Tea Tree Oil and Scabies Treatment

Are you looking for an effective way to treat scabies?

Combining tea tree oil and scabies is a safe, non-toxic treatment. For many people wishing to treat scabies, tea tree oil has proven to be a natural, pesticide-free way to treat it.

Below you'll learn more about scabies and tea tree oil research studies.

Known as Sarcoptes scabiei (sounds like some sort of Egyptian ruler), scabies are mite-like insects that burrow into your skin and lay eggs. Red bumps form on your skin where the scabies have burrowed in.

Female mites are 0.3 - 0.4 mm. long and one quarter millimeter wide. The males are about 1/2 smaller than the females. These little buggers hold onto your skin using a pair of suckers attached to their two front legs.

Symptoms of Scabies

Scabies can cause a lot of itching, usually at night. Some people can get scabies on their head or scalp, but the mites usually infect the areas between your fingers and your wrists.

The photo below shows where the rashes usually occur. The main difference between head lice and scabies is head lice don't burrow into your skin, whereas scabies does. Scabies can come with bacterial infections, so it's important to deal with as soon as you're infected.

Scabies are easily passed from one person to another through direct contact. It can also be spread by fomites, another word for clothing, bedsheets, furniture, etc.

To stop it from spreading, you have to vacuum and clean all your furniture in your home really well. You should wash all your bed sheets, bath towels and clothing in really hot water. Anything coming in contact with the infected person should be cleaned.

I remember having a house mate that got infected with scabies. We had to throw out some of our furniture because it was infested. It was a real chore to disinfect the whole house.

Treatment of Scabies

Using strong pesticides is the typical treatment.

Problem with pesticides is it's risky to use them on young children, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems.

Fortunately, if you're looking for a safer alternative, you may like the effects of tea tree oil has on scabies.

Below you'll read some interesting results from studies on tea tree oil and scabies.

Tea Tree Oil More Effective than Pesticides for Treating Scabies

Darwin, Australia - Scientists discover tea tree oil is more effective than some commonly prescribed pesticides used to treat scabies.

Researchers took scabies samples from a 20 year old woman infected with crusted scabies on her skin and exposed them to the following solutions:

• 5% Tea Tree Oil solution
• 5% Permethrin (a commonly used insecticide for scabies)
• Ivermectin (an anti-parasite drug)

They studied the scabies at regular time intervals over a 24 hour period to see what would happen to them.

At the end of the study researchers discovered:

• 5% tea tree oil was very effective at reducing the survival times of the scabies, killing them off at a faster rate.

• The primary cause was terpinen-4-ol, an active ingredient found in tea tree oil.

There are cases where scabies can develop a resistance to usual drug treatments like Ivermectin and Permethrin.

This study shows promise in treating scabies with tea tree oil.

It's a natural and safe treatment, with less side effects, and helps avoid using strong pesticides.

Two Year Study Proves Tea Tree Oil Effectively Kills Scabies

Darwin, Australia - A two year study found tea tree oil to be as effective as traditional anti-mite treatments in treating scabies.

Researchers compared the effects of topical, oral and herbal treatments for scabies on skin scrapings from 7 patients with crusted skin scabies. The study lasted for 2 years.

The following anti-mite treatments were compared:

• 5% permethrin (also known as Lyclear)

• 25% benzyl benzoate (Ascabiol)

• 1% lindane (Quellada)

• ivermectin (Equimec)

• 5% tea tree oil

They exposed the skin scrapings and mites to the above treatments and would measure how long it would take to kill them off.

• Researchers discovered no mites were alive using tea tree oil.

• Tea tree oil was just as effective as Quellada, Ascabiol, and Equimec for killing off the mites.

• 5% permethrin (Lyclear) had the slowest killing time. 35% of the mites were still alive after 3 hours and 4% still alive after 18 - 22 hours exposure.

Researchers concluded tea tree oil works equally well as a number of commonly prescribed medications and pesticides to kill scabies.

They also found that tea tree oil has less chance of acute side effects and drug interactions, compared to some prescription drugs.

Comments:

These studies on tea tree oil and scabies show an alternative to using strong pesticides and drugs.

Research shows a 5% solution of tea tree oil was the most effective.

I'd like to see more research and detailed treatment plans with tea tree oil and scabies; such as how much to apply to your skin, how long to keep it on your skin, etc.

Nevertheless, it's nice to see an alternative to prescription drugs that has less side effects and works equally well.

Research References: