The Scabies Cure Treatment Guide
You Now Have Hope
Whether you have just been diagnosed with scabies or now suspect you have it, or you have been suffering for many months – or years – from this skin affliction, I want you to finally have hope that you will get rid of these devil creatures once and for all. I suffered for nine long months and tried virtually everything you could possibly try and so because of that, I know what doesn’t work, what may work, and what probably will work. In my experience, you can’t use just one treatment for scabies, or several scabies treatments, but rather, you really need to employ a multitude of scabies treatments in order to cure scabies. But before we begin with my scabies cure protocols based on my personal experience, what is scabies?
What Is Scabies?
Scabies are microscopic mites that burrow into your skin, lay eggs, those eggs hatch and ultimately crawl out onto the skin, mate, and then the cycle continues. They will proliferate unless they are stopped, and stopping scabies is extremely difficult. You won’t be able to see them with your eye unless you have razor sharp vision or a microscope, but, you may be able to feel the scabies crawl on your skin (I could). More importantly, what you absolutely can feel is very, very INTENSE ITCHING, usually at night while in bed, as they crawl around ***inside your skin*** – which is the hallmark of a scabies infestation. Scabies go active in warmth, which is why the itching intensifies in bed.
FROM THE CDC: Sarcoptes scabiei undergoes four stages in its life cycle: egg, larva, nymph and adult. Females deposit 2-3 eggs per day as they burrow under the skin. Eggs are oval and hatch in 3 to 4 days. After the eggs hatch, the larvae migrate to the skin surface and burrow into the intact stratum corneum to construct almost invisible, short burrows called molting pouches. The larval stage lasts about 3 to 4 days. After the larvae molt, the resulting nymphs have 4 pairs of legs. This form molts into slightly larger nymphs before molting into adults. Larvae and nymphs may often be found in molting pouches or in hair follicles and look similar to adults, only smaller. Adults are round, sac-like eyeless mites. Females are 0.30 to 0.45 mm long and 0.25 to 0.35 mm wide, and males are slightly more than half that size.
Mating occurs after the active male penetrates the molting pouch of the adult female. Mating takes place only once and leaves the female fertile for the rest of her life. Impregnated females leave their molting pouches and wander on the surface of the skin until they find a suitable site for a permanent burrow. While on the skin’s surface, mites hold onto the skin using sucker-like pulvilli attached to the two most anterior pairs of legs. When the impregnated female mite finds a suitable location, it begins to make its characteristic serpentine burrow, laying eggs in the process. After the impregnated female burrows into the skin, she remains there and continues to lengthen her burrow and lay eggs for the rest of her life (1-2 months). Yuk!!!
Visually, a scabies infestation can look like eczema, and indeed, it is often misdiagnosed as such. Scabies like to hide and go where crevices are, like on the back of hands around fingers, around the waist, under breasts, in the groin area for guys, and in between toes, to name a few. But, in reality, they go anywhere and everywhere. So, if you were diagnosed with eczema but you have INTENSE itching while in bed, you can be rest assured you probably have scabies. It’s the intense itching that is the scabies giveaway and it is what finally led me to figuring out I had scabies.
Scabies is usually transmitted by close skin-to-skin contact or through an infested surface, like clothing, a car seat or a sofa. Although transmission can happen at any point, they do not move quickly so it is estimated that it takes about 20 minutes of contact for a transmission. They can usually live for up to 3 days on a non-living surface and up to 60 days on/in a host.
Killing scabies mites on the skin is difficult, but killing them inside the skin is nearly impossible. This is why they are so difficult to destroy – using something that could kill them inside the skin also jeopardizes the skin itself and THAT is often the cause of chemical burns that will literally destroy the skin. What happens next is both a scabies skin affliction AND a chemical burn affliction, causing untold misery and despair as one tries to kill the scabies without killing one’s skin or body.
And I chemical burned my skin – A LOT. I suffered terribly.
My Scabies Story
Around August of 2017 I finally figured out that the intense itching I had at night was scabies. It took weeks and weeks for me to figure this out. Interestingly, I have since learned that dermatologists often misdiagnose scabies as eczema or some other skin condition, so although I probably should have gone to see one once the itching started, at the same time I didn’t even know that it was something to go see a dermatologist for because, for all I knew, it could have been some internal histamine reaction or liver issue (both came up in my searches for intense itching at night), and I may have been misdiagnosed anyway. What gave it away though as I was trying to figure it out was the intense itching at night. But once I started reading up on scabies and reviewing all of the symptoms, I knew I had scabies.
As someone who is into natural health and healing, I immediately started searching for natural solutions and came across a video by a gal who said she used tea tree oil and coconut oil. I started with that. And THAT was a huge mistake because after several days the tea tree oil burned my skin. Badly. And all of the sudden I had not only issues with the scabies and their marks and blisters but now I had chemical burns.
Within four days I was over the natural stuff and sleeping in oil every night and so I asked a doctor friend to prescribe PERMETHRIN, the go-to insecticide cream used to treat scabies. I used as directed: apply over entire body, go to bed, wake up, and wash off. It didn’t work. I did it again seven days later as per the directions (while using some other natural treatments during those seven days) and again, that didn’t stop them either.
By now I was on the Internet every single night reading website after website and doing every imaginable key word search possible trying to find a solution that would work. I read on numerous forums literally hundreds of personal stories of people talking about what they were doing so that I could see if I could find something – anything – that I could try that would wipe the scabies off of my body without killing my skin. I had some successes in some parts of my body just to have them show up in other parts.
I could feel them crawling on me in bed. They woke me up by crawling on me while I was in bed. I signed up for Amazon Prime because I was literally buying anything and everything that looked promising. Before all was said and done I paid out over $7,000 for various treatment options to get rid of the scabies and I was finally clear of the scabies by April 2018.
