So you’ve successfully treated your scabies, but one thing many people (including doctors) tend to forget about is taking precautions to prevent another infestation.
The truth is, scabies can live on non-human surfaces, and it’s imperative that you take the necessary precautions to eliminate scabies from both your body and your environment.
Here are six simple scabies home treatments that will ensure you deal with scabies once and once only!!
1. Wash all hard surfaces with bleach or permethrin spray
The CDC claims scabies cannot live off human skin for more than 72 hours. However, 72 hours is actually quite a long time, and this is actually not so simple.
Scabies can actually survive for far longer that 72 hours, especially in cold and damp environments.
If you have scabies living on your chairs, floors, kitchenware and doorknobs for 3 days, there’s a small chance you’ll get another infestation after your initial treatment.
Therefore I would recommend only using certain areas of the house (and staying well clear of the others).
The areas that you do use, which will likely be the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom, should be cleaned daily. Spray any used surfaces, such as chairs, floors and table tops with bleach or permethrin spray.
To make a permethrin spray, simply use a product like this and dilute it into a cleaning wipe. To make a bleach spray, simply use household bleach and dilute it with 2-3 parts water.
During my scabies episode I carried a bleach spray bottle with me around the house and wherever I walked I would spray bleach behind me and wipe it with a towel. Same with tables and chairs (most things in my house are hard surface). It may seem tedious but better safe than sorry!
2. Wash all your clothes and bedding in hot water and dry on high heat
Scabies do not live at temperatures above 50°C (122°F) for more than 10 minutes. Therefore it’s important to wash all clothing and bedding at the highest heat your washing machine allows, and your dryer too.
It’s also helpful to quarantine your clothes. Every time you use a piece of clothing or bedding, stuff it in a large garbage bag and let it quarantine for 72 hours (or more).
Bonus points if you are able to leave this bag out in the sun. Once your scabies treatment is over you can wash all your clothes and bedding at once. Any scabies on them should be dead anyway (in theory).
3. Ensure everyone in your household gets treated, as well as any sexual partners
You must treat everyone in your household. Even if they do not show symptoms, it’s imperative that they are all treated with either permethrin or my suggested natural treatment, ideally both. Scabies symptoms can take up to a month to show for first-timers, so being clear of symptoms is not an accurate indication that they do not have scabies.
4. Quarantine your house and car for 3 days
This may not be possible for many people, but if it is, try and leave your place of living for 72 hours. Even better if you can leave the heat on.
This means any scabies that are loitering will die with lack of a human host.
If this isn’t possible, try quarantining as many parts of your house as possible, as suggested earlier.
Obviously if you’re staying at a motel or hotel, make sure you have treated yourself first! You do not want to be spreading scabies to others.
5. Clean your car
If you cannot quarantine your car for 3 days, you need to clean it. I’d recommend using bleach spray or permethrin spray. I know this is a total pain in the A, but you need to do it! Otherwise you risk getting scabies again down the line, and you’ll be doing it anyway. Better to get it right the first time.
Suffering from scabies? Check out my ultimate treatment plan – a combination of prescription and natural store bought treatments that knocked my scabies infestation in just a couple of weeks. Worked great for me and I hope it will for you as well. Good luck!
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