Part of a solid scabies treatment plan is using Permethrin cream. However, it’s not always the easiest thing to get without an expensive visit to a doctor or dermatologist. This leaves most people wondering how to buy permethrin cream for their scabies treatment.
What is Permethrin cream?
Permethrin cream is an insecticide cream which is very effective at killing scabies. It is the first line of treatment that your doctor will prescribe to you after a scabies diagnosis. Normally it is sold in a 30g tube as a 5% permethrin lotion.
Permethrin cream is a central part of scabies treatment, and one of the main courses of action in my recommended 30 day scabies treatment plan.
How To buy Permethrin cream?
The easiest way to get permethrin cream is to get a prescription from your doctor. However for many people getting a prescription isn’t always possible, and in some states the cream costs over $100 per tube! That can be quite the bill when trying to treat a family of five.
Below I’m going to give you all the options possible for getting Permethrin cream; hopefully this should give you the information you need to get treat your scabies safely and affordably.
Option 1: Your doctor or dermatologist
If you live in the US and you have insurance, hopefully this should be an easy enough option. If you have a decent doctor, he will look at your skin through his microscope and identify the mites and/or burrows. Then he’ll prescribe you the cream and your insurance should cover it. Hopefully you can get prescribed the Ivermectin treatment too as they work very well in conjunction with each other.
Option 2: Buy permethrin cream online
If you don’t have access to a doctor or your doctor is useless and won’t diagnose you properly, you can purchase the Permethrin online. One store that I have purchased items from in the past is Inhouse Pharmacy. It has been a while since I purchased anything there but I believe they are still legit. I’m not affiliated with them in any way – it’s just the best place I know of to get treatments without a prescription. This is their permethrin cream, which is the same brand I also used during my treatment:
Option 3: Make permethrin cream yourself
The thing about permethrin is, it’s not a rare product. It’s used in all kinds of farming, livestock, industrial, pest control, and many other types of situations outside of scabies.
Therefore, finding permethrin is easy.
In fact, you can buy a whole bottle of it online from a pest store like this and have it delivered to your house by tomorrow.
And as for replicating the prescription permethrin creams – if you look at the ingredients, they’re nothing more than a simple body lotion mixed with 5% permethrin.
When you put two and two together, it becomes clear that permethrin cream is nothing special. You can mix it up in your own bathroom in just a few minutes.
So how do you do this?
What you will need first is some basic permethrin. I would recommend using Martin’s 10% Permethrin which you can get here on Amazon.
Next you’ll need a basic body lotion or moisturizer. A generic moisturizing cream like this is ideal. You don’t want anything with too many added fragrances or chemicals.
If you’re not following the maths here – adding equal parts of 10% permethrin and body lotion means you’re cutting the strength in half. Therefore this will leave you with a 5% permethrin mixture.
You can even see in the Amazon reviews for Martin’s Permethrin that the most common reason people are buying it is to mix permethrin cream for scabies (with good results!). You can read the reviews here.
The bonus of mixing your own permethrin is you’ll never run out of it. One bottle of 10% permethrin is going to last you a long time.
This is perfect because one of the biggest complaints about the prescription tubes of 5% permethrin is they’re not big enough. Treating scabies requires you to cover the whole body in permethrin cream, and often a 30g or 60g tube is simply not enough.
By mixing your own permethrin, you’ll be sure that you have enough to lather over your body and then some. That’s exactly what you need to treat scabies effectively (more on that in a minute).
The other bonus is, when treating scabies you normally need to treat more than one person. Therefore by mixing your own permethrin cream, you should definitely have enough for the whole household, even if there’s four or five of you. That’s really important because if you don’t treat the whole household, it’s very possible (and common) that someone else will have caught scabies and, left untreated, will start spreading it through the house again. This happens a lot so make sure you to treat everyone in the household diligently!
Where to buy permethrin
My first choice would be to buy it from a proper pest control store like Do My Own. That way you can be sure of the source and quality, and the shipping is fast as well.
Amazon will be my second choice. It’s often out of stock, and sometimes sold from unknown sellers, but it’s still pretty reliable.