My doctor friend not only prescribed more Permethrin, but later, also Ivermectin – an oral medicine that I took at recommended dose and later increased substantially – to no avail – as well as Malathion, another kind of topical prescription insecticide that I was hoping would kill them. I went through a LOT of Permethrin and Ivermectin.
I also bought and tried a huge number of natural products, like:
- Sulfur cream
- Sulfur soap
- Sulfur shampoo
- Neem oil
- Cayenne pepper
- Tea tree oil
- Clove oil
- Crysthanamum flowers and tea
- Pennyroyal oil
- Rock salt for baths
- Diotomaceous Earth
- Coconut oil
- Olive oil
- Castor oil
- Witch hazel
- Green Kleen
- Black salve
- Rosemary oil
- Naturasil Scabies kit
- Salicylic Acid Skin Peel 30%
- Hair removal gel
- Grapeseed oil
- Turpentine
- And, so, so many other items.
I spent a fortune trying to get rid of these scabies, all the while my skin was getting worse and worse in several areas because of the scabies and the treatments I was using, and of course, then depression sat in as each new promise didn’t work. At one point in time they were just eating up my back and I couldn’t get them off my back. The scabies were destroying my back and I just was sinking into deeper and deeper depression and helplessness.
This is a good time to mention that scabies will get onto surfaces, in our clothes, in our sheets, on the floor, etc., so, I also was vacuuming every single day, doing laundry in hot water and drying on high heat every single day, and the cleaning portion took up a good 20% – 30% of my day every single day. I was also taking baths many days, and of course that eats up time, as does applying stuff to the skin every day. It was a nightmare with no end in sight. But I kept digging, I kept reading, and I kept scouring the web to see what I may have missed, and then I finally found several solutions at around the same time that began to work.
It took a couple of months to acquire several of the best solutions to treat my scabies but once I had them all in place it took about ten weeks to completely eradicate the scabies from my body. So, even though what I am about to share is what I believe to be your best options, I also believe this is not going to be an overnight scabies cure for you. But your persistence will win and I believe I am sharing with you a scabies treatment plan that will lead to a scabies cure.
THE SCABIES CURE
How To Cure Your Scabies
Before I begin I want to tell you that 1) what I am about to suggest is based on my real life experience, and 2) I believe that we need to go after scabies with multiple approaches at once. And we need to do this in the least toxic way to our skin. Scabies can live for 30 to 60 days in the skin – so, you really need to plan on a 60 day bare minimum treatment plan. I did not have all of these solutions at the same time so it took me four months to clear my skin of scabies once I was doing all of the major scabies treatment protocols outlined here. So, don’t stop if you no longer see lesions – keep going for a minimum of 15 days, but preferably 30 days. You want them gone forever! Remember, you are not killing the scabies all at once – you’re are killing the scabies a few at a time each day and hopefully stopping the reproduction cycle as well – with this in mind, you can expect a two month process.
1) Visit A Dermatologist
A Dermatologist is a doctor who specializes in skin conditions, and even though I read plenty of stories of misdiagnoses or incompetence when I was reading about other sufferer experiences, I still think it is wise to go see a specialist. If you have severe itching at night be sure you mention that to the doctor so the doctor is clued into scabies and not thinking it is eczema or some other skin condition. If the Dermatologist diagnoses scabies or a mite infestation there is high likelihood you will be prescribed Permethrin, which is a topical insecticide. You will want this. Ask for at least one refill, but preferably, see if you can get a couple more. Ivermectin, the oral treatment, is rarely prescribed on a first visit. Neither is Malathion. But, if you can get Malathion I suggest doing so. You can try Ivermectin, but it failed miserably for me.
Typical Permethrin treatment is the use of ½ tube of the cream over the entire body – literally everywhere – prior to going to bed. The next morning it is washed off. Then it is supposed to be used again in seven days in the same way. Unfortunately, this strategy does not work for a lot of people, especially if there is a big infestation. It’s just not nearly enough treatment to kill the mites and the eggs, and now mites are becoming resistant to this insecticide anyway.
I personally used a lot of Permethrin and used it frequently because I could get more than what a typical Dermatologist would prescribe. If you are concerned about putting an insecticide on your body, I understand because I was too. But, trust me, you want those scabies off of you and out of you more than any side effects that may occur from using Permethrin. So, what I learned is this: yes, we should use it if we can get access to Permethrin, but, we need to do a LOT of other things as well. I discuss how to use Permethrin and Malathion a little further down.
2) Take Bleach & Borax Baths
Bleach has chlorine in it, and chlorine has been used to kill microorganisms in water for a very long time. Unlike essential oils that are suggested in many forums for bath water, bleach disperses throughout the entire bath whereas all essential oils do not – they rise to the top. This is critically important to recognize. You want ALL parts of your body to have contact with that chlorine so that any scabies that have contact will be killed. Essential oils in water don’t work because they float to the top and do not disperse.
Is bleach it safe? Yes, if not overdone. Remember, we drink water with chlorine in it. So, it is about the dose. I remember seeing mention of bleach when I was trying to find a solution but skipped over it a few times until I came across some very convincing info on why to use it. I distinctly remember a mom talking about taking their scabies infested child to the public swimming pool and they noticed less lesions and figured out that the chlorine in the pool was killing the scabies. They then used one CAP (not cup) of bleach in bathwater for their child and were able to cure their child. That’s all I needed to hear to try it.
The other kind of bath to take is a borax bath with hydrogen peroxide. Borax is a natural mineral and nontoxic to humans but toxic to scabies and hydrogen peroxide is known to kill microorganisms. Both of these will dissolve into the bath water and not rise to the top like essential oils will (you do need to stir in the borax).
