Simple and effective treatment for ant bites

When stung by a red velvet ant, it is necessary to quickly treat the sting to avoid serious skin damage.

According to Dr. Nguyen Tien Dung, Poison Control Center, Bach Mai Hospital, when bitten by insects, especially ants, it is necessary to quickly treat the bite to avoid serious skin damage.

Ants

It is currently the season of the three-cavity ant, they continuously attack many residential areas and apartment buildings, making people feel insecure. To prevent being bitten by three-cavity ants and other insects, Dr. Dung recommends that every family should prepare 3 types: 70-degree alcohol, corticoid ointment and phenaegan cream. When unfortunately bitten by three-cavity ants or insects, if first aid is done properly, the skin damage will be greatly reduced. Dr. Dung guides step by step:

1. Use 70-degree alcohol to clean the damaged skin area to help reduce discomfort caused by skin damage. For wounds caused by ants, washing thoroughly will significantly reduce the blistering caused by the venom of this ant species.

2. Apply corticoid ointment (4-6 times a day).

3. Apply phenaegan cream (8-10 times a day). When applying the medicine, rub it firmly on the burned skin area until the medicine dries, the medicine will be absorbed better.

Also according to Dr. Dung, if you see ants clinging to your body, clothes, or furniture in your house, you should not use your hands to "kill" or rub them, but should blow them away, or put a piece of paper in for them to crawl up and remove them from your body. Then wash the skin area that has come into contact with this insect. If you accidentally hit or rub them on your skin, you must quickly wash the area of ​​contact to limit the poison. Because the body fluids of ants contain pederin - a type of poison that causes blistering, skin burns, and dermatitis. When human skin comes into contact with their secretions through certain objects or accidentally hits them to death on the skin, the poison is secreted through their body fluids, sticks to human skin, causing disease right there on the skin... When it sticks to the skin of your hands, if you do not wash your hands immediately, the poison will accidentally stick to other parts of the body, causing widespread dermatitis.

Preventing ant bites

According to the Department of Preventive Medicine, Ministry of Health, in recent years, the three-compartment ants often appear in residential areas: Hanoi, Hai Phong, Can Tho, Ho Chi Minh City... near rice fields. This species often appears in the fall, the time of the rice harvest, with a higher density than in other months of the year. Especially from September to October 2015, many cases of three-compartment ants invading people's residences caused panic.

The ant has a slender, long body like a grain of rice (about 0.7 - 1cm long, 2 - 5mm wide), has 3 pairs of legs, a segmented abdomen, tapering towards the tail, flies and runs very fast; in terms of color, it is sometimes dark orange or dark, the upper abdomen and head are black, the upper middle area is iridescent, iridescent blue, attached to a pair of hard wings (elytra). A pair of transparent wings folds neatly under the hard wings. The small head has two single segmented antennae extending forward. There is a black head, posterior abdomen and elytra (this structure includes the wings and the first 3 abdominal segments), and a red thorax and anterior abdomen in an alternating black - red - black - red - black, corresponding to the head - thorax - elytra - anterior abdomen - posterior abdomen.

To prevent ants from biting people, the Department of Preventive Medicine recommends that if ants are present in the area, fluorescent lights should be replaced with yellow lights, because ants love fluorescent light. Prevent ants from entering the house by:

+ Use screens on windows and doors, close doors regularly after entering and exiting.

+ Should sleep under mosquito net.

+ Clean the environment, clear bushes and grass around the house, because this is a good shelter for this species.

Wear long-sleeved clothes when going outside, especially in areas near fields, residential areas with lots of lights, or near construction sites. When working in the fields, especially during harvest season and stormy seasons, it is important to use protective gear such as: long-sleeved clothes, hats, masks, and boots to avoid contact with insects.

To thoroughly handle and avoid the spread of ants, which greatly affects public health, when a colony of ants appears in a residential area, people should immediately contact a specialized medical unit (Institutes of Malaria, Parasitology, and Insects, District/City Preventive Medicine Centers...) for guidance and coordination in handling./.

According to SKDS Newspaper