
Scabies is a term that describes a parasitic skin infestation by the itch mite (sarcoptes scabiei). The name itch mite should give readers a clear indication of the effect of these little monsters. They burrow under the skin to lay their eggs, and they create bacterial infections in the process. The overall immune system is usually weakened. The itching only begins after 30 days of infection, and during this initial symptom-less period, victims may pass this condition on to all of their family members and friends. These highly contagious infestations can be transmitted whenever there is skin contact, or when there is shared contact with cloth fibers. Infestations have been known to run rampant in institutional settings.
Finding effective natural methods of eliminating such parasites can be a challenge for those who practice alternative medicine, because the methodology required is in opposition to normal procedures. Alternative medicine normally concentrates upon working with nature, to help it overcome whatever has caused an imbalanced state of dis-ease. In a sense, traditional methods can be thought of as a little too pro-life to be of any use. Poisons are the forté of our adversaries. The pharmaceutical industry poisons best, and they have literally transformed the poisoning of their own customers into a science. Allopathic medicine has plenty of poisonous chemicals that people can rub all over their skin, with their products often containing carcinogens such as benzene and formaldehyde.
Conversely, alternative medicine usually works by improving the health of the body, so that it may easily kill threatening bacteria or viruses. This left us in a research predicament, whereby we needed to find something that was both deadly to the insects, and yet safe for people.
Treating the Mites
Tea tree oil is one of the most popular remedies for eliminating scabies. It seems to be able to penetrate the skin and suffocate the insects. This is similar to the way that nail polish works to kill chiggers. Be advised that nail polish will rarely eliminate scabies, because the mites will typically relocate before the nail polish dries. Tea tree oil treatments are applied directly to the bite areas with a cotton swab. The surrounding area and anywhere else with excessive itching is treated.
Neem oil is used by organic farmers as a natural insecticide. The E.P.A. reports that neem is "generally recognized as safe" for use in food products. This God-given "insecticide" is considered so safe for humans that they exempted their typical stipulations for maximum pesticide residues, so that unlimited amounts can be present in foods. Neem works differently to most pesticides, because it does not kill on contact. For some insects, it hormonally disrupts their life cycles and their desire to eat, whilst with others, it simply repels the insects by smell. Its smell is not strong to humans, however. In the case of scabies, neem oil prevents reproduction, a fact that is very pertinent due to their short life cycles. Neem seems to work by altering the hormones of insects (like soy), and in fact, neem is an all-natural contraceptive in humans too. It is a much safer contraceptive than "the pill". Most scabies sufferers stop getting bites after two days of neem treatments, but some adult mites are guaranteed to still be alive. If possible, rub neem oil all over the body with a cotton swab, and purchase neem soap to use in the bath or shower on a daily basis for two weeks (the life cycle).
Cayenne was described in the herbal book, The Badanius Manuscript, printed in 1552, for treating scabies. Topical applications of cayenne will quite literally burn the scabies, without causing any health problems for the host. Most people who use it place large amounts of cayenne into a warm bath and remain in it for an extended time (until the water becomes cold). You can purchase cheap packets of cayenne from the "Mexican" section of many grocery stores. Remember to protect your eyes while handling or bathing in cayenne. You should always keep an emergency eye wash solution in a dropper bottle containing colloidal silver and a pinch of sea salt.
Zinc can be used to help fight the secondary infections that occur under the skin and to prevent opportunistic fungal outbreaks. Grind zinc tablets into a powder, and add water until it makes a paste. Apply it to all irritated areas of the skin. Mixing turmeric with this can help to stop itching, and it has its own anti-parasitic qualities. This is also how to make a natural anti-dandruff cream. Zinc is the main anti-dandruff ingredient in commercial shampoos.
Our own colloidal copper lotion product will help to prevent secondary problems with bacteria and fungi.
