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03/28/14, 07:36 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: MO Ozark country
Posts: 286
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Chigger's are here....EEK
So, can I draw on the wisdom of you all? How do you keep them off of you? Heaven forbid, if you do get them, what is the quickest remedy (and yes we are talking after you've nearly dug a giant hole in yourself) to get rid of the itch! Thanks, I'll be reading every post. 
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If you're not going to SNORT....why even laugh ? 
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Andi
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03/28/14, 08:14 PM
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Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 1,165
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Chiggers are horrible creatures. Wearing a heavy layer of OFF around your shoes and ankles helps prevent. Also showering quickly after coming in from marching around in their habitat. Once you have them there is nothing but cortizone type creams and benadryl and riding it out. There are lots of old wives tales about fingernail polish, alcohol, bleach, baking soda pastes, oils to "smother" them. Doesn't really help the itch but helps to pass the time :-)
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03/28/14, 08:36 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: north Alabama
Posts: 10,815
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Sulfur will help them stay away. (They are arachnids, so bug spray is a marginal help.) Once you have the bite, two weeks of being falling down drunk might help. Other than that you scratch. Berry patches and places where groundhogs and field mice inhabit are places to avoid.
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03/28/14, 08:47 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Arkansas
Posts: 10,942
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I use sulfur mixed with talcum pouter in equal amounts and put it over all the exposed skin except for the face. That way you wont smell bad until you take a shower.
__________________
God must have loved stupid people because he made so many of them.
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03/28/14, 08:50 PM
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Guest
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Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 3,552
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" Skin So Soft" by Avon works very well for chiggers. There have been many internet and other claims that it works as a mosquito repellent but I have tried it several times and it did not help. I have spent many hours and miles waking through GA pastures and forests and if I put Avon SSS around my pant cuffs, my waist, my neck and sleeves and any other openings, I will not get a single chigger or "redbug" bite. IMO, it stinks, but it works. I am talking about the bath oil, not the bug spray. http://www.amazon.com/Avon-SKIN-Orig.../dp/B000W96VLQ
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03/28/14, 09:53 PM
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Join Date: May 2011
Location: SW Missouri
Posts: 8,011
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You can get sulfur dust at most any farm store. Fill an old sweat sock with it, and dust your ankles and beltline before going into tall grass or other likely habitats. Also, I've learned from painful personal experience don't let your pets go into tall grass and rub up against you. If you're taking them on a hike, dust them tool.
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03/28/14, 09:56 PM
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My name is not Alice
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: On a dirt road in Missouri
Posts: 4,185
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Chiggers? Chiggers!?!? My grass is a nubby 1" tall. If I thought I could coax it to 6" by rolling around naked in the stuff to get a chigger, I would.
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Honesty and integrity are homesteading virtues.
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03/28/14, 10:52 PM
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I'd rather wade through a nest of rattlesnakes .
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03/29/14, 07:42 AM
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Singletree Moderator
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Kansas
Posts: 12,974
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I am allergic to chiggers! By the nd of the chigger season one bite will make a welt 2 inches across.
As soon as I know I have been bitten I spray the bite with bug spray. The little horrors hang on like ticks for a couple of days, and the bug repellent makes the nasty things go away.
To avoid them in the first place, I spray my feet and legs and I avoid sinning in the vegetation.
To ease the itch, ibuprofin or tylenol and allergy meds help a LOT!
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03/29/14, 09:04 AM
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"Slick"
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Moving from NM to TX, & back to NM.
Posts: 2,341
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No chiggers or ticks here in high & dry New Mexico. Lived in TX as a teen and got some chiggers in the groin. It was MISERABLE!!!!!!!
__________________
We will meet in the golden city, called the New Jerusalem,
All our pain and all our tears will be no more.....
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03/29/14, 09:09 AM
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II Corinthians 5:7
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Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Virginia
Posts: 8,126
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I rarely get chiggers anymore. I use the extracts David created for me, i.e. wormwood and black walnut shell. Just dab it around ankles, wrists and neck (exposed areas) and it works quite well. At the times when I do actually discover a chigger, I use a pad large enough to cover the area(s), wet the pad, put some Tea Tree Oil on the pad and then cover the area(s), holding the pad in place with tape. Works wonders!
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03/29/14, 09:32 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: southern hills of indiana
Posts: 2,541
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WV Hillbilly
I'd rather wade through a nest of rattlesnakes .
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DUDE! I ain't in this conversation! What did you bring me up for?
Wade
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03/29/14, 09:34 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: southern hills of indiana
Posts: 2,541
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Terri
I am allergic to chiggers! By the nd of the chigger season one bite will make a welt 2 inches across.
As soon as I know I have been bitten I spray the bite with bug spray. The little horrors hang on like ticks for a couple of days, and the bug repellent makes the nasty things go away.
