I now have a new least favorite bug (yeah I know they aren't insects they are arachnids but I consider both bugs).
I used to consider ticks the ultimate evil bug. The way they use their eight nasty little legs to crawl out on the ends of blades of tall grass and then hang on with the back four while waiting to grab onto some unsuspecting mammal is alone enough to make you shutter. Then not only do they burrow into your skin and suck your blood, they infect people with hideous diseases like rocky mountain spotted fever and lyme disease. I've picked up lyme disease twice! I really really hate ticks.
But then, I've never lived in a place that had chiggers before and I just managed to get attacked by some this weekend. I've got oozing blisters all around my ankles and various other spots. One even went for my navel (is nothing sacred to these beasts). I'm seriously considering hating them even more than I hate ticks.
So do any of you who live in areas commonly infested with these evil eight legged bugs have any suggestions?
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
Poor Rabbit!
My dad had them on his ankles once. He put some smelly stuff from the doctor on it and complained for a month that it didn't help. Posted by ludosti (Member # 1772) on :
When I was a kid and we'd pick up chiggers while camping, my dad always had us coat the spot with clear nail polish (if I remember correctly, this supposedly suffocated them so they'd die off quicker and we'd be out of our misery sooner). I can't remember any good advice about how to avoid them though... I'm sorry you've got them around you. They suck. Posted by Artemisia Tridentata (Member # 8746) on :
My father got chiggers on his legs when he was in his late teens. The scars were still big and purple when he died in his 70's. They are awful little monsters. However, they are kind of choosy. I have been camping with a group (National Guard camp) where everyone else was infected. But, I've never been bitten. I was told that slow metabolism and low body temperature were somewhat of a deterrent. In any case, soaking your sox in Deet should do the trick. Now if the Deet dosen't raise blisters, you should be good to go.
Posted by Jenny Gardener (Member # 903) on :
First of all, don't lie on the ground unprotected. I got chiggers when I was pregnant, and chigger bites on a very pregnant tummy are AWFUL!
Unfortunately, the irritation you feel is usually due to an allergic reaction to the stuff the chiggers left behind long after they have left your body! Chigger bites do itch for a long time. Use Benadryl cream, anything that works. And cover your bites so you won't itch them too much if you can help it.
Posted by Tstorm (Member # 1871) on :
There are places that don't have chiggers? Seriously?
quote: My dad had them on his ankles once.
Only once? Wow...
My dad will tell horror stories of the time he walked through a nest of them and picked up more bites than could be easily counted.
I've had so many chigger bites in my life that they're merely a minor nuisance anymore. I have some distinct memories of chigger bites in not-so-friendly places, so you're spot-on when you say that no spot is sacred.
Besides using a repellent, like Off, the most effective trick I've learned is one my Dad taught me. After you've been outside, walking around in their habitat (tall, uncut grass or weeds), go wash your legs. When I've been out chopping weeds in the tall grass, I usually wash my legs off before I go in the house. A good thorough rinse with the garden hose is all it takes. This method usually gets all of them...but it doesn't account for mosquitos or ticks.
I'll take chiggers any day of the week. Now, if someone can point me to a pleasant climate that lacks mosquitos, spiders, and poisonous snakes, I'm all game.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
quote: One even went for my navel (is nothing sacred to these beasts). I'm seriously considering hating them even more than I hate ticks.
No, nothing is.
They really like dark, warm, and moist spots. Their favorite place -- the crotch. >.<
When I was a kid, I generally got them on my scrotum if I got them anywhere. Uncomfortable.
When earning on the Boy Scout Wilderness Survival merit badge, I had to spend the night in a shelter I had made. For some brilliant reason, I decided to not use insect repellent that night. Afterward, I started counting the ones on my legs, and I stopped when I got to 200.
Posted by lobo (Member # 1761) on :
Don't use nail polish. The chiggers are not there. They don't burrow into your skin. They just eat part of you and take off...
Use insect repellant and you should be fine. Not that this helps you now!
