INSECT STINGS AND BITES
Definition, Symptoms, Causes
A sharp prick with an acute burning sensation. It is caused by the fine hairs in the stinging nettle; by the tail of the wasp, bee, etc.; from the head of gnats; from the claws of centipedes. Usually the sting causes a local, reversible inflammation. When the sting carries pollen, it may cause violent constitional reactions in victims who are hypersensitive to that pollen. Death has occurred.
Herbal Aids, Peraration
Bruse with a mortar and pestal or juice in a juicer freash plantain (Plantago major or lanceolate) and place over the sting or bite. Relief will generally come within a very short time, the pain and itch will stop and the swelling will leave. Rub the bruised leaves or juice over the exposed parts of the body, and it will discourage the insects from annoying you. The juuice or crushed leaves of elderberry, walnut, lilac, and hounds toung will assist in keeping bites and stings to a minimum.
Drink a nervine tea such as skullcap, black cohosh, wood betony or valerian and/or pennyroyal and parsley, taken with a few drops of tincture of lobelia, as often as needed. It is reccommended that one or more of the good herbs mentioned above be kept on hand at all times. Have the herbs in dry form which can be soaked in a little distilled water (plain tap water in a crisis) in tincture form or as an ointment.
When using a fresh herb, as an example plantain (plantago major) that grows almost everywhere, take the freshly gathered herbs -- leaves, root, blossoms, etc.' and use a motor and pestle to bruise and make the herb into a pasty form. If not equipped with mortar and pestle, use a spoon in a bowl, a rolling pin on a board, a hammeron a solid surface. If you have a centrifugal juicer like an Acme, a Champion or a Norwalk with Tritcherator and press, use these. Within a few minutes of useing the plantain, the pain leaves and the swelling starts to recede.