Cleaning Your Environment
Mites can live in furniture, carpets, and clothing for several days. This can become a cause of constant re-infection. Thus, it is important to thoroughly clean the house to eradicate the pests. For regular vacuuming, we recommend using a vacuum with bags, and when finished, immediately remove the bags from indoors. If using a bagless vacuum, place a small amount of salt in the collection container before vacuuming to shred and dehydrate the mites. For optimal results, put borax powder into a steam cleaning mix, and steam clean the carpets. Try to limit direct skin contact and inhalation of borax. When you are vacuuming or spreading borax powder, we recommend that you use a high quality respirator mask like those used by painters, to protect your lungs from borax inhalation, at least until it has settled. These are available at most hardware stores.
Some people have successfully used diatomaceous earth to accomplish this task in a much less hazardous way. If this method is affordable, then we recommend it. However, diatomaceous earth is primarily silica, so a protective mask should still be worn to protect the lungs, whenever there is a chance of it becoming airborne.
Note that the cheap cloth-only masks that are sold in hardware stores will offer little to no protection. Get a real respirator mask. Read the included instructions about how to test if it allows any unfiltered air inside, before beginning the application process.
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Comments
Hi Kassy,
I've tried your recomendations and our conditions are much better now. Thanks a lot! Just one thing we need your advice, that is Food grade DE. We're in Vietnam and we cannot find food grade DE here. Could you let us know which brand of DE food grade you had used and where you bought it?
Thanks in advance for your advice.
I've been reading about the remedies on this page. Where can I purchase these oils?
They say to treat and wait a week for the eggs to hatch and then treat again. I say the only way that's gonna work is if all the eggs were laid on the same day. I got rid of them before ( or thought I did ) 3 or 4 times before I figured this out. They'd seem to go away then come right back full force all of a sudden. I treated 3 or 4 days in a row then again on day 7 and 8 with perm 5. Not sure what I'm gonna do this time with no insurance. I started today with perm 1 but I had no luck with the 1% during the last experience. Gonna try the different oils.
So the plan is to burn yourself, and then medicate with borox and chlorine bleach on yourself? Oh my...
Let me guess.... curezone, right?
My question is how did you get them from your job? I work with a person who had scabies for months and has been treated by conventional poisons three times, but she is very irresponsible and will not do the cleaning necessary to get rid of them. I work in an office and I do not have close contact with her (though she loves to hug people, I avoid that). My co-workers say you can't get it from working with someone, but from what I have been reading, I want to make sure I don't get it from her. So how did you get it at work?
Again, I hope and pray for relief for you and your family.
I am also interested in hearing from anyone else who got scabies at work.
Mandy
Went to the Doc and she said it looked more like an allergic reaction been over a month still having trouble. Mine does not look like some of the pictures I have seen but all the symptoms are there. Not much during the day but turns vicious at night. My wife has not one red dot. I have changed soaps and every other thing trying to figure it out. Going back to the Doc today for some test to see. Thank you for these remedies I will advise some of these to the Doc cuz I really dont want to poison myself with the Cream
Update* not scabies. Good news. Now the on going struggle to figure it out. Itching is driving me crazy
I now had bedbugs. My son paid twice to have his unit sprayed. To a tune of just over $700.00 And when moving him to his new abode, I noticed white powder on the back of his furniture.
I rid myself of them.
For the linens: I just put pillows, all sheets, throws, or anything that didn't have plastic or metal, into the microwave for three minutes. Two would probably have worked, but I was upset.
Found this easier than washing, or even putting items into the dryer. And it killed anything on the items.
Hope this helps.
Is there a # of drops to # cups of coconut oil formula?
I think we are going to try making a paste out of coconut out, turmeric, cayenne and ground clove.
For me it started on my hands, then my stomach and breasts then to my legs. I have it really bad on my hands and my stomach. I finally agreed it was scabies after doing some research and matching it with the tiny little "blisters" on my fingers.
Dakota has it the worst on his genitalia and on his bottom, Poor baby.
I'm happy to have an answer, I'm just kind of nervous to go back to school in a week.
But Me and Dakota are the only ones in our home who have the problem. We isolate ourselves in our room and so neither my mom and her fiance have it and neither does my sister.
I'm going to try and take pictures and I hope I can provide you guys with kind of a short video synopsis.