Posted by PSI Teleport (Member # 5545) on :
If you have chiggers, put a tiny bit of bleach on a cotton ball and dab the spots. Watch those suckers back outta there! (I'm using the term "watch" loosely.)
There was a little chigger and he wasn't any bigger than the end of a very small pin. But the bump that he raises just itches like the blazes and that's where the rubbin' comes in. Posted by Joldo (Member # 6991) on :
I'm the only guy down south I know who's never picked up a single chigger . . .
Posted by Artemisia Tridentata (Member # 8746) on :
quote:Originally posted by Joldo: I'm the only guy down south I know who's never picked up a single chigger . . .
I lived and worked in Deepest Darkest Alabama for four years and have been to several (>5) schools in the south, which involved field work. I have never picked up a chigger. Of course, you don't really know me. Still, I prefer living in the desert; no chiggers here.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
This is why I don't go outside.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tstorm: There are places that don't have chiggers? Seriously?
Yeah, when I moved from Kansas to Ohio I was stunned to discover that I had lucked into moving somewhere without chiggers.
quote:
quote: My dad had them on his ankles once.
Only once? Wow...
My reaction as well. I pretty much had chigger bites from whenever they'd hatch out in the spring until however long it took the bites I had at first frost to fade (but then I lived out in the country, and spent most of my time tromping around in woods and pastures).
They like to feed in any area that is covered, whether by tight fabric or by other skin. This means that the flesh beneath the elastic part of socks and underwear is prime territory, as is the bellybutton (as Rabbit discovered) and the crotch (as porter mentioned).
Thoroughly coating these areas with bug repellant will help, but is unpleasant (and potentially downright painful) in its own right.
I would generally take a shower (as TStorm suggests) after coming in from the woods, but I was usually out there long enough that the chiggers had already had a chance to feed before I could wash them off.
Posted by Tinros (Member # 8328) on :
quote:Originally posted by Noemon: Yeah, when I moved from Kansas to Ohio I was stunned to discover that I had lucked into living somewhere without chiggers.
Since when does Ohio not have chiggers? You must be lucky or something, because I get them ALL THE TIME here. I had some this summer on the backs of my knees. Not the worst I've had, but walking made my pants rub them, and made them itch more, but I couldn't, cause then they'd hurt... yeah.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Weird. Maybe there's something about Yellow Springs (which is where I usually go when I want to hike around) in particular that chiggers can't handle.
Posted by Jhai (Member # 5633) on :
Wow - being a California girl, I never heard of these creatures until, well, this is my first discussion of them. I've heard the word in passing before. Do I have to worry about these fiends now that I live in NoVa? Will my dog get them romping about too?
Posted by sarcasticmuppet (Member # 5035) on :
Noemon's on the ball once again. Chiggers go where clothing meets your body, usually sock cuffs, waistbands, underwear, and bra bands. I always managed to avoid them because I was really paranoid when I was in the area (Camps and the like). Before we would I on hikes I'd put on a one-piece bathing suit, slather on bug repellent lotion, put my clothes on, and then spray myself all over with Wilderness Off. It seemed to work. This was in Arkansas, and after a few years of living there they either got sick of me or summers got mild enough to not support them anymore. I was grateful, whatever the reason.
One good thing about Utah is that it doesn't seem to support chiggers, though the mosquitoes are awful just when the sun starts setting.
Posted by Jhai (Member # 5633) on :
For anyone, who, like me, was unaware of this bug, this site has the lowdown.
*shudders* I hate things that bite me.
Posted by PSI Teleport (Member # 5545) on :
I like your link, Jhai. Growing up in the south, I learned all kinds of chigger folklore, apparently including the one that you need bleach to get them off. Good to know that a soapy washrag will work as well.
Posted by brojack17 (Member # 9189) on :
We always used the clear fingernail polish also.