Please note: This is not medical advice. I am not a doctor or your medical advisor. Mixing your own permethrin cream is not as safe as buying it ready-made from a pharmacy. You follow this advice at your own risk. I advise you to consult your own medical professionals if you have any concerns.
Make sure you use the permethrin properly!
I’ve written about this on the blog before, but I’ll leave you again with a few pointers:
-Permethrin needs to be left on for at least 8 hours, and no more than 12 hours. If you leave it on for less than 8 hours it won’t work, and if you leave it on for more than 12 it can damage your skin.
-The best approach is to put it on after your shower at night, go to sleep, and wash it off in the morning.
-When applying the permethrin, make sure you get it absolutely everywhere! This means between the fingers, under the fingernails, between the toes, between your butt cheeks, behind the ears, under your armpits. I’m talking absolutely everywhere. Scabies can live anywhere on your skin – if you miss a spot, you could miss a mite, and that means you won’t be cured.
-Once you’ve put the cream on, go straight to sleep. Don’t sit around on the computer or go eating a late supper – all you’re doing is letting the cream come off your skin. One of the main reasons permethrin doesn’t work for people is they don’t let it sit and do its job. Maybe you go to the toilet, wash your hands, and go back to sleep. You might not realize it, but you’re washing off all the treatment! In fact, one of the most common places for scabies to hide is under your fingernails, especially because scabies sufferers scratch so much. If you wash your hands an hour after putting your permethrin treatment on, obviously the mites under your nails are going to survive. Then two weeks later, you still have scabies and can’t understand why. My best tip is, as soon as you put the cream on, get into bed and go to sleep! Let the cream work, and wash it off in the morning.
These are the main tips, but before you use your permethrin cream I would highly recommend reading my guide on how to use permethrin properly. You can click here to go there now.
FAQ:
Is it safe to use permethrin cream?
Yes, it is safe to use permethrin cream according to the FDA. It is authorized for use against things like lice and scabies in humans. However, FDA approval is only for ready-made permethrin creams available on prescription, so if you are mixing your own, you do so at your own risk. No safety studies have been done on DIY permethrin creams
Can you buy permethrin cream at Walmart?
Yes, you can buy permethrin cream at Walmart. However if you want to purchase at Walmart you will need a prescription from your doctor. Walmart does however sell 10% permethrin solution such as Martin’s Permethrin if you are planning to make a DIY cream. You can buy it at your local Walmart store, otherwise you can order it online from a place like Do Your Own.
Can you buy permethrin cream at Walgreens?
Yes, you can buy permethrin cream at Walgreens but you will need a prescription. They sell scabicides such as Lyclear. Walgreens has more info on their prescription scabies treatments here. You can also buy other scabies treatments like benzyl benzoate at Walgreens.
Do Walgreens or Walmart sell OTC permethrin creams?
No, Walgreens and Walmart do not sell permethrin creams OTC. You will need to mix your own if you want to use permethrin cream without a prescription.
Other ways to treat scabies effectively
While permethrin cream is the standard prescription treatment for scabies, there are many other proven treatments you can use to help aid your recovery.
In fact, there are various natural treatments that have been shown in studies to have even better cure rates than permethrin.
Some of these are clove oil, sulfur, and tea tree oil.
Therefore, my recommendation to killing scabies quickly and effectively is not to pick and choose treatments, but to use them all in tandem. This gives you the best chance at eliminating scabies from your body without any stubborn mites slipping through the cracks.
Permethrin is great, but permethrin paired with tea tree oil, sulfur, neem, clove oil and ivermectin is much, much better.
This is exactly what I did when dealing with scabies myself, and the results were excellent. Within two weeks I’m sure all mites had been killed, and within a month my skin was completely back to normal.
If you’d like to see the exact treatments I used and how I used them, it’s all detailed in this blog post here. If you’re suffering from scabies, I’d highly recommend checking it out.
Other than that, wishing you the speediest recovery possible.
Jon
Please note: This is not medical advice. I am not a doctor or your medical advisor. Mixing your own permethrin cream is not as safe as buying it ready-made from a pharmacy. You follow this advice at your own risk. I advise you to consult your own medical professionals if you have any concerns.