Taking baths is also soothing to the skin. You want to be able to stay in there for about a half hour so that either the chlorine or the borax can do their job of killing. Taking these baths are your number one way of killing mites and I suggest taking one every day if possible. This should kill any mites on your skin and perhaps just under it, but probably will not kill the deeper ones or the eggs. Nevertheless, scabies mites are dying and that is a good thing.
BATH INSTRUCTIONS
Bleach Bath Instructions
Use unscented concentrated bleach, like a Target brand or something similar (note: using “chlorine-free” bleach would defeat the purpose of a bleach bath). Start with just ½ cup of concentrated bleach in a full bathtub of hot water. Do not enter bathtub until the bathtub has filled. Soak for thirty minutes. Dry normally.
Now, you can try higher amounts of concentrated bleach, like 1 cup or 1.5 cups. I NEVER used more than 1.5 cups of concentrated bleach and I highly recommend you do not either. One time I took a bleach bath at night and the next day took two bleach baths and I burned my skin. So, you need to be very careful not to get overzealous with this treatment like I did. Bleach does work, but too much too quickly will cause problems.
I suggest that you alternate bleach baths with borax baths.
Borax Bath Instructions
Start with two full cups of borax and 24 oz of 3% hydrogen peroxide. Stir into your bath until the borax is dissolved and then soak for ½ hour. Borax is nontoxic. I ultimately was using four full cups of borax and 48 oz of hydrogen peroxide per bath. This is actually a pretty relaxing bath.
Skin Brush Option
I also purchased a skin brush that I used during showers and baths to help dislodge any mites that may be on the skin. Just gently rub the brush on all your skin – especially on affected areas – during every bath and shower. Disinfect brush with BenzaRid after each use.
Overview
So, to recap, alternate between a bleach bath and a borax bath every day. These baths should start to give you relief within a few days. It is, in my opinion, the number one top thing to do to kill scabies.
Purchase Products
- Concentrated Bleach (3 pack)
- Borax (4 pack)
- 3% Hydrogen Peroxide (6 pack)
- BenzaRid Disinfectant
- Skin Brush
2a) Try A Chlorine Dioxide Bath
Chlorine dioxide – sometimes also called MMS – is a very safe water treatment chemical that is used worldwide to disinfect drinking water, and there is very high probability it will kill scabies on the skin if used at enough dose when taking a bath. Interestingly, chlorine dioxide is often referred to as “bleach,” even though it is not bleach. Had I known about it while I was suffering from scabies I would have tried it. Essentially, chlorine dioxide neutralizes and destroys pathogens by oxidation. The main difference between using bleach and using chlorine dioxide will be price: chlorine dioxide will be much more expensive to use, but it also is much safer than bleach. If you have a child suffering from scabies I recommend starting with chlorine dioxide.
Chlorine dioxide works by oxidation – meaning, the chlorine dioxide releases oxygen molecules when it is “working” – or, killing pathogens. In order for chlorine dioxide to be as powerful as possible, products are shipped in two bottles and mixed together to create the chlorine dioxide, which is then added to the water to be treated.
Chlorine Dioxide Bath Directions
1 – CLICK HERE to purchase the chlorine dioxide kit.
2 – Ensure that your bathtub is absolutely 100% clean with no residual soap or anything else on or in the tub. Fill with hot bath water and nothing else.
3 – For an adult, mix 30 drops of the sodium chlorite with 30 drops of the activator and swish mix for a moment and let stand for three minutes. I suggest 1/2 that for a child, but please do some more research first.
4 – Add mixture to bath water and get into the bath and stay for 30 minutes or longer.
More info on chlorine dioxide: www.chemicalsafetyfacts.org/chlorine-dioxide/
2b) Take Soothing Baths
If your skin is particularly sensitive and you are in a lot of pain, try taking a bath with organic olive oil and/or neem oil. The olive oil will be soothing to the skin and will help you feel better, though it probably is not going stop the scabies. Neem oil may be soothing as well, and it also may help stop the reproductive cycle of the scabies. With either oil, use one cup of oil in the bath. I discuss neem oil further down.
3) Use Sauna Heat
For months and months I put all kinds of chemicals on my skin – natural, synthetic and often caustic – as a way to try and kill the scabies infestation. The result? Some success, but at a high cost: chemical burned skin that caused a lot of pain and suffering. So, not only did I now have scabies lesions, I also had terrible chemical burns throughout my body, which then made it even more difficult to try other products or even the same ones on my very sensitive and damaged skin to try and kill the scabies.
As I kept searching for solutions to this vexing problem of how to kill the mites WITHOUT destroying my skin, I came across several people who had successfully used heat to kill their infestation. Heat kills scabies: according to the CDC, scabies will die when exposed to 122˚F for 10 minutes. My first thought was to use a hair dryer since others have said that is what they did. Well, when you are blowing very hot air on really sensitive skin at such close proximity and high heat, it is very easy to burn the skin. I quickly abandoned this idea and I do NOT recommend using a hair dryer!
Several scabies sufferers mentioned using far-infrared saunas and others mentioned using regular saunas and being able to get rid of their scabies mites with this kind of heat. So the question is this: can we raise our skin temperature to at least 122˚F for ten minute or longer, and the answer is “probably yes.” Humans have been doing the sauna thing for a long time now and the average temperature for a dry sauna is 140˚ to 160˚ and staying in one for 15 to 20 minutes is not uncommon. So, if we can stay in a hot sauna for as long as possible will mites be killed? I believe so. Maybe not all will die, but I believe some will die – and that works for me.
What’s the other extremely important advantage to using heat to kill scabies? We do not destroy our skin in the process! Hallelujah! That makes heat an absolute must-do treatment for scabies because if done correctly you will reduce your mite infestation each time without destroying your skin in the process.
