Cure Scabies Questions

Updated: 08/15/2011

*Ted, an independent contributor, offers information and opinions on Earth Clinic, not as a substitute for professional medical prevention, diagnosis, or treatment. Please consult with your physician, pharmacist, or health care provider before taking any home remedies or supplements or following any treatment suggested by Ted or by anyone on this site. Only your health care provider, personal physician, or pharmacist can provide you with advice on what is safe and effective for your unique needs or diagnose your particular medical history.

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STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS NEEDED FOR PARASITE

SCABIES ON CAT, DOG AND HUMAN

INFESTATION OF HOME AND FAMILY

READER QUESTION AND ANSWER

STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS NEEDED FOR PARASITE
08/15/2011: Louiesgirl from Lexington, Ky, United States writes: "Please send this to Ted. Ted, I have been itching on my scalp, ears, eyelids, brows, neck, hands, feet, basically all over my body. My scalp has sores from my scratching, or is it from bugs burrowing? And they bleed. I have treated for lice with a few days reprieve only and the itching, biting, and crawling sensation has returned. It is waking me up at night. Please help with instructions?"

08/15/2011: Dilesh from New Malden, England, Uk replies: "i have eczema and found this to be an issue also, feelings of things crawling inside. Though, Im pretty sure it has something to do with a vitamin deficientcy. When you scratch all over it may be a signal that you need to clear out your liver and then start adding some vitamons and changing your diet.

Id start with a taking a water fast to flush out your system for a few days, then your diet should be eating fruit in the morning, and no solid food until 1pm, which should only be natural and fresh, and a meal of vegetables. After a week, start getting some vitamins, like B complex, vitamin d and acidophilus.

also, if this gets pubished, first thing, take a Apple Cider Vinegar bath, and follow by putting on lots of mosturiser. Just soak in the bath for 20 mins and dry off. make sure you shower first to get rid of any cream on your body so the Apple Cider Vinegar gets right in.

to help relieve itching, try mixing nutmeg powder with water, heat it up and lather your skin, keep it on for 15 minutes and wash off... you will need to moistuiise well after this as it vcan dry your skin but, the itch wil go...

take vitamin b6, it will allow you to get a good nights sleep.

is there anything making you anxious for whatever reason?"

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SCABIES ON CAT, DOG AND HUMAN
10/01/2008: Kayla from San Jose, Ca, United States writes: "Hello, Ted can I have a situation here. I don't know if I got the human scabies or the mange from me 2 dogs and 4 cats. Well, I've been to doctor and they have prescribed me permethrin 5% cream to put all over my body and hydroxyzine by oral. I'm now 5 days after my 1st treatment and I'm still very itchy and have new patches and such. As for my pets they don't show any visual sign of mange but all of them seem to scratch themselves more than before and one of my dog has a missing small ball spot on or back and one of my cat has a crusted very tiny spot on the head. So my question is can I go ahead and treat them with your treatment ? even though they don't have the obvious signs ? so have to put on them everyday? and for how many treatment as needed ? As though for me I have those red bumps and very itchy all over my body especially my inner thighs, waits line, armpits, under bra line, my under arm skin (the lighter skin bottom of the top skin arm) my behind my knees where the skins folds, and my neck. I was wondering if it's safe to soak myself in the tub for 20 minutes of your treatment ? (borax and hydrogen peroxide). I'm so sorry for the long letter but I'm so so desperately itchy and my whole body is covers with these really itchy red bumps I really look like a grossly monster now. PLEASE HELP ME !!!! Hope to hear from you soon. Thank you very much in advance."

