Chiggers. - Page 3

Worth1 · June 8, 2015

Here is how big/small they are.

Mojave · June 8, 2015

I don't think we have them here. But we do have tick out in the brush, they seem similar to ticks.

Starlight · June 9, 2015

Shhhhhhhhhh don't even mention ticks. Got enough other flesh eating bugs. I hate them things too. With all the deer around the ticks are really bad.

My squirrels I think get the chiggers too, cuz they will be digging and running all through the woods hunting nuts or burying them and every so often I see them stop and do the scratch thing.

I'm thinking about putting some sulfur down to control the chiggers, but I am afraid of what it will do to my other critters round here since you know they will be walking and sitting in it and then cleaning themselves.

Stvrob · June 9, 2015

I have found relief from chiggers and seed ticks using hot water. As hot as you can stand it, and then a little bit hotter still. It provokes a histamine response in your skin that will itch , you will get like 10 hours worth of itch happening in about 1 minute. But...after the hot water is gone, your skin's ability to create histamine is pretty much spent, and you will have hours of relief. My ankles seem to be perpetually chigger bit, and I use of those hose sprayer things that hook to the bathtub water spout to direct blasts of scorching hot water.

You may need to bump the hot water heater up a few degrees, in the 130 range is about right.

noinwi · June 9, 2015

Quote:

And you won't feel chiggers bite ... you'll feel the itch a day or two afterward from their feeding tube and enzymes that they inject to soften up your skin tissues so they can eat them.

Maybe we have both going on. When(usually in the evening)I'm sitting at the computer or even doing something in the kitchen I can feel bites on my ears and face, but no bite marks ever show up unless it's near my eye and I'll get a welt. When I'm outside I'm not feeling bites on my torso but the next day I'll have little clusters of bite marks that take a while to start itching.

Quote:

I don't think we have them here. But we do have tick out in the brush, they seem similar to ticks.

It was such a relief to get back to the PNW just to be tick free! We have them here, but in small numbers...a sighting is rare. We could probably run through the woods nekid and pick up no ticks(but the blackberries would be no fun!). In Wisconsin we had to do tick inspections every night, Spring through Fall. I got really good at spotting them on the wall even with my blurry vision, just by the way they moved.

Worth1 · June 9, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by noinwi

Maybe we have both going on. When(usually in the evening)I'm sitting at the computer or even doing something in the kitchen I can feel bites on my ears and face, but no bite marks ever show up unless it's near my eye and I'll get a welt. When I'm outside I'm not feeling bites on my torso but the next day I'll have little clusters of bite marks that take a while to start itching.

I thought you would figure it out.

I have had ticks, chiggers, mosquitoes, fly bites non poisonous snake bites catfish fin stickings , and fleas all at the same time.

Worth

Stvrob · June 9, 2015

Hopefully you dont have yellowflies in TX.

Mr Tickle · July 22, 2015

Popular preventative measure for anything that bites here in the U.K is drinking lots of Gin. The juniper supposedly comes out of your skin and repels nasty bitey things; although thankfully we don't have chiggers.!!!
Good excuse for some g and t's!!

Tracydr · July 22, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by Labradors2

Sorry to hear that you have itchies near your eye - nasty!

Sulphur (sp?) powder is supposed to work to kill (smother?) the horrid things.

Chiggerex ointment (which I bought at Walmart) really helped to subdue the itch. They are "supposed" to bite us on the torso, or wherever elastic clings to the body. Don't your chiggers know nuffin?????

I always thought they were a Southern thang, until we got some in a load of bark chips. Now they have made our deck their home.

First time I got chiggers, I was sitting on my dorm porch in Northern Iowa.
I had one episode that was so bad while in the Army, I swear I was itching for at least 6 months!

Tracydr · July 22, 2015

I've been using dryer sheets in my hates,socks and waist band for the no-serum knats. They are awful here when it's hot and humid and I'm slightly allergic to them. I get "Sweet itch" sort of like my horse.

