The Handy Tool Gardeners May Want To Keep On Hand For Nasty Bites & Stings

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There's nothing like a day of summer gardening — until the mosquitoes strike. No matter how many citronella plants you pot or how faithfully you repel mosquitoes naturally with a little-known essential oil trick, the pesky, resilient biters are experts at grabbing a quick snack on your exposed skin. And once the itching starts, it's all too easy to abandon your garden to-do list and retreat indoors.

But according to the creators of the Bug Bite Thing, there's a smarter solution. They've made a palm-sized tool with a big reputation for providing instant relief from the nasty bites of mosquitoes, bees, wasps, biting flies, chiggers, or no-see-ums. Rather than having to surrender to your stings, the tool is designed to help you extract the venom that the bugs left behind, leaving your body free of the irritant that's making you itchy or inflamed. You can get right back to gardening — no scratching breaks needed.

The Bug Bite Thing is designed to work a little differently than an after-bite cream. While those generally contain some antihistamine to relieve symptoms like itchiness and swelling, the Bug Bite Thing claims to remove the venom from your body entirely. On one end of the tool is a hole. You place that over your bite, and then pull up small handles to create a gentle suction that's supposed to pull out the venom. You should feel a little tug from the suction, but nothing painful. After 10 to 20 seconds, you release the handles — and hopefully also release any itching or inflammation that the sting initially brought.

There's not much clinical research to back the claims that suction can remove venom and lead to sting relief. And while the company advertises that the tool can be used for bee stings, many experts still recommend taking a little more care if a bee stinger is still left behind. In those cases, they advise scraping it out with a flat object like a credit card or using tweezers.

While there may not be clinical evidence of the Bug Bite Thing's efficacy, there are thousands of 5-star reviews for the product. Some claim it "changed their life" or note that they don't go outdoors without it now. Of course, as with any hyped product, not all the reviews are universally positive. Many claimed they didn't notice a difference after using it, and a few reviewers said they thought the suction mechanism was too harsh for their skin.

My own experiences using the product to combat mosquito bites are similarly mixed. I generally have a pretty strong reaction to mosquito bites, and I only feel real relief with the Bug Bite Thing if I use it immediately after the bite and hold it for a solid 20 seconds. Even then, it sometimes doesn't relieve all my itchiness and swelling. My husband and young kids, on the other hand, can use it within 10 to 15 minutes of a bite and still find total relief. (Plus, the kids think it's super fun to use.)

In short, it seems to be a product that works well with many people, but it's not a universal solution to bug bites. Will it be the game-changer you need to enjoy a peaceful gardening experience — especially as mosquito season keeps starting earlier and earlier? With a price tag of $9.99 (but often on sale via retailers like Amazon), you might just want to give it a shot.