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INFESTATION OF HOME AND FAMILY
11/22/2007: L from Missouri writes: "Ted, I having been viewing your site for about a year now looking for more information on scabies. We have had a severe infestation for about 1 1/2 years now. My husband came home with a hunting dog a friend gave him. He told him it had red mange but it turned out to be sarcoptic mange, we were clue-less. Anyway all of our dogs caught it, we have 9. We used the borax and peroxide to start with because I never use chemicals on our dogs, even their shampoo is all natural. As for the humans in the house, I have been covered with scabies from the start the boys and my husband have bites but nothing like me (is there a reason for this?). The guys took over all the animal care to keep me away from the bugs but I still get them off the laundry and if one of them come anywhere near me after they have been around the dogs, the bugs get on me! This has been a nightmare for over a year now. The family Doctor put us on permethrin cream and the Vet had the dogs on tac-tic (very poison!) We had been using the cream for months and the dogs had went to pro-late, sulfur dips and others, all poison. I have had dogs very sick for treatments and we have twitching eyes and just feeling ill and the last Doctor visit were given Stromectol (thats ivomec for people). I have tried for months to figure out why we were unable to get rid of these things!!! My Vet and Dr both were treating us and the dogs but no one ever said anything about our horses and cattle!!!! Also mice rabbits and other varmints that may be here and there. My husband has been setting live traps for a week now and has caught 8 opossums just around the barn at night. We had no idea, neither have ever had mange or scabies and don't know a thing about them. Recently I found something that has worked better then anything else I have used. This is the first time in over a year that the front of my legs and thighs and my face have been clear! I would like you to check it out, I think it can help alot of people. I did have one problem with it, I was carrying a small spray bottle around with me so if I felt a bug on my face I could spray it (it would stop it dead in its tracts) but my face and other tender parts of my skin were getting a little raw, I looked sunburned. I was using it alot more then I really needed to but I could not take these bugs running across my face and getting in my ears anymore. Its a pesticide-free formula that contains enzymes from plant sources. It kills head lice too. I found it at my health food store. I don't want to give the name but I have never seen it in any of my web surfing. They do have a web sight www.s-e-a.net you can check it out and decide if you want to share this with others on your site. This stuff has been wonderful for me, its giving me my life back. I don't sell it and have no interest in it other then using it. I really hope this can help others, its been a long horrible journey for me!!"

Ted from Bangkok, Thailand replies: "

Dear L: the bugs get on me! The bugs get on you because there is a hives of them around the house. Use DEET spray please (such as OFF! and other brands)and get rid of the hives!

'

Therefore, to get rid of scabies, reinfestation should be dealt first. Regardless of what product you used, the biggest problem about infestation is that they have hives hidden in the house responsible for nearly all of the reinfestations. Most treatments work, in killing off demodectic mites, for example but they came back again and again non stop in greater number, until I found a way to stop the problem completely.

Let me give you an example of what happened with my dog. I experimented with the concept of reinfestation theory by observing various treatment on my dog. My dog once had a thousands (actually more) mostly ticks, but also some mites and fleas fleas that can fill a medium sized cooking pan over the course of a over month (mostly from the fat ticks). I should know since it accumulated over into that pot in diesel fuel oil, before throwing them down the sewer. After such huge numbers of mostly ticks, and some mites and fleas, the dog then acquired mange. The reason it had gone to such a severe case that my dog nearly died, was the unusual rain in Thailand this year during the three month's of almost continuous rain here.

I used permethrin based shampoo on the dog and used espeically the borax and hydrogen peroxide. The efficiency in killing of the fleas and lice, I noted were most effective with the borax and hydrogen peroxide. But the numbers of fleas and lice refused to reduce in numbers. One record day, during the rainy season, I collected 500 dead mites on my dog, but still some more on my dog, and the next day the same number of dead. It is as if there is no reduction in number.

The best way to control this sort of infestation is what has worked well in the field of health officials for years: quarantine.

After over a month I refused to quarantine my dog in an attempt to find the source of the problem, which I know full well, but I just had to prove it to myself before making recommendations to other people. Despite the spraying and killing all the mites in the house, the mites refused to reduce in number. Since my dog is nearly dying, and its amazing how my dog can survive this since he is about 16 years old (yes, I am doing an experiment on longevity on my dog too) so I had to give him some supplements to prevent him from dying.

On the 1.5 months of non-stop infestation despite best efforts to spray with borax and hydrogen peroxide and permethrin based insecticide or shampoo. I decided to quarantine the dog on the theory that reinfestation occured because there is a hive of mites, fleas and demodectic mites in my house. The dog was clearly supplying their food despite all the toxicity.

I send my dog to another house, where it has been unoccupied for years and took a bath with borax and hydrogen peroxide and some DEET spray twice daily, so that the mites and other infestations won't occur.

The next day, there is no more new mites, fleas, and some reduction in mange. I decided to investigate why that area my dog lived had so many fleas. As it turns out, the fleas, and mites were living by the hundreds in small crevices (of the cement floors), walls, and other dark places I can't see. The reason why I know this is when I spray them the insecticides in these area (permethrin based) there are hundreds of them coming out. Apparently they can live on months without blood from the dog.

The key to prevent reinfestation therefore is to first quarantine the dog to stay in a small confined area, where fleas and mites can't survive. That means, a room that has no carpet, not dark, and relatively isolated, free from the insect eggs. During this quarantine time, feel free to do a daily bath of two things: borax and peroxide. After the dog is dried naturally (no rinsing!), after several hours, I will spray my dog twice a day with DEET spray, to prevent stray mites from coming back again.

