I'm sick and tired of dealing with chiggers!
 

And by that, I mean chiggers!

Why can't they just bite you on the ankle or elbow and leave it at that?

But, no! They've got to crawl to some unmentionable place before they feast on your bodily fluids. And you end up itching in places that, if you scratch, you look like you've got some sort of a hygiene problem or are trying to get a little too happy with yourself.

I say, not only are chiggers looking for a free meal, they aren't happy until they embarrass the heck out of us.

ROFL yes...a few yrs ago we took our son, I think he was 7 or 8 at the time, to the ER because his "boy parts" were kinda swelled up, and I'd never seen anything like it... and didnt really WANT to then... but, they said the culprit was a gnat! they called them "pecker gnats" and they said they see several cases every summer when kids are spending more time outside in swimsuits...and it causes an allergic reaction.

Totally harmless, but itchy as all get out and somewhat embarassing to a 8 yr old boy :blush:

What is the best treatment for chigger bites?

Apple Cider vinegar. Mix it half and half with water and wash the affected areas. Fingernail polish will also work. Just dab a little on the chigger bite and they smother and die.

Now, this is where I'll probably prove how little I know about these pests, but I've been told that, by the time the bite starts itching, the chigger is long gone. What's left is a tube of hardened material through which the little evil thing sucked its dinner. It's the reaction to that tube and the stuff the chigger injects to break down little bits of your body that you're having an allergic (or auto-immune or whatever) reaction to.

All you can really do is apply a mild antiseptic/topical anesthetic (mainly because you can't legally buy the strong stuff) and let things run their course.

Thanks for the info desnri and Oggie. :)
Seems like every time we go camping, at least one in the group gets eaten alive. I'll try your ideas.

Repellent containing DEET is the best preventative. If you go into an area you suspect is infested with chiggers, shower thoroughly afterwards. Home remedies include rubbing bacon grease on the bites (there is seldom just one), plus applying heat from a hair dryer. Don't know if they work, but there is a lotion called Sarna that relieves itch quite well for me.

By the time you feel the itch (12-14 hours later), they are almost always gone.

What I use is a mixture of 50% talcum pouder and 50% sulfur. I mix them togather and sprinkle it over the socks and belt and anywhere else that a chiger will buite and I hardky ever have any. You can just use sufler but it stinks so that I use the talcum power to break the smell.

How would I know the difference between a chigger bite and any other sort of bug bite? I know we have fleas and flies and skeeters....oh, and scorpions and millipeds...not sure about the chiggers.

Chiggers go under your skin. If you have chiggers, it will look like several tiny mosquito bites that itch like crazy.

You might try using a Vitamin B12 supplement. It makes your skin taste bad.

Chiggers do not go under your skin. It is like Oggie said. They make a feeding tube, which is the part that itches. You can tell it is a chigger bite by the fact that it will itch for WEEKS! It takes 21 days, on average, for those little tubes to dissolve.Like a mosquito bite that just does NOT go away.

I have learned to go berry-picking before the dew dries to avoid them. They are VERY small and cannot maneuver on wet foliage.

Theres a repellent called Duranon (or Permanone) that works really well. It is NOT applied to you skin, but to your clothes. It not only repels, but KILLS chiggers and ticks. Once your clothes are treated, the effects will last up to two weeks, with one washing during that time. Once dry, it also has no odor.

It also helps to pull your socks up over the OUTSIDE of your pants. That helps keep them on your clothes iinstead of where it hurts!!

http://www.backcountry.net/arch/at/9907/msg00438.html

Rubber boots for me, rather than tucking my socks into pants-legs. Don't forget to tuck in your shirt!

Those dang things just attack me mercilously. I've learned that after being out picking berries, working in the garden, just walking across the lawn, that I need to come in and take a soda bath as soon as possible. I use cool bath water (as cool as I can stand it), 1/3rd cup of baking soda and soak for at least 20 minutes. It's inconvenient, but it keeps me from being miserable for weeks.

