Chiggers

[mimitabby]

Gosh, Seattle is grand.
too cold for chiggers, too cold for horseflies and deerflies, hardly any mosquitoes or roaches....
okay, we have craneflies. they eat lawns.

[bike4ever]

singletrackmind - I got mine out at Chubb which is beside Route 66.

I rode there today without any extra visitors. I was careful to apply deet on any exposed skin though.

[singletrackmind]

Sweet sweet trail for hiking and biking. Have you tried the new little connector trail yet? Thanks for the info....got a kid that reacts like mad to bug bites of any kind. Getting to be that time of year, I guess.

[LBTC]

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

[RoadRaven]

OK... so, unable to contain my curiosity (I am a Leo and hello, guess what??? curiosity killed - or at least made feel "pukish" - the cat!)... I googled images for Chiggers... lots of nice "cases" and lots of diagrams and pictures of the critters themselves...

[La Victoria]

Hi,
I know this is going to sound crazy but I'm from east Texas, possibly the chigger capital of the world (there is a annual Chigger Festival there). We used toothpaste on chigger bites and it really soothes the itchiness. Plain ol Crest toothpaste, the old fashioned white paste kind works the best and if you keep it refrigerated the coolness really feels good. I used to put a tube of Crest in the frig every summer just for chigger bites.

La Victoria

[Aggie_Ama]

The worst part of chiggers is often WHERE they bite you.

Deb- You are so right! The first time I got them was right at the top of my legs in the little area where your leg bends to the crotch and along where the cheeks of rear end meet the upper thigh. Talk about an uncomfortable spot and you can't politely scratch that!!

[bike4ever]

toothpaste? way cool. I will definitely try that next time.

[emily_in_nc]

Deb- You are so right! The first time I got them was right at the top of my legs in the little area where your leg bends to the crotch and along where the cheeks of rear end meet the upper thigh. Talk about an uncomfortable spot and you can't politely scratch that!!

How true! I have a couple bites right now in my nether regions, and I could even feel the worst one (on my outer labia) on my bike ride this week.

I HATE chiggers!

Emily

[mimitabby]

how the heck do they get to your nether regions? (hopefully not TMI?)

[Tuckervill]

They crawl. They go for the warmest place on your body. If you sit down in the grass, that's a bonus for them because they don't have to go too far. They also like to get under waistbands and bra straps.

When I was in the army I sat in the woods all night on guard duty, and the next day I had chiggers every-stinking-where. I mean EVERYWHERE. Way more than 100 bites. I sat in a bath of bleach and water to kill the little b-stards.

But, ever since then (about 20 years ago), mosquitoes and chiggers do not seem to bother me at all.

Karen

[farrellcollie]

I hate chiggers too. I once got over 100 on both legs from walking the chubb trail (that is one chiggery place) - if you find anything that works - please post it - I found nothing relieved the itch for long - I now use deet on my clothing and shoes and socks and a deet lotion on my legs (the lotion has a smaller concentration). I never got many ticks on me - but the dogs did and it was horrible with the seed ticks until I started using frontline on them.

[emily_in_nc]

how the heck do they get to your nether regions? (hopefully not TMI?)

Unfortunately, they migrate from wherever they originally got on you, and they're so tiny you can't feel them crawling. I get a lot of bites where the sun doesn't shine from being out gardening in shorts, bending over, kneeling down, etc. Even when I take a shower immediately afterwards, it's sometimes too late. VERY uncomfortable!

Emily