To avoid them in the first place, I spray my feet and legs and I avoid sinning in the vegetation.
To ease the itch, ibuprofin or tylenol and allergy meds help a LOT!
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Sooooo,explain this "sinning in the vegetation" thing!
Wade
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03/29/14, 09:46 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: southern hills of indiana
Posts: 2,541
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I've been lucky and not had these things for years.I'm thinking they in the same family with mites etc. and if that is so cedar or mint should repel them. And anything that breaks the contact with air should smother them Things like glycerin or mineral oil. In the past I have always used fingernail polish(which some say doesn't work)
My understanding is that chiggers feed on blood but have a hard time getting through our skin to get it. They then secret a chemical that causes itching when it comes in contact with the skin they have just damaged.This causes us to scratch which opens up the damaged area and allows the blood to be accessed.We are our own worst enemy!
Wade
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03/29/14, 10:11 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: E. Oklahoma
Posts: 675
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Really hot showers really helps. Please believe me. As often as needed.
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03/29/14, 10:23 AM
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When I lived in central VA I got a real terrible dose of chiggers . I wasn't sinning in the vegetation but I was walking through the woods with a new female friend . Does thinking about sinning count ? I counted over 300 bites on my ankles & up my legs . Fortunately they didn't make it up to you know where . Like to drove me stark raving crazy .
I wasn't kidding , I'd rather jump up & down on a yellow-jackets nest .
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03/29/14, 11:42 AM
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Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: S-Ctrl MO
Posts: 301
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To stop the itch long enough to get to sleep, I use rubbing alcohol. It stings really bad but then ahh, so much better. I'm a chigger magnet. Seed ticks too. I hate the places seed ticks go. It just ain't right. I'm burning my property this year. Hoping that will help some.
I've tried dousing my clothing in permethrin but it doesn't seem to help much and that stuff pretty nasty. I'll have to try some of the above concoctions.
I got the first tick a couple of weeks ago and naturally I had itches everywhere for the rest of the day. Psychosomatic? Thought I might have had one on my thigh so pulled my pants down to check and DW said, let the drawer droppin begin. Getting ithcy right now.
My 12yo son's a magnet too so pretty soon he'll be walking around with at least one hand down his pants all the time.
Chiggers dissolve your skin by secreting an acid on it to liquify it so they can suck the liquified skin down their feeding tube. I can't understand what purpose some critters have other than to make life miserable. Chiggers, ticks, skeeters.
Flies, vultures, eels all nasty but at least have a purpose.
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03/29/14, 11:57 AM
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Southeastern VA
Posts: 1,050
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Terri
I am allergic to chiggers! By the nd of the chigger season one bite will make a welt 2 inches across.
As soon as I know I have been bitten I spray the bite with bug spray. The little horrors hang on like ticks for a couple of days, and the bug repellent makes the nasty things go away.
To avoid them in the first place, I spray my feet and legs and I avoid sinning in the vegetation.
To ease the itch, ibuprofin or tylenol and allergy meds help a LOT!
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I'm curious about what kind of sinning you are doing in the grass??? 
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03/29/14, 12:03 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: southern hills of indiana
Posts: 2,541
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnP
To stop the itch long enough to get to sleep, I use rubbing alcohol. It stings really bad but then ahh, so much better. I'm a chigger magnet. Seed ticks too. I hate the places seed ticks go. It just ain't right. I'm burning my property this year. Hoping that will help some.
I've tried dousing my clothing in permethrin but it doesn't seem to help much and that stuff pretty nasty. I'll have to try some of the above concoctions.
I got the first tick a couple of weeks ago and naturally I had itches everywhere for the rest of the day. Psychosomatic? Thought I might have had one on my thigh so pulled my pants down to check and DW said, let the drawer droppin begin. Getting ithcy right now.
My 12yo son's a magnet too so pretty soon he'll be walking around with at least one hand down his pants all the time.
Chiggers dissolve your skin by secreting an acid on it to liquify it so they can suck the liquified skin down their feeding tube. I can't understand what purpose some critters have other than to make life miserable. Chiggers, ticks, skeeters.
Flies, vultures, eels all nasty but at least have a purpose. |
That little "burn" you get from alcohol actually feels good when you got chiggers. But if you don't like it just pick up some "witch hazel. Same basic thing without the burn!
Wade
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03/29/14, 06:10 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: MO Ozark country
Posts: 286
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Thanks for all the posts...got some good ideas and some great laughs!! I'm a chigger magnet too. I got two of the nasty little suckers just the other day and I wasn't sinning in the grass either. Haha. I had hoped with the cold, cold temperatures that they would have been frozen out. But Nooooo!
Thanks for the thoughts. 
Andi
__________________
If you're not going to SNORT....why even laugh ?
------------------------------------------------------
Andi
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