At first I went to a place that rents a Far Infrared sauna and I used their sauna for nine days straight. This was before I learned about bleach baths. And I did notice it helped. So I BOUGHT ONE! Yep, by this time I had had the scabies for five months already and wanted to do everything I could to get rid of them. So I started doing at-home far infrared treatments every day on maximum settings, which was about 145˚F for about 40 minutes. My back cleared – which was inches from the heating panels – but I was still having issues on my arms and the front of my body, where the heat was not as intense.
So, I decided to go to a Korean Spa where they have multiple temperature saunas and one of them ran at 180˚F and I would sit in there for 30 to 35 minutes and use their other saunas and a hot tub as well. I went to the spa three times a week for a couple of months. I want to point out that I went to a steam room prior to using the saunas but a steam room does not work the same and I did not have success using a steam room.
Some gyms have dry saunas so that is one option for getting into a hot sauna at a fairly inexpensive price ($50/month or so). In some large cities there are spa centers that have multiple saunas (e.g., a Korean Spa). And many cities now have boutique businesses with far infrared saunas. And of course, you could buy a far infrared sauna like I did. I still use mine to this day as there are more benefits to owning one and that includes improved circulation and detoxification, among other reasons.
Sauna Instructions
So, I believe that heat, in the form of a dry sauna, is essential to destroying scabies. I recommend that you take cold water or ice water into the sauna with you to drink so you can stay in there literally as long as possible. Take lots of towels so you can wipe off the perspiration and ditch the towels that may have scabies on them. Some scabies may come out because of the heat (I have no idea) so I did not take chances even with the towels that I wiped myself with. Try to stay in the Far Infrared for at least 40 minutes at 140˚F. Or for 30 minutes in a regular dry sauna at 160˚F or higher. Drink lots of cold water while you are doing this. Purchase a far infrared sauna and do a sauna every day; or alternate between far infrared and a regular sauna. Of note: the back brace for an infrared sauna is good to have because it actually reduces the heat to the back so you can stay in a little longer, plus, it does make it more comfortable.
Purchase A Far Infrared Sauna
I own this 2-person Far Infrared Sauna and so far, it has worked flawlessly.
This 1-person Far Infrared Sauna looks like a great one as well.
The Far Infrared Sauna Backrest is highly recommended.
4) Use Full Body Topicals
You will want to put some sort of a killing agent on much of your body every day, and every night. The idea here is that it is covering a wide swath so that when the scabies mites crawl out, they have to deal with whatever you put onto your body.
I’ll give you my theory on what you are trying to do: you want to use a variety of topicals that can disrupt and kill the mites whereby perhaps one chemical may not do it, but a combo will. Maybe one weakens them and maybe the other finishes them off. Since so many people have struggled to kill these mites using all sorts of remedies, I want to give you this theory so you can think about this differently: It’s not about one thing – it’s about a lot of things.
Let’s start with the obvious: prescription Permethrin cream.
Permethrin Cream
Permethrin cream is the prescription insecticide you get from the dermatologist. Hopefully you can get two or three tubes of it. I used over twenty tubes. It is not the cure-all as claimed. But, I do believe it helps. Keep in mind mites could easily be resistant to this cream now, so, it may kill a few, may slow down a few, or may not do anything.
For the first and second application, use as directed: cover the entire body, go to bed, and wash off in the morning. When I say entire body, I mean everywhere, including around the face, neck, private areas, toes, everywhere. Wait seven days and do it again (doing all the other treatments as outlined in this treatment guide).
After the two applications I recommend applying it only to the affected areas with a wide border. So, if lesions are on your stomach and chest but not on your legs, don’t put it on your legs – just the stomach and chest and up to the neck and down to the groin – and do this at night before bed. This lowers your toxic exposure and saves the cream for the areas that need it. My theory here is that when the mites exit the skin they will be adversely affected, even if they are not killed. Do this as often as possible and see if you can get more Permethrin if you run out.
Purchase A Back Applicator and Gloves
The scabies migrated to my back after a couple/few months and ate me alive. I was in terrible pain. I had no one to apply creams to my back. I finally reached out to a friend who helped me, but then I got wise and bought an applicator. So, just get one right away and also get gloves in case you have a friend help you.
I used This Back Applicator and it worked great.
And These Medical Gloves are perfect for protecting yourself and others.
Sulfur Kills Mites
Sulfur has been used successfully to kill and eradicate scabies in clinical trials and you absolutely should be using sulfur cream in your treatment plan. I was not able to use sulfur in the beginning because my skin had been burned so badly by tea tree oil and other chemicals that sulfur burned me. Later, however, after healing, I was able to. Sulfur can be an irritant, for sure. So be careful.
In addition to sulfur cream you can also use sulfur soap when bathing and showering, and I recommend using both.
So, you will want to use sulfur cream based on your tolerance level and infestation. I don’t think you need to put it over your entire body, but, if you can tolerate it I would put it on affected areas in wide swaths around those affected areas during the daytime, and perhaps alternate with other remedies as well.
I used This Sulfur Cream and Soap combo.
Neem Oil Kills Scabies
In a study out of India of 814 people treated with neem oil and turmeric, 97% were cured of scabies. Neem oil adversely affects their hormones and ability to reproduce. Neem oil is a thick oil, and it stinks. It’s used to stop unwanted pests on plants and is sold in plant stores as well. It took a while for me to get to neem oil, and when I did, I mixed it with other stuff. I also added it to baths. Later, I put it on straight, and that lasted for a few days, but then I had an allergic reaction to it and could no longer use it. So, I know it can kill scabies by interrupting the reproductive cycle based on studies, but I also know it stinks, it is very oily and thick on the skin, and may not be for everyone. Still, I want you to know about it because it could be a viable treatment option that would be put on much of your body. And perhaps you’d only use it every other day, for example, and use sulfur the other days. That would be a good treatment plan. Especially if you are out of Permethrin.
You can buy neem oil here.
