You’ve probably heard about sulfur treatments for scabies. There are many ways – soaps, baths, creams, but the question we should really be asking ourselves first is; does it work?
It seems so.
One study in 2012 showed that applying sulfur ointment for 3 consecutive days led to a 91%-97% cure rate in scabies patients, the variance coming from whether the cream was applied during the day or the night. Impressive.
What makes this even more promising is that sulfur is actually very good for your skin. As long as you take precautions that it doesn’t dry your skin out too much, this can be a great double-hit method to give your skin some nourishment and knock your scabies at the same.
Below are 3 ideas to treating your scabies with sulfur:
1. Wash with a sulfur soap
Sulfur soap for scabies isn’t widely used but it is available. Instead of using your regular commercial soap, make the switch to a sulfur based soap to use in the shower each night. Using sulfur soap for scabies is an easy, affordable way to add a bit of sulfur to your treatment plan.
2. Take a sulfur bath
This is one of my favorite ways to apply sulfur as it makes it easy to combine with a bunch of other treatments. Fill up a warm bath to cover your legs and torso, and add a few scoops of sulfur powder. The smell isn’t all that pleasant (smells like eggs), but it’s bearable. You can also add in a few scabies-killing oils, such as tea tree oil and clove oil.
Another great way to get a sulfur bath is to use natural sulfur pools. Natural sulfur pools, you ask? Yes! They exist.
Depending on where you live, natural hot pools are often rich in sulfur. Simply call the operator and ask, or if it’s simply there in nature for public use, you may need to do a little research. I luckily have one about 2 hours drive from my home, and I made a visit during my scabies infestation as part of my 3 day house quarantine. If it’s possible, highly recommended.
3. Use a sulfur ointment
Using a sulfur ointment is probably the most popular way to use sulfur to treat scabies. In the study cited earlier, sulfur ointment was used consecutively for 3 days in order to achieve a 91%-97% cure rate. I probably don’t need to tell you that 91% is very good – that’s actually higher than permethrin and ivermectin in a lot of studies.
The sulfur ointment for scabies I would recommend using is this one. To apply it, you should apply it similar to the way you apply permethrin. That means you need to apply it everywhere – that includes under the armpits, under the fingernails, behind the ears, in the bellybutton, between the bum cheeks, soles of the feet and so on. Yes, everywhere.
Good luck!
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cc says
September 8, 2017 at 5:43 pmThis is what worked for me after going batty. for me no symptoms for a month so thought i was clear. After I had increasingly severe symptoms I relented to my husband and took permethrin which made it much worse, severe reaction painful. Mine didn’t look like internet pics at first so hubby and 1 doc didn’t diagnose; pediatrician wouldn’t let us in her office but did diagnosis positive. both docs gave Rx. Tea tree oil worked for my son.
What Worked:
Dyna gro neem oil hot baths, kleen free spraying after baths, tea tree oil or kleen free dabs on itching
1 use linens, towels, clothes and extra 30 minutes in dryer for wet laundry; only 30 minutes for clean laundry/ linens (takes 20 minutes high heat to kill the mite and dryer cools down the last 10 minutes of cycle).mite proof mattress and pillow encasements- Bedical brand
Massive cleaning dusting and vacuuming of course, storing lots of extra things especially fabrics, dehumidifier especially in the storage room,
After treating for a couple of weeks and extremely dry skin (humidity keeps them alive so didn’t want any lotion) started using grape seed oil with tea tree oil after bath and continued with kleen free spot spraying through day. This and the guided imagery was such a relief.
** Listened to guided imagery- was critical for resilience and physical healing- i fell asleep to it- free at kp.org/listen podcasts for immune system, stress, pain, sleep.
Steam cleaning (a real hot steam cleaner, not just hot water), carpets and upholstered furniture, dunked the cat in a Kleen free bath (which she took in stride, pets can carry them like a rug even though the mites don’t bite them) and DE powder (with masks because of superfine powder can aggravate breathing even though it’s non toxic) on carpets and places we couldn’t steam clean right before leaving for vacation for a week (I believe i was scabies free by then and just suffering from side effects of Rx, super hot drying baths, etc, but brought new mattress encasement and my own bedding, furniture covers and cleaned with kleen free)
also used sulfur and mineral soap and shampoo on myself and son, but not sure how they figured into cure
I’m very fortunate to have been able to afford all these things, and lucky our vacation timed with needing to get out of the house. If you can’t do all of these I’d say to: use clothes and linens once only before cleaning or drying, 30 minutes drying already dry linens and clothes, storage of extra things, dusting and vacuuming your butt off, kleen free and dehumidifyer, and the Free guided imagery. Tea tree oil hot baths (Radha is good quality and value on amazon) and sulfur soap worked for my son but not me. I also drank Lots of water and more veggies, vitamin C, zinc, tumeric tabs, icelandic kelp
Sending Love and wishing you and yours health and comfort!
Jon says
September 8, 2017 at 6:05 pmYou are right, it can become costly. I was also lucky that I could afford to try everything.
Carrie says
April 27, 2019 at 3:14 amThe link to the Sulfur powder that you put into the bath water is no longer leading to a valid web page. What kind of Sulfur powder are you using? Is it just regular Sulfur powder or the crystallized salt kind? Please let me know or provide with an example. Thank you.
Jon says
May 7, 2019 at 3:09 pmI think either work fine. I was just using a basic powder, which means you can mix it with lotion too. At the end of the day it’s just sulfur! Nothing fancy about it 🙂