONLY PLACE THEY CAN HATCH. So once they are all “sterilized” or prevented from reproducing, if no new one are being hatched, your “colony” will eventually all die off.
I also started boiling fresh neem leaves (can be bought online) for about 20n minutes and then drinking the tea, a few gulps, every morning.
I did try the neem powder you can buy at natural food stores, both as tea and in creams and baths, but only the DynaGro seemed to work. You can tell it is potent because it stinks. That’s what you want, that’s a good sign. It means all the chemicals are in there.
Alternate Kleen Free and Dyna Gro baths, rubbing gently with a loofah, and start drinking just a little fresh neem leaf tea a day, or chewing a few fresh leaves if you don’t have time. This should be done on an empty stomach first thing in the morning. You’ll start feeling freer right away.
REMEMBER ALWAYS DO A PATCH TEST WITH ANY NEW CHEMICAL. Try the neem oil and the Kleen Free on your arm for a full 24 hours to make sure you don’t have an allergy before jumping into a bathtub with it.
As for your environment, you can drive yourself crazy washing clothes blankets and pillow all the time. Here’s a neat shortcut. Get a dehumidifier strong enough to bring your whole house to 30% or so humidity, really dry. The bugs can drink water like we do, they have to absorb moisture through their shell. If it’s super-dry, they dehydrate and die. That’s like getting into every corner of your house and all clothes with bleach, except you can’t do that. You will always miss some spots. Dehydrate your house and any of them hiding under the bed, wherever, die.
Finally, the end goal is to get your own immune system back, which is why we get them in the first place, weakened immune systems. That is beyond the scope of this post, but if you want the skinny as I see it (and my psoriasis of 30 has gone away):
– cut back or quite as many of these as you can: sugar, refined flour, coffee, smoking, alcohol. I was not about to start drinking juice in bars, but I did switch from wine to beer after studying sugar content. I don’t drink coffee anymore and I love coffee. But I don’t need it if I am going to be free of these kinds of things. Sugar is the real killer.
– 50-70% of your food should be raw or lightly cooked veggies, deep greens, and fruits. 20% nuts, whole grains, a little meat and dairy. The rest whatever you want but not much of it.
– eat an organic lemon a day and a quarter cup of organic apple cider vinegar, all in the morning or on an empty stomach. Just put it all in ice water and drink it.
– start drinking only distilled water, and lots of it. I drink nearly a gallon a day.
God bless. Let me know how it goes. I know again what it’s like to sit, itch-free and with clear skin, like other people. Go at yourself with a skin scraper and/or loufah afterwards, because debris will be coming up for a while.
Scabies Be Gone 