Warning! Permethrin also comes made with petroleum distillates and can cause severe health, skin and respiratory problems. Use only permethrin mixed with water. I made the mistake of using the wrong one.
Is the one that he recommended here the correct one?
Interestingly look at page 16 of Martins:
https://www.domyown.com/msds/permethrin_sfr_label.pdf It says to wet to skin on dogs (this will kill cats! they have different body chemistry). The label does say: petroleum distillates.
I’m not able to buy permethrin in the Czech republic ať Amazon 🙁 scabies for 4 months. Our family, 3 children, using Tea tree, clove oil, aloe Vera gel, sulfur….no results, only for few days. Help!
Can you buy permethrin cream at your pharmacy? Europe shouldn’t be as strict as the US.
What do I use to stop the crawling feeling in my ear. It’s very far in.
What can be used for the inner ear safely for some type of mite I assume
Put two drops of white or brown vinegar in ear. Also witch hazel with (I think it has) 14% alcohol, just 2 to three drops. Kills mites and stops any feeling of mite movement.
I’ve been suffering with this werid inching from my 40s, 59 now. At nite my scrotum would inch so bad I had two separate hair brushes I used to find relief, even if for only that night. Would brush so hard a white powder would be airborn as I brushed extremely hard and vigorous.
Now, I used the brush on my back , and whole groin area plus stomach. So now my back and waist are pimples and inching along with legs, shins I mean. I will be using your treatment asap.
God bless you Jon. It took me a couple weeks to even figure out what it was. So…. It’s all over my body. But when it went to my face I lost my shit. I had ivermectin for my goats so in desperation and pure hatred for the scabies hord I drank it. Not bad tasting. I half expected to fall over dead. (Those doctors and therapists frigin medical warnings) Now I’m itching like a mad man. Then I found your article. You made me laugh and cry. Your a rogue ange jon. Many blessings to you and yours.
And death to all scabies. 😉
Phew, that’s a bit intense! Good luck, hope it worked, depending on how much you drank, shoulda nuked em though.
Is your treatment cure just for scabies or will it cure other mite problems. I have had this problem for longer than I care to say. I am not sure what I have. At first I got the scabies burrows on my hands and other area of my body. Sometimes I’ll get the itching which is not extreme. The burrows and the itching are gone. But I still get the crawling and bitting everywhere. I’ve been to a dermatologists who says I don’t have scabies, but she can’t tell me what I have. She refuses to do a skin graph, said was a waste of time.
If it’s not extremely itchy it’s unlikely to be scabies. Not impossible, but highly unlikely.
I have had a similar experience of the crawling, biting sensations, thumping in my ear and weird pulsations all over my body. I’ve been to numerous dr’s and dermatologist and a few said they thought it was scabies and others said no. We have a family of 5 and this has been a complete nightmare for the last 6 months bc my future ex husband didn’t believe me… and I’m a Registered Nurse! I’ve treated patients with scabies before too and this is my second time having them. The first time there was only three of us, me and my two boys, and I freaked out and bagged everything and scrubbed myself in bleach and they were gone quickly. Not this time! We have done so many treatments. I did the mix of permethrin myself and it worked most the time except when it got to the bottom of the bottle and I believe it wasn’t as effective as it was when it was first opened. But after we had a couple of negative skin scrapings, which I just believe were bc of how evasive these micro devils are!! Bc when I put the permethrin on tiny black specs come out of our skin. I’ve also witnessed something burrowing but only a couple of times. Mostly it has caused my hair to fall out, and my eyes to burn and feel so tired. After the first three doses of ivermectin, three blephs fell off from around my eyelids. Also one of my sons has a decreased immune system and I believe he has super atypical presentation. He had nodules in his ear lobes and I’ve had them in my breasts bc we got them three years ago and I was nursing my daughter who was one at the time. Both the kids were misdiagnosed when they had their initial rash three years ago, and I knew their diagnosis was wrong but when I mentioned scabies the doctors said no. The treatment is working now though but it has been an ongoing challenge to get my 16 yr