Posted by Jenny Gardener (Member # 903) on :
Speak of the devil! The night after I posted here, I found I had chigger bites all over. Pantyline area - yeeks! Not a place you can scratch in public. And then I remembered that I violated my rule of never gardening in shorts. I sat on the ground, collecting seeds in shorts. So they had plenty of time to crawl up and find the tasty spots. I have found that chiggers are worst when you sit or lie on the ground for a little while. They aren't as quick to nibble on a moving target. And long socks with jeans are good if you are going to be sitting on logs in the woods or on the earth. Much less exposed skin. At Dragonwood, my summer uniform is t-shirt and jeans. Shorts are just too tempting for chiggers and skeeters and all their nibbly friends. Now, my arms rash up when I'm weeding, but fortunately that doesn't seem to last as long as chigger bites in bad places.
Posted by aiua (Member # 7825) on :
So those cute little red fuzzies that run around on bricks and make red smears if you squish them are chiggers? They've never bitten me, though. Maybe they're tame in Wisconsin.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
Chiggers sound awful, I've yet to be bitten by one to my knowledge. While I've never had a tick bite me, our dog had to be checked every other day, I still think leeches are worst of bug like things that bite you.
Look! They drop from trees, they wait on leaves, and somehow the maneuver over you body unnoticed until they become bulgy sacs of blood. You also can't just pull them off either. After hiking through a rain forest in Malaysia I was disgusted to find 5 leeches a piece in my shoes feeding off my feet, several attached to each leg, and one the ground the size of a polish hotdog. My friends and I tossed that one off a nearby waterfall, it was like throwing a balloon full of red paint, SPLOSH!
quote:One good thing about Utah is that it doesn't seem to support chiggers, though the mosquitoes are awful just when the sun starts setting.
Just stay away from Utah lake and anything that flows from it and you'll be fine. Here in downtown Provo I've yet to see a mosquito. But I do remember going fishing with a cousin when I was in my teens and hating the experience because of all those mosquitos.
Posted by sarcasticmuppet (Member # 5035) on :
I go to Nelson Grove park a lot, and though there doesn't seem to be any running water near us, I would get eaten alive by the buggers. Also, I was up at an event in Ogden and we were camped next to a dry creek bed (not our idea). When the sun went down there were mosquitoes everywhere. It was awful.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
It's stagnant water that mosquitos lay eggs in.
Posted by Artemisia Tridentata (Member # 8746) on :
It dosen't take a lot of water eather. A neighbor with a generous automatic sprinkler system just might set them up for you. We get them here in the desert if folks have nice lawns.
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :
I was up at Mt Ranier a couple of weeks ago. It was one of those rare glorious sunny days and we hiked up to a flower filled alpine meadow above Mowich Lake. It would have been a perfect day except for (ominous pause), the mosquitoes!!
They were so thick you could barely breath. We tried to sit in the meadow to eat lunch and lost so much blood to the mosquitoes we practically needed a transfusion to get off the mountain, and that was with DEET. (OK, that's an exaggeration but friend did have blood spots all over his pants where he'd killed mosquitoes just a bit too late.
But my experience in the Rocky Mountains, the Cascades and the Desert Southwest is that although the mosquitoes can be vicious, the high season generally only last about 2 weeks in any given location. If you happen to hit that window like I did at mount Ranier, you are in serious trouble. The rest of the time they are very manageable.
And on the plus side, mosquito bites rarely linger more than a day if that long. My first round of Chigger bites I picked up around easter took over 2 months to completely heal. So in my book, chiggers are far higher on the evil list.
(I suppose if I ever get Malaria (luckily not currently a problem in T&T) or Dengue fever (unluckily, we've got a Dengue alert right now), my hatred of mosquitoes could rise, but for right now chiggers are the most evil bug.
[ September 10, 2008, 02:46 PM: Message edited by: The Rabbit ]
Posted by Jenny Gardener (Member # 903) on :
aiua, no, those cute little red fuzzies are mites on the prowl for even smaller beasties. They are harmless!
Posted by maui babe (Member # 1894) on :
quote:Originally posted by Noemon: It's stagnant water that mosquitos lay eggs in.
Different species of mosquitoes have different preferences for where they lay their eggs. Standing water is really a better description of mosquito breeding sites, but some mosquitoes ( Aedes albopictus one vector for Dengue fever) will lay their eggs in running water or in the mud near a source of water.
