Adhesive hydrocolloid bandages coated with sodium bicarbonate — baking soda — so they treat a bite and cover it at the same time.

These are a bandage, not a medicine. There is no active drug ingredient. The baking soda sits in the coating and the hydrocolloid pad does the rest.

The covering is the real work. A bite that gets scratched open is how a bug bite turns into an infection, and a patch a child cannot pick at beats any cream you can put on and they can rub off. It stays on through a bath and a night's sleep.

Hydrocolloid is the same material used on blister and wound dressings — it holds moisture against the skin rather than drying it out, which is why it keeps working for hours rather than minutes.

Pull one off the sheet, press it on a clean dry bite, leave it.

After Bite sells three different things under one name, and the packaging does not make it obvious. Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate 5%) is the gentle one — Advanced, X-Tech and the Kids cream. Diphenhydramine 2% is an antihistamine, which is stronger and carries real warnings — Outdoor and Xtra. Camphor is the botanical one — the Natural Stick. Pick the mechanism, then pick the applicator.

Ingredients and warnings here are taken from After Bite's published label information. Read the carton before you use it — the carton is the authority, not us.