Tracydr · July 22, 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by bjbebs

What you describe sounds like a buffalo gnat. I've never seen them out after dark so I'm not sure. We live near water and they can be fierce during mating season, which is now.
There is a product called Buggins. It's all natural, no Deet.
My wife is very much prone to their bites. After spraying down they leave her alone.
This might also work for chiggers but have never tried it.
Buffalo gnat bites seem to be larger than chigger bites but don't last as long.
There more like a welt than a bite at least on me.

http://southofthegnatline.blogspot.c...ne-101_28.html

Adriana · May 9, 2016

Reviving this thread... Found chiggers all over one of our wooden railings next the house (20+ feet away from foliage, etc). Wound up with intense itchy spots on knees, ankles and shoulders. Benadryl helped me sleep, but woke up scratching, just took a hot bath with epsom salts, baking soda and two bubble baths (one with eucalyptus and mint, the other with lavender). Followed up with hard scrubbing of skin with loofah, then lavendar skin lotion after drying off.

RELIEF! If it starts itching again I'll try the flea soap!

EDIT - I think what we have might be Oak Mites, not chiggers, but end result is the same.

Tracydr · May 9, 2016

Sorry about the chiggers,Adriana. I'm terribly allergic to them.
I've used sulphur powder on the yard for chiggers mites and ticks which was very effective. . Just be sure you don't dust your garden plant leaves,it's probably too hot and sulphur can cause them to sunburn if hot.
I also dust my chicken coop with it,along with diatomaceous earth to help prevent lice,mites and poultry ticks.
Sulphur is also my favorite treatment for mites,heat permitting.
I'm not sure the sulphur would work directly on the skin. Is it really true that the boogers are truly still under there or is that a wives tail?
Might try bathing with permethrin for lice ( check your pharmacy) in that case,since I think chiggers are a lot like scabies.

Adriana · May 9, 2016

Thanks Worth, I'm now thinking that what I have is not chiggers but Oak mites. We had a massive windstorm a few days ago and I spent an hour blowing off lots of "oak worms" and oak leaf debris off the driveway and deck. That's probably how they wound up on the railing. The end result is the same, intense itching, but the affected areas are different from the usual ones for chiggers.

We are also having a bumper crop of ticks this year. My husband took the dog for a walk in the woods and came back with 7 of them. I think I'll stop at Tractor Supply and pick up pyrethrins and sulfur. It looks like we have a bumper crip of poison ivy too so I might as well mix up a lethal cocktail for all of it!

(The mites that burrow under the skin are scabies. True fact, not old wives tale. My daughter had them.)

PureHarvest · May 9, 2016

Chiggers do not burrow under the skin.
They bite, feed, and drop off of you.
Bathing in chemicals makes no sense.
It would be like spraying or bathing yourself when you feel the itch of a mosquito bite. The bump/itch is the result of a bite that already happened. The mosquito is long gone.
Same concept with the chigger (mite).

June 8, 2015	#32
Mojave Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2012 Location: SF Bay area Z9a Posts: 821	I don't think we have them here. But we do have tick out in the brush, they seem similar to ticks. __________________ Bill _______________________________________________ When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe. -John Muir Believe those who seek the Truth: Doubt those who find it. -André Gide

May 9, 2016	#42
Adriana Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: North Georgia Posts: 99	Reviving this thread... Found chiggers all over one of our wooden railings next the house (20+ feet away from foliage, etc). Wound up with intense itchy spots on knees, ankles and shoulders. Benadryl helped me sleep, but woke up scratching, just took a hot bath with epsom salts, baking soda and two bubble baths (one with eucalyptus and mint, the other with lavender). Followed up with hard scrubbing of skin with loofah, then lavendar skin lotion after drying off. RELIEF! If it starts itching again I'll try the flea soap! EDIT - I think what we have might be Oak Mites, not chiggers, but end result is the same. __________________ Adriana Gutierrez Last edited by Adriana; May 9, 2016 at 06:53 AM.