Some mosquitoes prefer to lay their eggs in very small "containers" of water. An ounce or so collected in a plant or tree branch is enough. Here in the islands, bromiliads and pineapples are favorite sites for mosquito breeding.
quote:There are places that don't have chiggers? Seriously?
When I was in high school (northern CA) my best friend's mother visited family in Georgia and came back with terrible bite marks. Other than that instance, I've never been bitten by a chigger, never seen a chigger bite on someone else and never seen a chigger that I know of. I don't know what they look like even.
I've lived in Florida, Virginia, Illinois, and Tennessee, in addition to living in the west most of my life. There are certainly many places that don't have chiggers.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Interesting, maui babe; good to know. Out of curiosity, what do you see as the difference between "stagnant water" and "standing water"? I'd use those two terms synonymously.
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :
quote:Originally posted by maui babe: When I was in high school (northern CA) my best friend's mother visited family in Georgia and came back with terrible bite marks. Other than that instance, I've never been bitten by a chigger, never seen a chigger bite on someone else and never seen a chigger that I know of. I don't know what they look like even.
I've lived in Florida, Virginia, Illinois, and Tennessee, in addition to living in the west most of my life. There are certainly many places that don't have chiggers.
Until I moved to Trinidad, I'd only heard about Chiggers from friends who lived in south eastern US or Appalachia.
I still don't know what they look like. They are only a little bigger than one hundredth of an inch so I doubt many people know what they look like. That's part of their evil, stealth attack. You never even see the little buggers. You don't even know you've been bit until a day later when the welts start appearing.
Posted by Artemisia Tridentata (Member # 8746) on :
quote:Originally posted by Noemon: Interesting, maui babe; good to know. Out of curiosity, what do you see as the difference between "stagnant water" and "standing water"? I'd use those two terms synonymously.
The difference between my alluring physical presence and that flashed about by Michael Phillips.
Posted by maui babe (Member # 1894) on :
Noemon,
The distinction I'd make between standing and stagnant is the cleanliness/aesthetic appeal of the water. It's subjective, to be sure. If I'd be willing to swim or wade in it, I'd call it standing water. If it's fetid and murky enough that I'd avoid contact with it, I'd consider that stagnant. YMMV.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Hmm...I guess that "stagnant" does have an unwholesome quality that "standing" doesn't, now that you mention it.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
*adds to list of reasons never to move away from SoCal*
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
Also not all that flies and bites is a mosquito.
While camping on the beach in Hong Kong I was assaulted all night by sand fleas, I must have several hundred bites total. And if you have pubic hair they simply won't leave until you draw a bath, lay down in it for several minutes and watch their drowned corpses float to the surface.
*grimace*
As for mosquitoes and malaria. If they've got white spots or stripes, kill them just to be safe. Malaria is nothing to smirk at.
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
I've had chiggers a lot as a child, especially when camping out. The nonscientific legend is that they lay eggs under your skin, which is why they itch so virulently. There are larvae or something inside you. I don't know if it's scientific but it certainly feels plausible. You paint them with fingernail polish because it either suffocates or poisons them or both. I can attest that after being painted with fingernail polish, they stop itching and rapidly go away. So I recommend that treatment, though I wouldn't be shocked to hear that medical science has come up with something better in the meantime. I wouldn't be completely surprised to hear that it hasn't, either, though, so remember the fingernail polish cure just in case.
Reading all these accounts of the bites lasting months and leaving bad scars makes me think the fingernail polish cure is a good one still. They never left big scars or lasted long on us after we painted them. I recommend people try it. Science may not know why it works, but it does. This is reminiscent to me of the duct tape cure for warts.
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
This reminds me of the time in Ecuador when I stayed overnight at the guest house of a paper mill. I woke in the morning and my whole right side, the side that faced the mattress as I slept, was covered with hundreds of red bites. I didn't see any bugs, though. But I knew they must have come from the mattress, just because of the pattern of where they were on my body.