You can try making a turmeric/neem paste – buy turmeric here.
Kleen Green
I found Kleen Green fairly early on and purchased it based on a lot of positive reviews for eliminating scabies. It’s a citric enzyme liquid that is supposed to cause the scabies to molt early, thereby killing them. So, it’s not a poison exactly, but if scabies lose their shell early, they die. So the story goes.
The recommended dilution is 7 parts water to 1 part Kleen Green. I did that, and then 5:1, and then 3:1, and then quit after a couple of months. Later I mixed neem oil and Kleen Green and colloidal silver and put that on my body. That did not work. I did that for weeks and weeks. Soooo…..
I think it is worth trying this product because it goes onto the body fairly easily, is not slimy like neem oil, does not stink and it has positive reviews for killing scabies. However, I think you are best off with using it full strength on your body, which is what I did near the end of my scabies bout. So, I was doing heat, bleach baths, borax baths and Kleen Green full strength every day, and not doing any neem oil because by that time I was having an allergic reaction to the neem oil. If I had to do this all over again, I would use Kleen Green full strength.
Learn more about Kleen Green.
CeraVe Moisturizing Cream Soothes Skin
Many, many months into my scabies infestation I sent photos to an online Dermatologist and he prescribed CeraVe Moisturizing Cream and Fluocinonide Cream 5%, which is a topical steroid. The CeraVe cream you can get at Amazon and doesn’t cost much, but the steroid cream is expensive. I got both.
CeraVe cream is soothing to the skin and has a huge number of positive reviews on Amazon stating that the cream has healed a variety of rashes. What’s interesting about this cream is that it is thick and dense, and I believe it may inhibit the ability of scabies to move around easily on the skin. Plus, it has some healing properties to it, so I think it is a great cream to apply wherever you have scabies lesions.
The Fluocinonide is by prescription only, but if you can get it, I think it is worth using. I went through 5 tubes of it at $70/tube. The Dermatologist said to put the CeraVe cream on first, then the Fluocinonide on top of that. Later, I used one or the other, in just small problem areas, but in the beginning, I was putting both on both arms, on my chest and stomach and on my back.
At the very least these two creams, or at least just the CeraVe, will help heal the damaged skin and that’s really important. Use it liberally wherever you have lesions.
Buy CeraVe Moisturizing Cream on Amazon.
Naturasil Scabies Starter Pack
There are a couple or few companies that have created an entire line of products designed to get rid of scabies. Naturasil is one such company and I did purchase their starter pack. As much as I wanted this to help me I had a major problem which is that an active ingredient is tea tree oil, and my skin had a bad reaction to tea tree oil early on, and then also when I applied their cream to my skin. Also, for their cream, I did not like the texture of the sulfur in the cream: it was bumpy and not creamy and therefore uncomfortable on my skin. Their starter kit also includes sulfur soap and a bath solution. I gave one of the bottles of cream to a friend who was also suffering from scabies and she too did not like the texture and also her skin had a reaction. So, this product would not be my first choice for you. Nevertheless, I want you to know about in case you want to try a turnkey system.
Click here to view the Naturasil scabies starter pack.
5) Use Spot Topicals
A spot topical is something you put right onto an area where you believe the scabies mites are, and in particular, where they are under the skin. What is the most difficult part of having scabies? Killing them inside the skin. Now, I will profess that I have no absolute scientific validation that what I am going to suggest actually works, just that I did it a lot and ultimately, combined with my other treatments, I do not have scabies anymore. My theory here is that we are hoping that a product can soak into the skin a little and kill a few mites without destroying the skin.
Turpentine Pine Oil
Something interesting I discovered was that it appears that pine oil will kill scabies. Turpentine oil is pine oil, and I used a cotton tip to apply it frequently to the various lesions on my body. For the most part, turpentine oil did not sting when I applied it, unless there was a lot of chemical burn from other treatments. I think I should mention right now that I tried a LOT of products on my skin and I am only giving you those that I believe will help you and not cause much or any discomfort.
Using turpentine oil is very straight forward – just use a cotton swab, dip in the turpentine and apply to the lesions, once or twice daily.
I used Georgia Pine Gum Spirits of Turpentine. It may interest you that people also take this brand internally.
Malathion Lotion 0.5% (prescription only)
I asked my doctor to prescribe this after Permethrin and Ivermectin (pills) were not working when I read a review by a doctor who said it was the missing link to getting rid of his scabies. I applied it liberally on my badly affected arm each day and by day 3 I had severe chemical burns from the Malathion. Ouch! So, later, I switched to using a cotton tip to apply only to affected areas, on occasion. I alternated between Turpentine, Malathion and other products. The idea here is maybe the combo of chemicals will cause enough of the scabies to die.
Malathion lotion not only has malathion – an insecticide – in it, it also has pine oil. Fancy that. So, if you have tried my other remedies for a couple months and still are not have a reduction, see if you can get a prescription for Malathion. Just remember to use a cotton swab to apply to affected areas and do not spread this all over your body – it will burn you!
Pure Remedy Extra Drawing Black Salve
This is an all natural remedy used to treat skin conditions and it just so happens that it has pine oil in it and it has herbs and ingredients in it that help penetrate the skin. At one point my skin was so sensitive and so raw from chemical burns I could not use this remedy, but later after my skin healed some I could. If your skin is not sensitive to this I would spread it over a fairy wide area around the lesions, alternating between this and the sulfur cream. I think this salve is worth using.
Buy Pure Remedy Extra Drawing Black Salve right here.
