How to Kill Scabies: Can Home Remedies Help?

Topical Treatments

Use aloe vera gel for an effective natural treatment. A small study showed that aloe vera gel might be as effective on scabies as prescription creams, giving it some promise as an alternative treatment. Try applying crude, or pure, aloe vera gel onto the rash daily and see if this works for you. The study didn’t specify how long the patients used aloe vera gel. Typical scabies creams need 1 week to work, so apply the gel for at least that long.

Rub tea tree oil cream onto the rash. Creams with 5-6% tea tree oil show some effectiveness in treating scabies successfully. Try applying this cream once per day for 30 days to see if this helps clear the infection. These studies used cream or gels containing tea tree oil, not the oil itself. Using undiluted oil hasn’t been studied.

Kill the scabies mites with clove oil. Clove oil contains chemicals that successfully killed scabies mites in lab tests. Try rubbing clove oil onto the rash and leaving it in place for 24 hours to kill the existing mites.

Try neem oil for a potential treatment. Neem oil may also kill the mites that cause scabies after 24 hours. Studies show that it's effective at a concentration of 20mg/mL. Try applying the oil to the rash and leaving it there for 24 hours to see if it helps.

Avoid using bleach on your skin. Some websites claim that bleach kills the scabies mites and will help you get rid of them. The problem is that bleach will irritate and burn your skin. This is not a recommended treatment, so stick to cleaning with your bleach. There are some websites that claim vinegar also kills scabies mites. This isn’t as dangerous as using bleach, but probably won’t work.

Get a prescription cream from your doctor if home remedies don't work. The most common treatment for scabies is prescription cream from your doctor that kills the mites and their eggs. Typically, you have to rub the cream onto your entire body from your neck down and leave it on for 8-10 hours, since the mites may have spread beyond the original rash. This is sometimes a one-time treatment, but you may need to reapply the cream if your doctor tells you to. Follow their instructions for the most effective treatment. The most common medication is permethrin cream. If this doesn't work, the doctor may also try indane, crotamiton, or ivermectin. If you live with other people, the doctor will probably tell them to use the same treatment because scabies can spread easily.

Relieving Your Symptoms

Hold a cold compress onto itchy areas. This numbs the skin and soothes itching. Try wetting a washcloth with cold water and holding it against your rash to relieve your symptoms. If the rash is on one of your extremities, you can also soak it in cool water instead of using a compress.

Soak in a cool oatmeal bath. This is helpful if the rash covers large parts of your body. Take a cool bath and add some oatmeal to soothe your skin. Warm or hot water can irritate your skin and make itching worse. It’s best to use cool water instead. A cool bath will also work on its own without oatmeal.

Use anti-itch cream until the itching subsides. Antihistamine creams like calamine lotion will reduce the itching until your scabies infection clears up entirely. Apply it according to the product instructions.

Take an oral antihistamine to reduce itching. If creams aren't enough to get rid of the itching, then antihistamine medications might work better. Check with your doctor to make sure this is safe and follow their dosing recommendations. Common antihistamines include Benadryl, Zyrtec, Claritin, and Allegra. Antihistamines can cause drowsiness, so don't drive or operate machinery after taking them.

Avoiding Reinfection

Wash all of your bedding and clothes in hot water. Scabies can live on your clothes and bedding and re-infect your skin even after you start treatment. On the day that you start treatment, gather all of your linens and wash them on a hot water setting. Then put them in the dryer on a hot setting. The high heat should kill all the mites. Dry cleaning also works. Just be sure to tell the people handling your clothes that you have scabies so they can take precautions. Things that you haven’t touched for over a week should be safe. Scabies mites can’t live that long off of a person. Continue doing your laundry like this until your infection heals.

Keep your laundry away from everyone else’s. Scabies is contagious and could spread to other people through clothes or sheets. If you live with other people, keep all of your laundry separate from theirs, even after it’s clean, to prevent spreading the mites.

Seal items in a plastic bag for 1 week if you can’t wash them. The mites typically die within 2-3 days if they’re separated from a person. If there are items you can’t wash easily, like couch pillows or seat cushions, then seal them inside a plastic bag and don’t open it for 1 week. This should kill and mites on it. If you don’t have plastic bags, you can just put the item in an out-of-the-way place like your garage. Make sure no one touches it for at least a few days. This is helpful for larger items like chairs or other furniture.

Vacuum all the carpeting and furniture in your entire home. Mites can also spread on carpets, couches, chairs, and other things in your home. On the day that you start treatment, vacuum everything in your home that mites could be living on. As with linens, things you haven’t touched in over a week should be free of mites.

Don’t have physical contact with anyone until you heal. This includes hugging, sitting together, and having sexual contact. Avoid this type of contact until your infection clears up entirely. Also don’t share a bed or couches with other people. The mites could spread this way as well. Remember that if the other person contracts scabies, it might take 2-4 weeks for them to show symptoms.