Chigger attack! Help!

Randy Rooster · #1 08/13/05, 10:09 AM

I recently moved to a more wooded area and my dog and I are getting eaten alive with chiggers. I flea combed several hundred of the little devils off her a couple days ago. My but and privates look like I have been hit with bird shot.

I need some suggestions please! Do any of the flea medcations kill chiggers when they bite on the dog? Help!

Ozarkguy · #2 08/13/05, 10:31 AM

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This should help. Info on ticks, chiggers, etc. How to prevent and what to do if you do get them...

There is no critter on earth that can cause as much agony for its size as the tiny chigger.

Ozarkguy

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BaronsMom · #3 08/13/05, 11:42 AM

Important:

By the time you feel the "itch", chiggers are long gone. It takes several hours for a chigger to crawl onto your body and into a location where clothing is constricted. The chigger feeds and then drops off to begin its next life stage.

Your body doesn't react until long after the chigger is done and gone...

Flea medications are not intended for chiggers. Check with your vet for his/her recommendations for your dog. (chiggers are mites...totally different from fleas)

As for humans? If you are going out into tall grass or areas where chiggers are likely to cause you a problem, use an insect repellent with DEET on your clothing.

When you come indoors, strip naked...take a shower. Since it takes a while for the chiggers to settle in and feed, you can wash most of them off in the shower.

Launder your clothes - Do not lay them in a pile on the floor and put them back on. Do not spray your home indoors with insecticides it is not necessary.

tyusclan · #4 08/13/05, 12:00 PM

After the rash has appeared chiggerx is the best thing I've found. Stops the itching and they heal up in a few days.

**Terri** · #5 08/13/05, 12:51 PM

For you? Mosquito repellant. For your dog? I am not sure.

I am allergic to the little monsters, and yes it does help a LOT!

I have ALSO found that a dab of repellant on a bite as soon as it starts itching will shorten the time that it itches. Chiggers DO feed for quite a while, and some of us thin-skinned people will start itching BEFORE the chigger drops off. But the WILL drop of (if they haven't already) when you dab them with deet.

HOWEVER! If you are combing hundreds of the monsters out of your dogs fur, you are more likely dealing with seed ticks, (baby ticks), which are tiny but not as tiny as chiggers. Seed ticks are ALSO dreadfull!

shawnee · #6 08/13/05, 01:02 PM

OK, back in my childhood days I visited my grandfather in Kansas for the summer and being from CA. at the time we thought nothing of laying on the grass to sunbake. He let out a howl and we found out why; very very soon I had a perfect outline of my bathing top outlined in red. Aunt told me to dab them with fingernail polish. It suffocates them and it worked! Also changed clothes immediately and bathed from then on (in washtub outside house - not cool when your 12-13) right after I came inside. Learned not to wear flip-flops in the grass, too. Put triple antibiotic between toes for a week til I figured it out.

akmyilee · #7 08/13/05, 01:32 PM

my Grandma puts sulfer in her socks when she goes out in the garden.....

Sparticle · #8 08/13/05, 02:01 PM

I also live in a heavily wooded area and used to get hundreds of bites before I started my chigger prevention. Tuck your pants in your sock, go outside and spray them down with DEET. Then put on mud boots and spray them down with DEET. Spray your clothes and concentrate on the underwear line (bra line for ladies). They are going to bite where the clothing is tight fitting. I know chiggers are only supposed to get you in tall grass, but I made the mistake of not spraying down when I was just going to go in the short grass and still got bitten.

They can crawl around on you for 2 hours before they pick a location to bite. So I come in, strip down in the mud room and throw all the clothes in the washing machine and take a shower scrubbing very well every hour and 45 min or so. I make sure I have a stack of work pants and shirts and undies before I start my work for the day.

Ok, so now you've got tons of bites. Maura on this board gave me a wonderful remedy. Draw a bath with
1 cup epsom salts , one cup baking soda, and 1/2 cup cider vinager. You can double that recipe.

Then when you dry off and are out of the tub put on chigerid or clear fingernail polish.

There are sprays you can use to treat your yard. For my dogs, I've put some witch hazel on a cotton ball and rubbed down their little bellys.