Bless you all for your valuable insight!
Me and Dakota rubbed it into our skin from neck-knees. It itched all over but it wasn't super intense. Once we rinsed it off in the shower, however it BURNED. We washed it off, burned even worse. But it was obvious it was working. We saw little black specks congregating on the skin where the burning was most intense. After running the water all over our bodies for many minutes we got out, dried off and it became more of a burning like you are sitting on a metal bleacher on a hot day.
It was very unpleasant but as of now, there is no itching except on our shins where for some reason, we didn't scrub with the cayenne.
We stuffed all of our bedding into a bag and i sprinkled clove oil into it. We also flipped our mattress.
We will vacuum our mattress and pillows tomorrow and the clove oil will soak into our sheets and be ready to wash in the morning.
Once someone's life is normalized there is no incentive to reach out and tell us how it was done.
Some of us cannot buy a steam cleaner nor a tanning bed, and cannot use washer and dryers constantly, nor buy military strength face masks and so on... We have to make do with DE, clove and other oils, normal use of the laundry facilities. Some of us who are normally vigilant in our clean habits have to ramp up our cleanliness to operating room perfection. This is a sure sign the pests will win. If they don't kill me (this can be torture) I'm pretty sure they will at least be with me to the end.
and having to publish using my real name is a major impediment here. Why can't we use some sort of code name?
Read on if you want to hear how other methods failed for me and how I found out the simple cheap answer to my year of torture.
Dr. Bronner's or any brand really of liquid pure Castile soap. It's not the essential oil additive that attacks the exoskeleton of the mite, it's the castille soap itself. I am now free and clear and still itchy, it lasts for months while your skin grows new layers.
I'll tell you all my attempts.
Permethrin cream and lice bedding/room spray... Semi effective. I regularly saw new mites a few days after dosing myself with the stuff. Attempted this treatment for months. Laundering all linens, towels, clothes, steam mopping, freezing shoes, bags and all other things I could not wash. And I even continued to use the bedding spray with other treatments. I think that part is all in your head though... So expensive. $7/can. $30/dose of cream
Ivermectin pill... I ordered this and permethrin from Canadian and Indian pharmacies online. Treated myself for months. No lasting results. It always came back either a week or two later. Always met with swear words and heavy feelings of defeat... Depression... I mean it's poison safe enough not to kill you... And it does have effect, but I didn't do this under the advice of a doctor. I know, not the safest choice, but scabies cost me my job with a company I really was proud to be a part of... It was devastating. So keep your scabies problem a secret in public spheres and try to avoid infesting others.
Neem oil, neem paste and neem pills... Little to no results, bad side effects. The oil I found was a very pure grade and even though I thinned it out according to suggestion, my skin would react harshly to it. I didn't see much results with neem. I don't know how it works for others, it just did not work at all. I took 4 gel cap pills twice a day and lathered in the neem soap, after slathering my body in a paste and then smearing the lotion neem mixture. Red rash and inflammation.
Sulfur... Failed. Actually I had to go to the hospital. I washed with sulfur soap, then found a Mexican acne medication at target with 10% sulfur. I even went to sulfur springs to soak in sulfur. It just dried me out. I over did it and ended up needing a shot of cortisone to heal my overly chapped and irritated skin. Sulfur pills too... For acne what a horrible month that was.
Benzyl benzoate... Absolute torture. Moderate effectiveness. Usually kept them at bay, but never eradicated them. Benzyl benzoate is sold through medical supply websites. Relatively inexpensive... But when it is on your skin, if you are attracting moisture or if it gets in your eyes, it burns like crazy. Crazy crazy... Even if you dilute it, it still burns the same! Although supposedly not harmful. It was the most intense sensation, even though it was not the worst consequence.
I resigned myself that I would have to live with them forever. And while I was looking up a recipe for pesticide solution made from dr. Bronner's soap for my garden mites, I was so LUCKY I found a YouTube video of a lady talking about bug spray for garden pests... Mites... She was just kind of shooting off random extra information...
