My leg is itchy. Not all of it, just the now-healing spot where a mosquito bit me over the weekend. The scab is tiny, indicating I barely scratched it after the bite, but there’s still something there.
I think I have Bite Helper to thank for not enduring a week’s worth of itchiness, though I can’t be certain.
In a nutshell, Bite Helper is a battery-operated, $39.95 hand-held gadget that uses a combination of focused heat and vibration to reduce mosquito bites to harmless, itch-free bumps.
Bite Helper has a plastic, somewhat pickle-shaped body; a flat, metallic business end; and one-button operation. To use the device, you place the quarter-sized metal front directly on the bite (as soon as you notice it), press the button and its so-called “Thermo-Pulse Technology” goes to work. For maximum effectiveness, you hold it in place for between 30 and 45 seconds.
To understand how Bite Helper works, though, you need to know what happens when a mosquito bites you. After landing on your skin, the mosquito uses its needle-like mouth to pierce your tender flesh and immediately injects some of its own saliva into your skin to prevent blood coagulation, which would cause the mosquito to get stuck.
Your body identifies the saliva as “not you” and sends antibodies and histamine to attack the area. The result is a combination of a bump and, thanks to the histamine, the itch.
Bite Helper is not a mosquito repellent. It’s there to deal with the aftermath of the bite. In theory, Bite Helper’s 120-degree heat, which comes through on the metal end, neutralizes that saliva (basically by heating it up until it becomes inert) and the vibration also increases blood flow to the effected area. This combo is supposed to stop the itch.
It joins a legion of mosquito bite itch home remedies, including honey, aspirin paste, pre-outdoor-party allergy medicine, alcohol, Aloe Vera, and making an “X” with your nail on the bite. While some attack the histamine reaction, others deal in distraction, replacing an itch with pain.
This is, at least, a more technical solution to an age-old problem.
I took Bite Helper…
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