DMSO
DMSO is a solvent that penetrates the skin. DMSO can carry other topicals through the skin, and that means probably to the scabies and their eggs inside the skin. Unfortunately, not only is this not advised by the FDA, it can also badly burn. Nevertheless, I mixed 7 parts Turpentine to 1 part DMSO, shook well, and applied to lesions using a cotton swab. DMSO will hurt. And you should never use it straight on your skin. In fact, I will go so far as to say that if you want to try this, start at a 20:1 ratio of Turpentine to DMSO and make sure you shake thoroughly before applying since these two oils will separate. And don’t do it every day. Let me just be clear: if you try this, use EXTREME CAUTION.This combo did help clear my back of scabies.
This is the DMSO I used.
Margarite Zinc Cream
I used this cream for two purposes: 1) it’s a thick cream with skin tone coloring so I used it to cover my damaged skin to hide the scabies mite and chemical burn lesions when I went out in public, and 2) it has ingredients in it that helps to heal skin. I used this cream a lot. Buy it here.
Thayers Witch Hazel
Witch hazel is an astringent, which means it tones skin. Some people had reported it helped to clear their scabies. I am not so sure about that, but, I did use it and since it helps the skin and it is all-natural, I recommend applying it to your skin.
6) Try Lithium Orotate
After months and months of suffering I discovered a Facebook support group – www.facebook.com/groups/skinmitesupportgroup – and a guy posted about a lithium study: “I had sent an article to 2 members on another forum discussing the vaccine used to treat honey Bees against the Varroa Destructor Mite. The Scientists discovered that part of the vaccine, Lithium Chloride, had a 98% mortality rate against the mite in miniscule quantities at the 24 hour mark.” Study Link
So he tried lithium chloride (a scientific kind of lithium) and cured himself in THRE DAYS he said. So, I was all over this and read everything in the group I could. Some tried the lithium chloride, which is actually not designed for human consumption, while others tried the inexpensive supplement Lithium Orotate.
Lithium, in small quantities and as Lithium OROTATE actually reverses depression and anxiety and gives a perky feeling – it is NOT a downer like many perceive it to be. Lithium CARBONATE is what doctors prescribe to those suffering from bipolar disorder and other mental disorders and because it is difficult to absorb, high dosing is used which means a need for constant doctor monitoring. There is a significant difference between the two and it is important to note that Lithium OROTATE is relatively safe to take, every day.
I read what Dr. Timothy M. Marshall, PhD had to say about Lithium Orotate as well as what Dr. Jonathan Wright, MD had to say about Lithium Orotate, and both conclude it is safe, helpful and can stop addiction, improve mood and sleep, and reverse anxiety and depression, among other things. Dr. Wright has been prescribing it to his patients since the early 1970s without issue. I highly recommend reading both of their papers on Lithium Orotate. That said, Lithium Orotate can deplete essential fatty acids and therefore Dr. Wright suggests taking a vitamin E Oil and flax oil every day.
Now, here is the amazing part about Lithium Orotate: Within 24 hours of taking it I felt incredible. Not kidding! As a natural health kind of a guy I have taken dozens of supplements for mood enhancement and I can share that without question I had an immediate improved mood within just one day of taking Lithium Orotate. I was amazed! I suggested to others that they try it, and they did, and all sorts of positive feedback happened – people loved it: less anxiety and depression, calmer mood, better sleep, and so much more. In fact, I still take it every day to this day because of how powerful it is. I believe it improves neurological connectivity at an electrical level.
So, what about the scabies mites you ask? I cannot say for sure because this is also when I started doing the bleach baths, but this was the timeframe that everything changed for me where the mites started to disappear. I can tell you that Ivermectin, the oral prescription medicine that I used and tried copious amounts of, absolutely never worked. I also tried many other supplements for killing mites from the inside and none of those worked. The only supplement I recommend taking for killing mites from the inside is Lithium Orotate, and primarily because of that study, and because there is high probability you will feel better if you take it.
I know I was depressed during this time of my life when nothing seemed to get rid of the scabies mites and I was trying everything under the sun to cure my scabies while I had painful lesions on my body. So, I think it is worth a try because of that bee study and because I think you will feel better. Literally. My only caveat about this is you really do need to take the oils that Dr. Wright suggests if you are going to try the Lithium Orotate.
Try up to 15mg per day of the Lithium Orotate.
BUY >>>
Lithium Orotate 5mg – start at 5mg/day
Vitamin E Oil – one cap per day
Flax Oil – one cap per day
At the very least you will feel better!!!
7) Build Your Immune System
A strong and healthy immune system will help repel a scabies infestation, whereas a weak and poorly functioning immune system will allow a wider and more damaging infestation, which could lead to norwegian crusted scabies: where there are hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of scabies on a person. So, what you want to also do is build your immune system and do everything you can to get it up to optimum function during this time. This will help you stop the infestation.
Get Vitamin C IVs
The most powerful and fastest way to supercharge your immune function is with 25 gram Vitamin C IVs, administered by a functional medical doctor or naturopathic doctor. I think I got six or seven of these while I had my scabies infestation. Vitamin C IVs are not cheap, unfortunately, but they are very effective at supercharging the immune system. A Vitamin C IV not only has the 25 grams of vitamin C, but also a lot of other very helpful nutrients as well. When put directly into the blood these nutrients are able to get assimilated into cells immediately and get to work. This is miracle medicine and I simply cannot recommend it enough to you. People’s lives have literally been saved with this therapy. To find a doctor near you, do a Google search on “vitamin C IV [you city or state]” and you should see many options. Call around and check pricing.
Take Powerful Supplements
There are a number of immune building supplements you can take that will help your immune system function better. They are:
Vitamin C: https://amzn.to/2S024IE
Vitamin D: https://amzn.to/2Cv6O3o
Vitamin A: https://amzn.to/2PFAj6p
Probiotics: https://amzn.to/2CR60an
Oregano Oil: https://amzn.to/2yp8MzM
Wellness Formula: https://amzn.to/2CThdqS
Take as directed each and every day. There are others but these are the big ones to take.
