Chigger bite adventure

hazel · Post by **hazel** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 7:41 am

ok here's what happened here last night. (We're in Atlanta again, visiting new granddaughter.)

Well, it starts earlier, Saturday night, when my DIL and son went to an outdoor party and came home with chigger bites. But before they realized they were bitten up she had sat on the bed and nursed the baby. Last night at 4 a.m. it hit her that she hadn't washed all the clothes and bedding that might be infested with the chiggers and the baby might get bitten so she got up to change the bed and do laundry. While walking through the dining room she happened to see our other son's girlfriend's purse which she'd forgotten when they were visiting earlier in the day. Well, she (the girlfriend) had a 7:30 a.m. flight to New York, which she wouldn't have been able to board without her ID. DIL called other son who drove over here and picked up the purse!

Anyway isn't that funny? No chigger bites, no trip to NY.

Peggy · Post by **Peggy** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 7:53 am

Okay I'LL bite - what the heck is a chigger???

hazel · Post by **hazel** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 8:18 am

These chiggers are the larval stage of a mite. They hang out in tall grass, waiting for a victim. They bite, and kind of like a tick, they stay in your skin. Some people have a bad reaction to them, others not so bad. My husband gets a terrible reaction. The thing to do if you get them is to put nail polish or NuSkin on the bite. That sufficates the little bug. It is very small. Oh heck, Peggy, look it up on Google!

Post by **tex** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 8:37 am

Wow! Peg,

You don't know what you're missin' if you don't have any chiggers in your part of the world. I assume you've google'd 'em by now, so I won't bore you with the gory details, but suffice to say, the little suckers chew their way into your hide, and once they get attached, they can't be removed, and they itch like HELL.

Here in the Southern U S, anyway, we learn to avoid standing around in tall grass during the spring and summer. If you keep moving, sometimes you can get away with it, but if you stand still for a minute or two, they gotcha. The "chiggerbites" itch about ten times as much as a mosquoito bite, IMHO. The scratching can lead to infection, too, of course, and it's just about impossible to keep from scratching a chiggerbite.

(Not a chigger fan),
Tex

barbaranoela · Post by **barbaranoela** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 8:55 am

I heard of them but never knew *WHAT* but after reading the description I dont ever wanna meet one and have them make a home in my body---YUCK!!!!!!

And I thought TICK bites were gross

Luv Barbara---

Sally · Post by **Sally** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 9:38 am

Ugh. Makes me glad I live where I do.

Thanks for asking Peg. I didn't want to be the ignoramus!!!

Love,

Sally

MaggieRedwings · Post by **MaggieRedwings** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 10:32 am

Chiggers are absolutely horrible. Rate #2 in my book. No-See-Ums are the worst. They actually get through duct tape.

No-See-Ums are in the great North and bite and travel in hordes of millions. Try northern Canada and you will know.

Maggie

Peggy · Post by **Peggy** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 10:33 am

Well, shucks, all I gotta say now is
EW!!!!

kate_ce1995 · Post by **kate_ce1995** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 10:53 am

Is that the same as red bugs? One of the guys I worked with the summer I spent in North Carolina got them on his leg (or should I say in) while on a field job, and our boss told him to put nail polish on to suffocate them like that. Up here, red bugs mean one of two things to me, and neither is harmful to people... one is a box elder bug, the other is a lily beetle. Both are also quite stupid and obviously only red to fool other critters into thinking they are bad.

Hope all is well now that the laundry is done.
Katy

Post by **tex** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 11:07 am

Yep, a lot of people call them redbugs here in Texas. They may be red for all I know, (they're too small to see), but presumably that moniker comes from the fact that the area around the site where they embed themselves in your hide turns red for a diameter of about an inch, more or less.

If you keep your lawn mowed, you're usually ok there. If you let it get too long, you pay the penalty in "redbug bites". Back when diazinon was still available OTC, as a lawn treatment, (now it is restricted to gulf courses, and a few other sites, because of an alleged link with bird deaths), a lot of it was used to control chiggers and fire ants, here in the South. (Apparently it's ok to ignore the risk to birds on golf courses, so long as the rest of us peons don't use it on our lawns).

Incidentally, the word "redbug" is listed in Webster's dictionary as another name for chiggers.

Tex

annie oakley · Post by **annie oakley** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 4:31 pm

Chiggars are fun critters! They like tight places like around where the top of your socks are...get the picture? But they will bite anywhere. I have had chiggar bites on the palms of my hands. And that itch is far worse than any feminine itch, misquito, or any other bite I'ver ever know.

And I have used all the otc stuff for chiggar bites but the one thing I found that stops the itch for me is clear fingernail polish...yepper you heard me right. Love Oma

Jean · Post by **Jean** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 7:11 pm

For what it's worth. Here, the Indiana/Michigan border is the northern most limit for chiggars. They only make it that far north in a good (bad) year.

Jean

MICROSCOPIC COLITIS SUPPORT

Chigger bite adventure

Chigger bite adventure

Chiggers!!!!