She said it did not matter which soap you use it's not the essential oil that kills the mites. It's the Castile soap itself that attacks the exoskeleton of a mite.
...
That got me thinking about using it on my skin. A year and a month since my first out break and I only then come across this information looking for something related but different. I immediately started washing myself with the dr. Bronner's I had instead of soap and shampoo... Just to be thorough. It was peppermint however, and very uncomfortable. So the next bottle I bought was lavender. B/c the essential oil was arbitrary.
I am on my 3rd 32 oz. bottle of Castile soap. I switched brands for a cheaper one, but I have not seen a new sign of scabies in 2 months. It took a while, but I think it is the only real effective cure. And there's no consequences. All that crap I put in my body has totally had an effect on my well being. But I feel like I am so lucky I found a real cure. Even the last time I took an ivermectin, I kept spot treating with benzyl benzoate and sulfur acne cream for weeks after.
UNTIL, I started using Castile soap.
I returned to a normal cleaning routine. I stopped obsessing... I got my life back. No more sheets of plastic in the car seat and on the mattress.... This might seem obscure to you, but if you think about it, and man, did I think about this problem, when you deal with something so unnerving as scabies, you'll try anything. Just get a big bottle of Castile soap. $12 to $15 for a 32 oz. bottle.
I just used it regularly and once a week when I took a bath, I'd pour about 1/2 cup and soak while I read. I didn't try to sterilize. I figured, they'd just gradually die off... And they did. Anxiety gradually lifted... Skin gradually healed.
Again, I promised myself I would only write a post if I found an actual cure that worked for myself. After all that I went through, I can honestly say... They are gone.
Also if the last poster sees this my question is how did u keep from spreading it when you had it so long? I kept my daughter home for a week and sending her to school was awful, I mean she's had this we think since about June so did she already spread it? Will she just recatch when we send her to school. Not only that but we car pool with two families and I am praying we did not spread to them. I told them about it even though it was embarrassing and they are acting it's not a big deal and still want to car pool. I feel like they just aren't aware how bad this can be. We also went on vacation and stayed at several people's house and beds this summer before we knew. I'm struggling with the decision to call and tell them. I just feel like we've spread this far and wide and I'm terrified. I don't want to be in my house yet I don't want to leave it for fear of spreading. We can't sit on the sofa and sit on our floors, clothes in bags trying not to touch much and keep a baby from crawling around and an active social 6 year from seeing anyone. I'm so depressed I feel like because of not knowing if we've spread this to friends and family and coworkers that anywhere we go and anyone we see will be a chance of reinfesting.
My mom thinks we got this from her stepdaughter and her whole house hold treated but I feel like we will never see them again for fear of reinfesting. So sick to death over this.
have been rehabilitating her for the past 3 days.
Her coat was in deplorable condition as well as having some open sores.
It was yesterday that I started to itch, and saw little red bumps all over my stomach and arms.
so I began my research and found this site.
I happened to have old Neem lotion, tea tree oil (essential oil- must be diluted so as not to burn),
Rosemary oil, and eucalyptus oil. I have a diluted tincture of clove oil as well, but need to get more of it, but i added what little I had of this as well. I also happened to have a homeopathic "Aresenicum Album"" which I also read was helpful in relieving the emotional stress of the itching. So I took this last night and again this morning. I put all these together, as well as adding a bit of olive oil for more volume.
I could feel almost instant relief of my scratching was able to sleep w/out a problem. I applied this lotion concoction to both myself and my little coyote girl. "Tina"
Even she seems to feel more relief as she was out and walking this morning when I opened the room to the door-
I still feel a little of the itching- but it's so much better. After reading all of the above, I will stay diligent.
My question is though: I read where it takes "30 days" for these buggers to take hold of the host.
Did I read this wrong or misunderstand- as I felt itchy almost from day one. At first I thought it must be flea bites (she was covered w/ these too).
I also wondered then, if I was just imagining all of this, but the red bumps said differently. It was almost immediately after my husband warned me that she may have mites that I began my scratching!! lol
Wow, the power of suggestion. :~}