If you get bit and realize it too late, you can still take the soda baths which are soothing, and use ice packs on the irritated areas, which seem to help for awhile, as do anti-itch creams.

A chigger itches like nothing else!! You know you have a chigger bite when it feels good to scratch the blood out. I second the sulfur in the boots. And don't if you can help it sit on the ground. I have a good dose of the buggers right now. Went to and outdoor concert. I have bites that follow my bra straps and panty lines.

Yeah, DON'T sit or lay in the grass!

Another way to deal with the critters, if you have to be outside for any length of time, is to carry a towel or rag with you and wipe yourself down occasionally; like wipe along your sock line, waistline...etc. That is supposed to dislodge them or kill them.

Didn't think to mix sulfur w/talc-great idea. We use the 'dust w/sulfur' method & NEVER get chigger bites.

Skeeters on the other hand...ow!

Patty

I have had many chiggars, and I currently have chiggars. We went blackberry picking and I got some chiggars. The best way to get rid of chiggars is to put some nail polish on the itchy spots. It works every time for me.

My sister put white nail polish on her chiggar bite and the red chiggar CRAWLED out of her skin. So for her the chiggar was under her skin.
Belle

After you get in from picking berries try taking a bleach bath. That will kill them in a heart beat. It is also good if you get seed ticks on you.

In the good old days, I would spray my parents yard and garden (they lived in the woods) with Chlordane and nothing, I mean nothing would bother you all summer. EPA put an end to that.

Chiggers...grrrr that's one thig I don't miss about living in Kentucky!

I've never heard of this, but I think it must work. I take B-supplements and I never get chiggars (though I get all sorts of other bug bites). My cousin and I often go climbing together, and he'll com back full of chiggers and I won't have a bite.

I told my husband that laughing at my thousands of chigger bites, while applying hydrocortisone cream to the ones that I could not reach, was grounds for divorce!!!!

Kitty
(P.S. He did not laugh... he grinned and shook his head, but he did not laugh!)

Man, I feel your pain! Those darn chiggers. I fight them on an almost daily basis. I hate em! I only have about 5 or 10 chiggers bites now. When you get 20 or 30, it's uncomfortable. My work takes me in chigger territory. I spray my clothing/boots with Backwoods Cutter or Deep Woods off. That seems to work for several hours-especially the ones that are water resistant. I haven't found an easy solution. If there was one, I would buy it in a heartbeat, pay any price for it. Showering and scrubbing down from head to toe as quickly as possible helps. Sometimes, when you are out for hours that's not possible. I do like rubber boots, that helps, but have to wear work boots-need good cleats and support and tuck pant legs in boots. I think the baking soda bath is a great idea. I have a medicine cabinet full of junk to ease the chigger bites. The best remedy that has worked for me is "Chigarid". I found it at CVS pharmacy. There is Chigarex-but it doesn't stick on the bites as well. Chigarid is simply Camphor, Menthol, Phenol, Oil of Eucalyptus mixed in a "fingernail polish type" adhesion. It seemed to help the chigger bites better than anything I have tried. If there's anything out there better, I'm all ears. I have dabbed on ammonia and bleach. The chigarid seems to stick on the best and help.

I have been drinking vinegar water. Haven't done it long enough or been consistent with it to know if it truly works. I think the Vitamin B is a great idea. Thanks for this tidbit. I'm going to start taking it. Try not to scratch!!
I hate em with a passion. Thanks again, Take Care.

Grandma said use rubbing alcohol and it works like a charm! I hate chiggers, ugh at the thought of them.

It stings alittle but it's better than the demon itch from hades with those things.

Kat

If you spray your cloting with a pemethrin and let it dry it will keep them and ticks off. It will also last thrugh several washings. They actually sell a product specifically for this, but I just use my own garden insecticide which is pemethrin based.

When I was a kid we always put nail polish on chigger bites. That does not work, though many people believe it does. You can search for "chigger nail polish" and get tons of hits talking about how it is a popular, but unwarranted, remedy/treatment.