NancyinArkansas · #9 08/13/05, 04:03 PM

i found that tea tree oil will stop the itch-nancy

BaronsMom · #10 08/13/05, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shawnee

OK, back in my childhood days I visited my grandfather in Kansas for the summer and being from CA. at the time we thought nothing of laying on the grass to sunbake. He let out a howl and we found out why; very very soon I had a perfect outline of my bathing top outlined in red. Aunt told me to dab them with fingernail polish. It suffocates them and it worked! Also changed clothes immediately and bathed from then on (in washtub outside house - not cool when your 12-13) right after I came inside. Learned not to wear flip-flops in the grass, too. Put triple antibiotic between toes for a week til I figured it out.

Sorry, fingernail polish doesn't suffocate chiggers. Remember, by the time you start to get red bumps and itch...they are long gone. But the sting of the fingernail polish does feel good and make you think it is working....aaaahhhh, sweet relief

KAK · #11 08/13/05, 04:55 PM

Witch Hazel calms down the itch. Cheap and easy to use. Just daub on with cotton ball.

Sparticle · #12 08/13/05, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BaronsMom

Sorry, fingernail polish doesn't suffocate chiggers. Remember, by the time you start to get red bumps and itch...they are long gone. But the sting of the fingernail polish does feel good and make you think it is working....aaaahhhh, sweet relief

When I went to the Dr's office with over 250 chigger bites (yeah I counted) he said the reason fingernail polish works is that it keeps that area of the skin out of contact with the air so it makes the sore less itchy. What itches so bad is the left over "straw" under your skin. I think that's why baking soda and epson salt baths feel so good, maybe they draw out the straw? All I know is it works.

crystalniche · #13 08/13/05, 05:25 PM

We don't have chiggers here but we do have mosquitos! You know when a child gets a mosquito bite then scratches and picks at it until it gets really irritated? The one thing that I've found that works to stop the itch and soreness is toothache drops or gel. Just rub on the amount you get on your fingertip and it numbs the area. I'll bet this would work on chigger bites too. I don't know how it would be if you used it on a large area tho. I would ask your doctor if you have a large area of bites before using this.

almostthere · #14 08/13/05, 05:38 PM

My mom and neice got eaten up by chiggers on the 4th of July when they went to watch fireworks. they made my mom really sick, with her compromised immune system. she ended up at the dr because of it. She's a lot more carefull where she sits now when she's outside.

TrudyPowell · #15 08/13/05, 05:55 PM

I also think Deet is great at preventing them in the first place. I'm an Independent Watkins Associate, and I'm sold on our product that's 29.55% Deet - it's Insect Repellent Lotion. I like this lotion much better than spraying. We have lots of chiggers and seed ticks here in the Ozarks. We went out in our woods earlier this Summer to pick wild raspberries and were covered. The next week, I remembered to put the lotion on everyone and it really worked. If you are already suffering from the bites, my husband swears by a bath with quite a bit of bleach poured in. I've never tried it myself, but he sure smells clean and disinfected when he gets done (ha!). For tick, chigger, and mosquito bites, I usually apply our Watkins Petro Carbo Salve which seems to calm the itching really well.

Trudy Powell
Independent Watkins Assoc. #357561
trudypowell@sbcglobal.net (request a catalog)

ibcnya · #16 08/13/05, 09:18 PM

I do what they call in the military "blouse the trousers". Which is to put a rubberband like thing called a bootband close to the top of the boot and fold the cuff of the trousers up under it making sort of a seal. Keeps the little buggers from crawling up your leg. That and deet and you can keep alot of bugs off you that way. I don't go to town like that though. Hehe

Siryet · #17 08/13/05, 10:15 PM

mitchum roll on deodorant stops the inch on us.

works first time every time

Orville · #18 08/13/05, 10:23 PM

I don't understand. I live in SC, and have heard lots of chigger stories from the locals. However, I have never had a problem with them, even though I spend much time outdoors, in tall grass and in the woods. This seems strange to me, as some posts describe them to be such vicious little creatures.

Randy Rooster · #19 08/13/05, 10:33 PM

Chiggers seem to me to concentrate in areas that are heavy with pine trees and pine straw. Espeacially long leaf pines. At least that is my experience. I lived about 40 miles from here and spent a lot of time outdoors and in the woods before moving here and never had a problem with them before.

Feel blessed it seems strange to you.

Mudwoman · #20 08/14/05, 07:26 AM

The products that kill lice will kill a chigger. Won't help with the bite-------that is just going to have to heal. Your Dr can prescribe a corticosteroid for you to take and that will help with the itch and healing.

The other help-------dont' go into the woods or leaves without spraying yourself and your dogs.