Basil a handy herb for insect bites

Take these steps to take the sting out of insect bites and rashes from poison ivy and poison oak and prevent infection. Alcohol, witch hazel, or jewelweed vinegar make good drying agents as a base for your home remedies. Make infusions of mucilage-containing anti-inflammatory, astringent herbs - such as calendula, jewelweed, comfrey, flax seed, aloe, oatmeal, mullein, yarrow ,or plantain by soaking them for about an hour in water or vinegar.

Also you may add antiseptic oils to your infusions to boost their germ killing properties. To draw out the poison from the bites or rash add your herbal infusion to oatmeal or green clay and slather on repeatedly. Once the paste has dried, you can gently rinse and remove the residue.

Using Aromatherapy

Quick and Easy: Whenever I am sitting outside and get nailed by a sneaky mosquito, or one of those "no-see-ums" that plague us all, I give my skin a quick squirt of a witch hazel/essential oil mix I keep by my side for just this purpose. Tea tree and basil are my favorite oils to add to this mixture, in aprox. a 2 % ratio of essential oils/witch hazel. If you don't have witch hazel, rubbing alcohol works fine for a base. I bit of preventive spraying will deter insects also. If you happen to have some basil growing in a nearby herb pot, you can crush a fresh leaves to release the oil and rub it on your skin. Tea tree, lavender, and basil can all be applied neat, a few drops directly to the bite. Whatever you do, acting quickly is key to preventing an allergic reaction to the bite.