The second thing is use a powerful bug spray such as a termite spray, or a safer permethrin insecticide spray THOROUGLY in the area where the dog used to live, which is relatively large, if the dog is free to roam. The key is a dog can roam free, provided that the area is dry and away from dirt. If you allow the dog to roam on the grass, or dirt, he will get a reinfestation for sure. It must be noted that fleas, mites and demodectic mange exists and live in hives, much like a beehive in hidden areas around the house. They can walk as fast as a cockroach or a cat walking whenever the dog is caught sleeping. The favorite area for a reinfestation in humans is the same: the bed. And that needs to be sterilized. I will use orange oil mixed with 80% ethyl alcohol to spray on the bed, humans and dogs to prevent reinfestation. The house needs to be disinfected, much like a major overhaul of killing off all the insects.

The third thing, mites, and demodectic mites MAY not be in the area in the house after spraying them. The reason is I have seen as many as 100 mites a day running like tiny speeding cockroaches (although not as fast) from the outside going into my house! Apparently these mites can detect the smell of dogs from as far as 200 meters! Therefore it is necessary to kill the area of these mites, or prevent the mites from outside from reaching the house. What I did was I need to spray regularly a tank of borax and hydrogen peroxide in the surrounding perimeter, and sometimes using permethrin.

I have never seen a worse infestation like this, but it does happen as a result of rain and who know, bioengineered insects released from laboratory that is now infested the world over. I have no way to prove any of this, but I have never seen them so prolific in producing as much as 500 mites a day, based on the numbers of DEAD mites the next day from the washing of my dog with borax and peroxide. However it can be stopped, as long as we understand the source, which is it can live in large hives in the house. It can come from OUTISDE the house.

One final tip: a neighbor of mine uses toilet cleaner that has hydrochloric acid to kill the thousands of mite eggs by cleaning with a strong acid cleaner. I don't like that and prefer a milder borax and hydrogen peroxide, plus quarantine of the dog. I am sure that if it happens to me, many other people should have the same problem I have, and insects lately have gotten so prolific, perhaps from GMO, horizontal gene transfers and other things scientist do that gets released out into nature causing havoc. I has happened before with Killer Bees, it seems now we have killer demodectic mites, ticks, and fleas.

In case you are lost with my details, to prevent reinfestation it is most important to use quarantine, killing off mites and the use of DEET, to prevent them from coming back. The DEET spray should be used on dogs or humans at least twice a day. Killing off them is easy, the big problem I have encountered is the reinfestation"

Ted from Bangkok, Thailand replies: "Dear L: To reduce the scabies assuming reinfestation is prevented, than application of most permethrin based creams and borax in 1% hydrogen peroxide applied to the skin three times a day should stop it."

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READER QUESTION AND ANSWER
"We are not sure how we got this but the only thing we can think of is by way of sleeping in hotels, (Vacation). We are having a very bad case of Scabies. My son came down with it first, then the rest of the family has gotten it. Everyone in the family seems to be getting better but mine is still a problem. We were treated with Permethrin Cream 5% but mine keeps coming back. Is there someting that I might try that you can recommend?"

Ted from Bangkok, Thailand replies: "Your observation that the family got scabies from the hotel is a correct one. The news media has not mentioned this but there is really an outbreak of scabies since many hotels, motels, nursing homes, etc. do not know how to handle this problem. Which actually is quite easy to deal with. Your scabies conditions is caused by a microscopic scabies mites, which lives under the skin and also in the bed feeding off human scales as well. Its eggs matured in 21 days and lays it under the skin. So if these scabies had a chance to lay eggs under your skin, you are in trouble as scabies will either get worse or persistent. There are many types of mites, some are the bed bugs, etc. The over the counter, permethrin you use is actually an insecticide which you are probably aware of it. However there are many reports that mites are now resistant to it. This is quite often. You may read about resistance to permethrin compounds here: You can look at this link:

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/320/7226/37

You can find some basic information to the following links: http://www.medicalconsumerguide.com/primary_care/skin_diseases/scabies.html