May 9, 2016	#43
Tracydr Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2011 Location: Laurinburg, North Carolina, zone 7 Posts: 3,207	Sorry about the chiggers,Adriana. I'm terribly allergic to them. I've used sulphur powder on the yard for chiggers mites and ticks which was very effective. . Just be sure you don't dust your garden plant leaves,it's probably too hot and sulphur can cause them to sunburn if hot. I also dust my chicken coop with it,along with diatomaceous earth to help prevent lice,mites and poultry ticks. Sulphur is also my favorite treatment for mites,heat permitting. I'm not sure the sulphur would work directly on the skin. Is it really true that the boogers are truly still under there or is that a wives tail? Might try bathing with permethrin for lice ( check your pharmacy) in that case,since I think chiggers are a lot like scabies. Last edited by Tracydr; May 9, 2016 at 06:24 AM.

May 9, 2016	#44
Adriana Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: North Georgia Posts: 99	Thanks Worth, I'm now thinking that what I have is not chiggers but Oak mites. We had a massive windstorm a few days ago and I spent an hour blowing off lots of "oak worms" and oak leaf debris off the driveway and deck. That's probably how they wound up on the railing. The end result is the same, intense itching, but the affected areas are different from the usual ones for chiggers. We are also having a bumper crop of ticks this year. My husband took the dog for a walk in the woods and came back with 7 of them. I think I'll stop at Tractor Supply and pick up pyrethrins and sulfur. It looks like we have a bumper crip of poison ivy too so I might as well mix up a lethal cocktail for all of it! (The mites that burrow under the skin are scabies. True fact, not old wives tale. My daughter had them.) __________________ Adriana Gutierrez Last edited by Adriana; May 9, 2016 at 06:51 AM.

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June 8, 2015	#31
Worth1 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Den of Drunken Fools Posts: 38,539	Here is how big/small they are.

June 9, 2015	#33
Starlight Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: AL Posts: 1,993	Shhhhhhhhhh don't even mention ticks. Got enough other flesh eating bugs. I hate them things too. With all the deer around the ticks are really bad. My squirrels I think get the chiggers too, cuz they will be digging and running all through the woods hunting nuts or burying them and every so often I see them stop and do the scratch thing. I'm thinking about putting some sulfur down to control the chiggers, but I am afraid of what it will do to my other critters round here since you know they will be walking and sitting in it and then cleaning themselves.

June 9, 2015	#34
Stvrob Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: Jacksonville, FL Posts: 1,413	I have found relief from chiggers and seed ticks using hot water. As hot as you can stand it, and then a little bit hotter still. It provokes a histamine response in your skin that will itch , you will get like 10 hours worth of itch happening in about 1 minute. But...after the hot water is gone, your skin's ability to create histamine is pretty much spent, and you will have hours of relief. My ankles seem to be perpetually chigger bit, and I use of those hose sprayer things that hook to the bathtub water spout to direct blasts of scorching hot water. You may need to bump the hot water heater up a few degrees, in the 130 range is about right.

July 22, 2015	#38
Mr Tickle Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2014 Location: U.K Posts: 21	Popular preventative measure for anything that bites here in the U.K is drinking lots of Gin. The juniper supposedly comes out of your skin and repels nasty bitey things; although thankfully we don't have chiggers.!!! Good excuse for some g and t's!!

May 9, 2016	#45
PureHarvest Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Mid-Atlantic right on the line of Zone 7a and 7b Posts: 1,369	Chiggers do not burrow under the skin. They bite, feed, and drop off of you. Bathing in chemicals makes no sense. It would be like spraying or bathing yourself when you feel the itch of a mosquito bite. The bump/itch is the result of a bite that already happened. The mosquito is long gone. Same concept with the chigger (mite).