Eat An Organic Whole Foods Diet
Poor diet contributes to lowered immune function. When you eat a healthy whole foods organic diet not only will you improve your immune function, you will improve your overall health, energy and mood. Here’s what to do:
- Do not eat any foods that have artificial anything in them (colors, preservatives, flavors, additives, etc.)
- Reduce and/or eliminate processed foods. Processed foods include crackers, muffins, pasta, bread, bagels, and just about anything that comes out of a box or bag. Processed foods have virtually no nutrition and do not help your immune system one bit.
- Eliminate sugar and foods with sugar. Sugar robs minerals from the body and sugar destroys immune function. Stop eating it entirely while you have scabies.
- Eat whole, organic foods, like what you find in the produce section of any grocery store. This may mean learning how to cook and prepare food. It is worth the effort! Organic food tastes better and has more nutrition than conventional food. Yes, it costs more, which is a good reason to shop at Whole Foods or a local co-op or health food store.
Switching to a natural lifestyle will help you now, and in the future. Here is a great book on how to adopt a more healthy and natural lifestyle:
The Beginner’s Guide to Natural Living
8) Keep Your Environment Clean
One of the very unfortunate realities of living with scabies is that the scabies mite will fall off or crawl off of its host and can live on a surface for up to three days. That means potential re-infestation OR giving scabies to a friend, roommate or spouse. So in addition to everything you need to do to your body every day, you must also deal with your surrounding environment, clothes, bedding, computer station, etc. Since we cannot see these little devil scabies, we must assume that they are everywhere we are, every day. Which just makes everything even more complicated, but here’s what you must do every day:
Change Bedding Every Day
Now, that may mean washing the same bedding every day, which is what I did. Wash in hot water and dry on the hottest heat for 60 minutes to ensure that the scabies are killed. Water will not kill them, but heat will. If you do not wash the same bedding every day, then put the used bedding into a plastic trash bag to ensure they do not crawl around. You may want to use medical gloves when you do laundry. Reducing your exposure to toxic chemicals is also a good idea and I highly recommend and personally use nontoxic BioKleen Laundry Detergent.
Vacuum Every Day
We can’t see them, right? So, how do we know if they are on the floor or not? We don’t. So, we need to vacuum every day. It just so happens that I had purchased a very powerful Shark Navigator Vacuum with HEPA filtration a couple months before my outbreak and I have to say, it’s my favorite all-time vacuum cleaner and it worked extremely well for not only cleaning the floor, but also all of my surfaces with their wand attachment. One way to reduce vacuuming and cleaning is to not go everywhere in your home – stay in just one area for the most part.
Always Change Clothes
Never wear the same clothes or even wear the same shoes the next day. For clothes, I suggest putting them directly into the washer after use, if you can. And for shoes, try to do a rotation; if that is not possible, some people put their shoes in the freezer overnight. I never did. At the very least, wear different socks every day. You could try putting Diotomaceous Earth into your shoes – that’s what I did for my “home shoes.” Supposedly this shell fragment will cut into the scabies and/or dry them out and kill them. I do not know if it is true, but that’s about the only use I found for Diotomaceous Earth after I tried slathering it on my skin mixed with oil and decided that wasn’t going to work for me.
Clean Your Car
Since we sit in our cars for extended periods of time there is good reason to suspect that scabies will crawl onto the seat and elsewhere in a car. You can use a self-serve car wash to thoroughly vacuum the inside of your car as often as possible. Another option is to use a disinfectant.
Disinfect Surfaces With BenzaRid
BenzaRid can be sprayed onto surfaces to kill just about anything and everything it comes into contact with, and that includes scabies. BenzRid is used in hospitals and is designed for this very purpose. For killing scabies, this is probably the best surface killing agent on the market and I used it on my surfaces. Get BenzaRid right here.
Don’t Forget Your Desk, Laptop & Keyboard
Since most of us do a lot work at a computer it is very important to remember to clean our workstation often, including our laptop and/or our keyboard. Scabies literally go anywhere so be mindful of this. I used my vacuum to clean these areas literally every single day.
Be Mindful Of Others
So now you know you have scabies. Do the right thing and be extra, extra careful not to transmit them to anyone else. Be aware of hugs, visiting friends, where you sit when out and about, being at the gym, being in your workplace, etc. Take as many precautions as you can to make that the scabies on your body will not be infecting anyone else.
9) Scabies: What Not To Do
Within minutes of figuring out I had scabies – based on my symptoms – I was on the Internet searching for and reviewing all of the possible ways to get rid of them. I watched YouTube videos, I went to medical websites and read them, I went to scabies forums and read literally hundreds of stories, I used a variety of search terms to find people who made websites after they got rid of their scabies, I poured over scabies product websites, and I signed up for Amazon Prime because I was ordering so may products from Amazon it only made sense not to pay for shipping. I suggest you sign up as well!
Whenever I read that someone tried something and it helped, or they say a product cured them of scabies, I bought it and tried it. That includes bath water treatments, topical treatments, and oral treatments for scabies. I spent well over $7,000 on such a wide variety of treatments and yet, only a few were really worth getting. Keep in mind that by the time I figured out I had scabies they had spread pretty well, and the early treatments I did burned my skin which slowed down other treatments. If I had to do this all over again, not including the infrared sauna, I probably could have gotten rid of them for $500 to $750.
Here are a few things I tried that were not effective. Well, at least not noticeable – this is another problem: how do we truly know if we killed off a few or few dozen scabies mites until our skin actually clears up? We don’t. So this is part guesswork too. So below I include scabies treatments that are either ineffective or damaging, based on my experience.
AVOID These Bath Water Treatments
- Salt: I tried salt, including the salt used for treating hard water that comes in 40lb bags and I took these salt baths every day for at least three weeks, maybe more. Absolutely nothing. Not recommended.