My remedy is a simple one, use pure lavender oil on affected area or you can mix with alcohol. Apply often enough for it to penetrate through the skin and remain saturated. This will kill the mites and the eggs. Another way is to try tea tree oil, using the same method. I am not sure how well it works, but I have tried it and has worked also. Lavender may work better. On clothes, you can kill them using by soaking them overnight in ammonia and detergents, before washing. The house should be sprayed of bug sprays, lightly of course, but especially on carpets, rugs, etc. For prevention of spreading, your beds, or hotels bed really have to formulate a orange oil compound and sprayed on to their beds. Orange oil contains d-limonene, which kills mites instantly. You cannot use pure orange oil and must be diluted and mix with other compounds to also kill the eggs, safe and natural. Try mixing it with alcohol, water and maybe 5%-10% d-limonene (or orange oil). My house do have mites and I sprayed it quite often. The reason is simple: mites comes from the window in form of dust mites, or something, and whenever the windows are opened mites just find home on the bed. This is especially true during the spring or summer and especially when the whether is warm and humid. If you want to prevent future eggs laying, you can try to lightly sprinkle the bed with borax dissolved in water.

There is other natural method that might work, such as neem oil, however neem oil prevents mites ability to lay eggs by altering insect hormones. As such this has limited use. I mentioned in case you don't have successes with the others recommendations. Again if you are still having problems, you might consider a diluted solutions of bergamot, lemon oils, etc. applied to skin. However, I don't recommend this as these citrus oils causes skin irritation. You can reduced this by diluting them with grapeseed oil or aloe vera oil. Aloe vera oil is good because it penetrates through your skin, and hopefully reached the mites. Don't try to attempt to find out what species of mites it belongs to (I already tried it), many are not yet discovered and it is not productive. It is best to just get rid of it. Unless of course you are an entomologist."

Ted from Bangkok, Thailand replies: "More update info on scabies: Other medication that seems to work well with scabies caused by mites or morgellon, is povidine iodine. Apply it on to saturation. Pine needle oil, lemongrass oil, oregano oil, white thyme oil are other possibilities of applying in case the previous lavender oil mentioned does not work. Although the possibilities do exist for skin irritation for lemongrass, oregano and thyme oil. There appears to be a strong insecticide properties of pine needle and lemongrass oils. Use with care to avoid skin irritation by adding some aloe vera oil if that is the case. However diluting too much will not kill the parasites."

02/01/2011: Jo from Rochester, New York replies: "I do not have a way of soaking my laundry over night in ammonia. Will borax in the wash cycle (with hot water and hot drying) kill them? If so, how much borax should I use? Thank you. Jo"

07/05/2009: mrs.from ont. from toronto, ont. replies: "I've recently caught scabies from a hotel stay and have tried permethrin cream also. Finally after my 3rd use of the cream I started puttin a few drops of neem oil in my shampoo and a few drops also in my skin lotion and rub in all over. This helps the itching process and helps your skin..The neem oil doesn't smell nice but really helps. Some people use only neem products on scabies. For cleaning...I vacuum constantly, everything like computer keyboards etc.. and I went out and bought a steamer ($150.) I steam chairs, rugs and beds..even my couches. I'm on the road to recovery and have smooth soft skin from the neem oil..You can kill them easily but the difficult part is
always getting them back.. "

12/19/2008: Martina from Vancouver, BC Canada replies: "I've struggled with mange my whole life. It happens whenever I wear socks on the floor and then wear those same socks to bed.

Tricks that I've found to stop the itching:
-hottest bath possible and scrub the buggers out
-peppermint foot lotion over the whole affected area
-spray bedding down with a small (trial/travel size) bottle of water containing 8 drops of tea tree oil (can also spray this on skin)

The itching should be over instantly.

Problem is, this last bout ended up with my CAT getting it and I have no idea how to get her into a bath. "

12/21/2010: Mis-diagnosis? from Newark, De replies: "I am not sure what to do. My boyfriend has been diagnosed with Scabies. I have seen a rash that looks more like Herpes on his penis and he has no other symptoms or a rash anywhere else on his body but his thighs. When I last say him (one month ago) he had this rash and it has not gotten worse at all. Now one month later I have no symptoms of Scabies or anything else. How fast does Scabies really come on? What should I see after one month of exposure to a not so severe case of this? Should I expect something in particular??

I have begun every natural treatment on myself. Borax &citrus soap baths, orange oil, tee-tree oil, alchohol serilizin, peroxide baths, cleaned every piece of clothing etc. But if something looks like a pimple I am freaking out! AND don't want to give this to friends if it is a mite. I think he might be mis-diagnosed. He lives on a Carribean Island and while his risks of this and that are high... It sounds like he has something else. Any thoughts might help from people who know this mite. Thanks!"

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