# Home Remedies/Chapter 4
## B

Bug bites and other skin irritations:
Go out an gather a good amount of plantain, which is a weed on most peoples' lawns. Put it in a crockpot and set the pot on low. Cover with a good quality oil--coconut oil is best. Leave the lid off, and cook for about 24 hours. Strain out the plantain and add enough beeswax to make it "set up". You will need to experiment with this, because everyone I know likes it a bit different. You're aiming for a sloppy lip balm consistency. This heals all my bug bites better than prescription $150 stuff, and has worked on skin infections and brown recluse spider bites and bouts of exzema.
Banana skin - fleshy side down - taped to the wart overnight. If you have more than one wart the first wart to appear is usually the largest and the most uncomfortable - this is the one to treat. Within four days all warts disappear - you won't even notice them go!!

## D

Covering a wart with duct tape is a very effective treatment. After a shower, scrub the wart well to remove dead skin. Cover it with duct tape as soon as the skin is dry enough for the tape to stick. Leave the tape on until your next shower. Duct tape is thought to work by causing irritation, which get the immune system to pay attention. Also, the adhesive pulls off some of the wart each time you change the tape (though it must be left on for a longish time to have this effect). After two weeks to a month of persistent taping, the wart should be gone.
The duct tape also helps by suffocating the tissues. The skin in the ares can't "breathe" so it starts to turn white and die, helping rid you of the wart.
You can also get rid of a wart by painting it with clear nailpolish. You may have to re-apply a couple times during the day if it flakes off, but it suffocates it. It has the same effect as the duct tape but a lot quicker resolution.

## E

To remove warts, rub Castor Oil on the wart a minimum of 2x/day. My great grandmother taught me this as a child and it worked for me several times. After about 2-3 weeks of daily applications, the wart is gone. No pain, and a good solution.

## H

To fight infection in a bite, scratch, cut or wound (especially if it has already become infected), peel a layer off a raw onion, lay it directly on the wound and wrap it or tape it securely so it stays in place. You can cut and shape the onion to fit the size and shape of wound if you like and just hold it in place with a bandaid or masking tape. If it is in an awkward place like your foot or ankle, you can place a piece of plastic wrap over it to prevent odor, then wrap securely with strips of cloth or an elastic bandage so that it stays securely in place. Or you can just use the plastic wrap to do the wrapping. Put it on at bedtime and go to sleep. By morning the infection will be gone. I've raise five children and this was my number one home remedy. It never failed.

## M

To help clear up acne or outbreaks of herpes or cold sores, use plants of the menthe family, those being mints and lemon balm. Drinking them (lemon balm is best) as tea improves the immune system and weakens the virus's ability to infect cells. Topical application of the same tea (you could just put the cooling tea bag onto the skin) is also effective. While no medicine will ever truly remove herpes, the symptoms can be controlled.
A few warnings, mint is a volatile herb. While most people will not have a problem, drinking too much of the tea can cause problems. If you start to become windy (it also has a "positive" impact on digestion) then mint may be to blame. However, mint will only cause this if your diet is causing colonic sluggishness already.

## P

Both as a remedy and prophylactic, use homeopathic Rhus Tox.