old son to do the creams. And when he refuses when the rest of the house does it, it makes things even more complicated! I literally packed up and left my husband as I moved me and my children from south Florida to Indiana. (I know it’s cold up here but my dad lives here and I had to get away from the source of this infection who was siding with the doctors saying I was crazy and we didn’t have scabies. But our daughter who is four now, scratched herself so much when we were in Florida that she nearly caused a secondary infection from the big open lesions she created by scratching. I cut her nails but she’s use anything she could find to scratch. She couldn’t understand why daddy doesn’t believe mommy when she tells him we have a parasite living in our skin! The funny thing was that the doctors who didn’t believe it was scabies couldn’t tell me what it was. My son was misdiagnosed with psoriasis last year, and my daughter was misdiagnosed as having an amoxicillin rash. This has been the absolute worst thing ever!! I am looking forward to the days when I can focus my energy on anything else but getting skin mites out of my body. I am still concerned about the modules in my breasts as my mammogram came back with extremely dense tissue and something else but they didn’t say it was cancer so I didn’t need a follow up. I’m not sure if the ivermectin/permethrin actually kills them and the nodules stay stuck in there or if they’re not killed and keep reproducing? I do know that my breasts have gotten a lot less heavy and painful, but every time after I do a treatment more bumps pop up and quickly go away. The dr from Miami was saying she thought it was morgellons disease 🤨 but I don’t have any weird hairs coming out or my skin so… I’m sticking with my firm belief that it is scabies and it will quickly heal now that we are not being reexposed daily by my husband (he got them from working in the Everglades and staying in an RV with a bunch of dirty men working on towers) Anyways, your thoughts or comments would be helpful. 🙏🏽
i’ve spent the last year and a half researching down every single rabbit hole of info about parasites and parasitic infections. Articles from medical journals from all over the world. I do not advise anyone ever doing this to themselves because after what i’ve learned and what i’ve seen.. :: shivers in horror::
look into getting tested for “demodicosis (in humans) and also flukes/ worms.
i’m in fla and things exist here that are “uncommon” or “uncommon in the united states” because we are surrounded and inundated by such a vast amount of water, all weaving through here from so many different places in conjunction with heat.. it is stupidly ignorant and dar-i-say say malpractice to be told, “that’s not possible, that doesn’t happen here, go see a shrink.”
i’ve been searching for internal medicine or an infectious disease doctor
(that takes my insurance because the out of pocket expense is astronomical)
in the meantime, along with what Jon recommends in this article, which he absolutely correct may i also recommend :
~DIATOMACEOUS EARTH FOOD GRADE
~BENTONITE CLAY FOOD GRADE
~electrolyzed water/hypochlorous acid
(its a liquid used in cleanser for your eyes for bleph and in wound care
but also you can use it to disinfect your home including in your laundry as well as clean your fruit before eating. they have machines you can purchase so you can make it at home
~ParaGuard supplements
~hyaluronic acid
~DRINK HONEY LEMON GINGER CAYENNE TURMERIC CINNAMON. mix it and then drop in a scoop of coconut oil and drink it down warm as soon as you wake up before you drink or eat anything.
hope this helps and your living nightmare will finally be over
I had the same experience for a while, after 3 bottles of permethrin, prescribed by 2 doctors, none of whom explained to me how to use it properly. 2 bottles of Benzyl Benzoate and lots of tea tree oil in between. And constant rubbing in of crotamiton. As a fair skinned older woman, my skin is shot. Because of all the anti histamines the docs (gyne, gp, dermatologists, even the govt vd doctor) gave me and I think the Benzyl thing, my muscles have been twitiching. Now that I stopped all that , no more twitching.
This week, the mites came back to my pubes with a vengeance. No I have not had close contact with my bf since July.
At this moment, I have on a concoction of clove, lavender ,tea tree, neem mixed with coconut oil and aloe vera gel. Not working today, so I can afford to lull around in this oily mixture. As I type, I can feel a bite under my arm. I just finished dabbing a bit of mixture there.