One commonly known remedy for chigger bites is to apply nail polish to reduce itchiness. This does not kill the chigger or treat the bite in any way. It simply seals the area off from the air, which keeps the sore from itching so badly. If you want to apply something to relieve itching, it's much better to use a salve or cream that contains antihistamines (Caladryl or hydrocortisone salves are the most common). Like nail polish, these treatments will seal the bite from the surrounding air, but they will also help to prevent infection.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/question488.htm

The "painting" of bites with clear nail polish to destroy the chigger is probably not effective. By the time the bite itches, the chigger has already fed and dropped off.
http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/resour...ers(008).shtml

The popular home remedy for which there is little justification is to dab nail polish on the welt. This cannot "smother" the chigger because it has not burrowed into your skin, and it was probably scratched off long ago. The only benefit to applying a thick coat of nail polish is that it helps to remind you not to scratch the bite.
http://www.todayscacher.com/2005/may05/health.asp

Backwoods OFF

Nuff said.

I worked my butt off to lose weight & tighten my abs.(hey, no easy feat either, I’m 44 after all). What did they do? Crawled up my shirt! All 10 of them! I look like I have chicken poxs! The big red marks last forever on my pale thin skin so oh great, no tank-ini for me likely all summer since I look like a leper. Drank all that Slim Fast for nuttin’! Guess I’ll go back to regular beer! HA!

:)

Hillside
KAT

You know what you need? Guineas. Guineas will eat all those nasty chiggers and you won't have to worry about getting bit. Now if them there guineas coud get rid of the mosquitos as well as every other bug I would be set.

I have a sure fire cure for chigger bites! I have a few goats and keep the Ivomec pour on wormer that I give them orally. I put some on a Q-Tip and dab it on the chigger bites AM and PM for 2 days.. No more itch, no more chigger bite.. It starts healing immediately. Plus, I have no worms! LOL! THis really does work..

Misery does love company! Here I sit clawing and digging. These miserable little bugs will walk for miles to crawl up my pants, the more awkward the spot is to scratch, the more they love it. I have yet to find anything that gives much relief but I will try some of the ones mentioned here.
KB

Mary Cody, I'll bet it's the isopropyl alcohol in the Ivomec that does it. You ought to try rubbing alcohol and see if it works as well, as an experiment. If it does, it'd save your liver metabolizing all that ivermectin.

The experts say that by the time you itch, the chigger is gone, anyway.

But like I said in my earlier post, I fenced all this spring in long grass til mid June. I spray Backwoods OFF around my pants cuffs, on my socks near my shoes, at my T-shirt sleeve openings and across my shoulders behind my neck. No chiggers. One shot in the morning, good for all day.

Also, if I go out and get bit a few times right off when it is early in the season, it seems they bother me less later on. They do love new flesh, though. It seems city folks who come to the farm unprepared always get nailed bad.

I make lye soap. If I've been out where it's likely I'll bring back chiggars, I come in and immediately get into the shower, bubble up with the lye soap and let it sit for awhile before I rinse it off. It seems to work pretty well.

The other day I was in the yard and came in with a few itchy bites, I didn't have time to get in the shower so got the soap wet and rubbed it over the itchy spots. I didn't rinse the soap off, just left it on. The itch went away pretty quickly.

Be sure to wash your clothes right away as well. You don't want to wear them again until you do!

Our place is chigger and tick heaven. We've been wearing pantyhose under our jeans, and haven't had chigger bites - even with no socks on. Has anyone else tried this? Maybe we're just lucky. We started in order to block ticks.

:eek: I can't imagine. I would cook with pantyhose under my jeans.

Sounds like an interesting concept - but I think I'll go for the ol' DEET and shower right away when I come in from working.

My luck, I would end up in some sort of accident on the homestead, be rushed to the hospital, and end up on the ten o'clock news.

Would be hard to explain.... :rolleyes:

...but you'd be giving the medical staff a chuckle!!!

I just add extra bleach to the bath water and that solves the problem.
Ed