Modern Hill Woman

Chiggers

Ahh, the joys of summer. The sunshine, the river, the fresh produce, the family time. The bugs. Gnats, ticks, mosquitoes, and one very tiny parasite that you’ll swear came straight from the depths of hell if you’re ever unfortunate enough to have them hitchhike a ride on you... chiggers.

They usually lie in wait in grassy or weedy areas or woods hoping to jump on to an unsuspecting host.

These minute six-legged critters, in their larval stage, are almost microscopic (1/60th of an inch), so they’re hard to spot until they dig in, and dig in they do. They eat your skin.

Chiggers are related to scorpions, spiders, and ticks. Unlike ticks and mosquitos, they don’t suck your blood. It’s a common misconception that they burrow under your skin.

They stab their sharp feeding structures into the skin and insert an enzyme. A stylozome, a hardened layer of skin, is formed around the bite. This acts as basically a feeding tube, or straw, to feed off the dead tissue. Pretty disgusting, right?

The feeding parts of these little demons are not very firm so they tend to congregate on the more delicate parts of the body. The armpits, ankles, groin area and back of the knees are prime real estate.

Then the itching begins. The skin irritation and swelling are accompanied by red pimple-like bumps. The itch usually occurs once the larvae have made a meal of you and drop to the ground to become nymphs, then they mature into adults with eight legs which are harmless to humans.

Chigger bites are generally not serious for humans, other than discomfort, which may last a couple of weeks. Severe cases may become infected. Chiggers in our area do not carry disease. Some chiggers in East Asia and the South Pacific carry a bacterium that causes a disease called scrub typhus.

If you do happen to collect a clutch of chiggers, the itch can usually be treated with over-the-counter cortisone cream or rubbing alcohol. In our neck of the woods a bath in bleach water is the common treatment for them. If all else fails do what my mom always did; slather on some bacon grease.