They were extremely itchy and sort of lumpy like chigger bites, although smaller. I thought of the cheerful phrase "don't let the bedbugs bite" and realized it actually meant something once upon a time. I decided they must be plain old European bedbugs, (as opposed to some rare equatorial fauna), but I wasn't sure how to prevent them from infesting my bed at home. I guessed that they must travel from bed to bed somehow, and surmised that it might be they lived in some larval form underneath the skin of bite victims such as myself, and later hatched out and infested whatever bed the victim inhabited at the time. I had horrors of battling for years to vanquish them in my home mattress.
So I applied the fingernail polish cure liberally to these bites as well. I had to stand naked in front of a full length mirror and paint and paint myself. The only color I had with me was a vibrant red, so I'm glad I didn't get any on places that weren't covered by clothes during the day. I was leaving for the US that day and didn't want to have to explain to customs why I had some crazy new red-spot plague from Ecuador over half my body. =)
Anyway, that seemed to do the trick for these bugs as well. Shortly after the polish dried, they quit itching and never bothered me again. By the time the polish wore off my skin, the bites were nearly healed, and they left no scars. And mercifully, no bugs followed me home.
[ September 10, 2008, 09:43 PM: Message edited by: Tatiana ]
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
Okay, according to wikipedia, bedbugs don't lay eggs under your skin. The fingernail polish cure does work for bedbug bites, though (according to me, not to wikipedia) for some reason unknown. So I still recommend it for bedbugs and chiggers both.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Considering that chiggers are larvae, it is impossible they are laying eggs, or anything of the kind. Jhai's link is quite informative.
If the nailpolish works (and I don't know that it does -- different people will heal from bites at different rates, so unless you treat half and leave half alone, how could you tell if it's doing anything?), maybe it's by adding to the skin's irritation, thereby increasing bloodflow?
Posted by Adam_S (Member # 9695) on :
we didn't use nail polish (been a long time since I had chigger bites), grandma always slathered the affected area with campho phenique. That seemed to the trick quite nicely for chigger bites, mosquito bites, anyplace you'd removed a tick and any minor scrapes bruises and cuts. always seemed to cure right up.
and thanks for the link, you can always count on the missouri conservationist to always have the best articles.
This thread has made me very itchy. Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
quote:Originally posted by Adam_S: This thread has made me very itchy.
I've been having the same problem.
Posted by Earendil18 (Member # 3180) on :
chigger what?? Do we even have these in the Inland Northwest? I've never heard the NAME.
Gotta get out more.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
quote:Originally posted by rivka:
quote:Originally posted by Adam_S: This thread has made me very itchy.
I've been having the same problem.
There was a fascinating article about two weeks ago in The New Yorker about itching. If somebody makes references to itching, or if people are shown video of people scratching even if it's not the focal point of the clip, people start scratching. For some reason itching is unique in that regard.
---- And yes I itched a few times reading it.
Posted by Jhai (Member # 5633) on :
I don't think itching is unique in that regard - they've done the same studies with yawning.
Posted by Jenny Gardener (Member # 903) on :
And even untreated, the itching DOES go away. My chigger itchies only lasted a couple of days this time. I think the cooler weather helps.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jhai: I don't think itching is unique in that regard - they've done the same studies with yawning.
I was about to say the same thing.
And thanks bunches -- now I'm yawning AND scratching!
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
I am now refusing to scratch the spot next to my left eyebrow that has begun itching furiously as a result of the talk about itching being contagious.
Posted by Jenny Gardener (Member # 903) on :
Maybe we should start talking about soothing and cooling instead.
Imagine cool aloe vera gel on that spot, see what happens?
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jenny Gardener: And even untreated, the itching DOES go away. My chigger itchies only lasted a couple of days this time. I think the cooler weather helps.
Sadly, I don't think we ever get cooler weather.
Two things I've tried that help: For quick relief I've found holding ice on the bites is great and seems to last for a couple hours after I've removed the ice. I also tried "Sting Mitigator" on it which contains papain (meat tenderizer) with the hope that this would break down the enzyme the triggers inject. I'm not sure if it worked or but the bites do seem to be healing much faster this time and the ones I used the sting mitigator on are itching less than the ones I didn't.
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