- Tea Tree Essential Oil: Using any essential oil in a bath is not a good idea because it will not disperse, but rather, float to the top. I know this is a “go-to” treatment but it burned and irritated my skin and actually set me way back because of that.
- Pennyroyal Essential Oil: Someone had posted that this essential oil – used in baths – would kill scabies and that it was prescribed by a holistic doctor. I tried it for weeks with no results. It also floated to the top. I want you to know that it is considered toxic and indeed at 20 drops in the water it burned my skin. I do not recommend Pennyroyal for scabies.
- Clove Essential Oil: Same as the other oils – floats to the top. Plus, this stuff burns. I also used it on my scabies rashes at times and could not tolerate the burning. I do not recommend clove oil for scabies.
AVOID These Topical Treatments For Scabies
- Cayenne Pepper: So this looked very promising to me. Mix some cayenne pepper with oil, apply to scabies lesions and let the pepper burn the scabies to death. I was all for it and tried cayenne pepper on my skin, twice. This was fairly early on. Well, it felt very hot and burned, but unfortunately I did not notice a reduction in scabies and more importantly, I had residual burning from the cayenne after the second application. I do not recommend cayenne pepper for scabies.
- Diotomaceous Earth: You will see this a lot when you search for scabies cures. I bought a large bag of it and made a paste out of it with some oil and applied to scabies lesions. It’s messy, does not apply easily, does not stay, and I never understood how the wet version would work when it seems as though we wanted it dry so that the shell would cut through the scabies. I searched and searched for validation of this treatment. And I tried it. No results. I do not recommend Diotomaceous Earth for scabies, except maybe in your shoes and on non-host surfaces.
- Other Essential Oils: I tried several. Here’s the deal: yes, an essential oil may kill scabies, but at what concentration and what will the effect be on open wounds caused by both scabies and chemical burns? My skin was a wreck in so many places. I was in so much pain from the scabies and all the different things I as trying. I’m all for natural products, including essential oils, but, they are very powerful and caustic on open skin. This is a big reason why I switched to heat and bleach baths once I learned about them: neither causes terrible burns to the skin yet kills scabies.
- Salicylic Acid Skin Peel 30%: Some people used a skin peel to get to the scabies. I tried a very tiny amount of it, and yeah, using a skin peel to kill scabies was painful, and I never did it again. I do not recommend Salicylic Acid Skin Peel 30% for scabies.
- Nair Hair Remover: Some people said that the mites can get into the hair follicles and so that using Nair Hair Remover would burn them out as it burns out the hair. So I tried this and left it on my skin for the maximum suggested time. Big mistake. I wound up with a chemical burn on my arm that lasted for well over a month. It was terrible. I do not recommend Nair Hair Remover for scabies.
- Coconut Oil: If you search the Internet, coconut oil comes up a lot for scabies treatment, usually by using it as a carrier oil for tea tree oil and other oils. I love coconut oil and before scabies I was using a natural cream coconut oil every day on my arms and legs. However, later, as I used plain coconut oil and tea tree oil on my body I just became sensitive to it, even without the tea tree oil. Interestingly, I came across a blog radio interview with numerous guests and they were saying that scabies feed on coconut oil. For all I know, that could be true. If you are going to use an oil on your skin, I suggest a thicker oil like olive oil, neem oil or CeraVe cream (mentioned earlier).
- Hulda Clark Zapper: If you do not know what that is, that’s okay. If you do know what it is, I tried a few frequencies a few times but without any good sources of info I abandoned that project. I do have a nice Zapper.
AVOID These Internal Treatments For Scabies
- Ivermectin Prescription Medication: I tried so much of this stuff. My doctor prescribed enough for me to try at a higher dose and with a more frequent dose, and I did this for months. Did not work. So, I do not recommend Ivermectin for scabies.
- Chrysanthemum Flowers and Tea: I read that an Acupuncturist had prescribed this internally, and this flower or one of its close cousins will kill critters, so, I tried it. A lot. I tried the freeze-dried version that you add to hot water and I used the dried flowers in tea and in my bath. I did not notice a difference. And may I point out this stuff is not cheap. I do not recommend Chrysanthemum flowers or tea for scabies.
The Scabies Cure Conclusion
My time with scabies was traumatic, depressing, difficult and lonely. The absolute worst part about having scabies was trying a variety of ways to get rid of them with no success which meant I never had absolute assurance that I would ***ever*** get rid of them. I have read hundreds of stories of others who felt exactly the same way and that is one of the reasons why I created this website: to give a valid step-by-step action plan to cure scabies. After reviewing a massive amount of data, reading hundreds and hundreds of stories and most importantly, curing my own scabies after multiple failures, I am confident that I am giving you good advice.
There are a couple others who have created websites based on their own successes and I will share those below in the Resources section. Above all else, I believe bleach baths and heat are your absolute best weapons against a scabies infestation. Bleach because the chlorine we know kills microorganisms and it disperses throughout bath water unlike essential oils, and heat because heat will not damage your skin, but will kill mites when you stay in a sauna long enough.
Finally, I know I was depressed. Like really depressed and it was very difficult for me. Lithium Orotate lifted that depression in one day, it may actually be a good internal killer of mites, and I still take it to this day. Elevate your mood so you will stay in the fight to destroy the scabies that have taken up residency on your body. You can do this. I wish you the very best and below are some additional resources for you and also where I went for my research into curing scabies.
You can scroll back up and review my suggestions for purchase and/or click over to my scabies product list where I have the products sorted in the same order as listed on this page for easy purchase.
Selected Resources About Scabies
- The International Alliance for the Control of Scabies (IACS) is a global network of researchers, clinicians and public health experts dedicated to improving the control of scabies.
- Earth Clinic Forum Beach Bath & Borax Discussions
- Topix Scabies Forum
- They Conquered Scabies