Mosquito Bite Treatments

I hate Mosquitos. I consider it a failure of mankind and modern science that we can put a man on the moon but can't erradicate the little blighters from the face of the earth. The food chain will adapt and if Jurassic Park has taught us anything, life finds a way.

I long for a device akin to a venus fly trap that sits by the bedside and ensnared the bastards causing a slow, painful death. I fantasize about torturing them.
There was a device exhibited on the ABC tv programme the inventors once that did something like this but the prototype was going for some $700.

As you can probably guess, I get bitten, more than you I bet, once per two nights on average around 3am. According to wikipedia, this is because I smell better than you. As you can imagine I've tried many remedies and thought I'd write them up in the order of what works for me in the hope that people will comment on what works for them. Ok, let's get started...

Remedies
I realise this probably won't help but I was once bitten in Kyoto when watching the Jidai Matsuri festival of the ages by a Japanese Kamakaze Mosquito. The bite swelled to triple the normal size for me. A kind old Japanese woman saw that I wasn't managing and took pity on me, taking an oitment from her bag and applying it to the bite, working in incredibly slow, concentric circles from the bite out. She would have massaged my hand for what felt like 15 minutes and the itchiness was gone forever. If you know what the Japanese use for Mosquito bites, please comment.

One of the woman in the bottom right of this photo may potentially know the secret of the Japanese mosquito remedy, if your recognise yourself please email me.

Jidai Matsuri, Kyoto, 2007

An old man I had a very long conversation with, despite not being able to speak each others language

Mopiko!!!

Until we work out what the Japanese use be advised that the rest of Asia uses a topical cream, Mopiko. Forget the Stopitch and Stingoes our parents used when we were kids. Mopiko just works, not perfectly but better than anything else I've tried. Ask for it at Chinatown Chemists.

And to a lesser extent, lemon juice, ice, cold water and even rolled up ball of tobacco that's supposed to be rubbed into the bite (I think they meant loose leaf tobacco, don't dissect a Marlboro light and mix it with your spit), all of which don't really work well enough to go on about.

Prevention

Not much to say here other than I use one of those plugin Mortein Mosquito repellents which does work ok but is throw-away culture at its worst.

Please post your prevention and remedies...