I haven’t finished reading the rest of your writing yet , but I will. It’s difficult for me to review this. All the doctos told me that I don’t have scabies as they can’t see it!!! Also, it’s not common in my city!! One even said: only very dirty people get it!!! It’s so embarrassing. Yesterday , I even asked my surgeon son , and he said: if the doctors say it’s not scabies, perhaps it’s not! I know it is. I can feel them, not many , one or 2, biting, crawling!!!
Somedays, I get dark thoughts.
I will perhaps do that permethrin again on Thursday as I don’t need to go out and then follow Jon’s instructions, exactly.
May we be rid of this nasty parasite!!!
p.s. Hot bath shower heads really alleviates the deep itch. Where there is no bite, the skin burns!!
Did anyone get rid of scabies after going through this plan
Have you actually made your own scabies 5% permethrin cream?
Do you use the Martins permethrin straight? Or do you mix it down to make 10% and then use it 50-50 with the lotion?
The permethrin says it’s a concentrate. Or at least that’s what mine says. Maybe I have the wrong one. So I need more help on the proper way to mix it.
Yes follow the instructions in the article on how to mix it down to 5%
I cannot use inverm or permethrin because of a medical condition, tried a small amount of each..cream only for 10 min and had a seizure…can I or how will I ever get rid of these. I’m not sure if they are scabies or skin/face mites .
Help
I’ve had scabies like almost 20 times in my life. I’ve successfully got rid of them with prescription permethrin creme until recently. But I’m living in a household that refused to admit it’s scabies or do the treatment because they weren’t affected yet. Then bam they started feeling my pain. They had em too. I bought the martins permethrin off amazon. Like $20. The water based. Not the petroleum distillates one. Which I mistakenly bought the first time. Smells like diesel. But I’ve been making my own creme. I also use it raw to spray beds furniture even wipe down the leather interior of my car. Finally beat these little schitts. I feel new again. I was actually suicidal quite a bit because of them.
If you ever are just hang in there. Fight them you’ll win. Take jons advice. This is a very good approach. They can be beat.
Hi Adam. I am so glad you are out of this misery. Are you sure that making your own works. I went to amazon to get the permethrin but i got the petroleum based instead of water. I can’t find martins permethrin . Can you share the link please?
Thank you in advance
Man, I needed to hear that! These things really bring on a dark level of despair. Like when you’ve battled hard,for a long time, and then finally start feeling better, looking better and think that it actually might be over. Then literally that same day or the next, they come back on, like a flood, and that’s the moment that you realize, treatment unsuccessful. Restart nightmare from the beginning, again. Dark very dark moments in the soul. Is there any advice you might have? Aside from the treatment protocol, that perhaps you feel was a real difference maker? Any good morale helps. Thanks
Hi jon, i was planning to go to a dermatologist to get the cream but i think it would be too late by then, can you let me know if i can make the cream at my house with the moisturizer(like you suggested). Will its effectiveness stay the same like the prescription cream, i don’t care about the safety.
Been trying the natural mixture for almost a week. New bumps breaking out. I bought the Martin’s but can’t tell if water or oil based? Getting desperate 😟.
New bumps is generally common. Just make sure they look like scabies and are not an allergic reaction to the mixture. Not sure what you mean by the water/oil permethrin?
Hi Jon,
I recently came across your article. Im from India. The dermatologist i went to have me ivermectin lotion (1%) instead of permerthin (5%). I have honestly lost faith. I apply ivermectin lotion all over my body every weekend. But i have been observing new eruptions. It’s been 6months and i haven’t been able to get rid of the little devils. Should I continue using ivermectin? It did work but my disease relapsed.
From what I’ve read IVM pills and perm cream work best in tandem.
What’s the best treatment for your head and face? And is scabies the only mite that causes a raunchy odor?
Can you feel the scabies mite when you scratch and rub it between your fingers? I have tiny white dots almost like a white powder all over my body along with a periodic black speck & crawling, biting and itching sensations and a smell that can make you gag even right or if the shower, could this be scabies? The dermatologist refuse to look under a microscope, I’ve been dealing with this for years & I just can’t stand it anymore.