Lots of host variety and good environmental conditions. If I were you, I'd use a Preventic or Seresto collar on the dog. Too many terrible diseases he can get.
Chigged!
- Thread starter RednekF350
- Start date
Absolutely, no problem. I give it to you freely, to use it for any purpose you desire, be it pleasure or profit.
Robert Moyer 9/10/2016
A little over a year since I started the thread and I am chigged again! First batch this year.
I kept feeling a slight itch around both ankles before dinner. I waited until after dinner to investigate more closely and lo and behold, walking red pepper around both ankles.
I saturated a paper towel with alcohol and rubbed and scraped until all visible critters were gone.
Really trying to figure out how I got them. I had long pants on, high socks and work boots and I walked a well-worn fire trail and dirt roads with no vegetation.
Scourge of the Pines !
I kept feeling a slight itch around both ankles before dinner. I waited until after dinner to investigate more closely and lo and behold, walking red pepper around both ankles.
I saturated a paper towel with alcohol and rubbed and scraped until all visible critters were gone.
Really trying to figure out how I got them. I had long pants on, high socks and work boots and I walked a well-worn fire trail and dirt roads with no vegetation.
Scourge of the Pines !
I got them 4 weeks ago on a short walk from the parking lot at Pine Valley CC to the dam on the lake at Pine Hill Scout Reservation. I thought it was too early in the season ,& didn't exercise caution.
Let’s get ready for chigger season!!
I thought it would be nice to revive this old thread.
I got my first dose of those little bastards yesterday doing some survey fieldwork almost around the corner from where I live.
Doing a 2.5 acre boundary with about 30% of it being knee high grasses and low shrub growth. I knew I was somewhat doomed when I realized that my field guy hadn’t maintained our usual stock of deep woods off in the truck. I really should have gone back to my house for more spray.
I sprayed what little we had around my pant cuffs and under the cuffs around the tops of my work boots. We spent about two hours in the grass and before we left, I felt them starting to go to work.
Tonight, I am applying some floucinolone, a potent prescription steroid ointment that I use for eczema to help with the itch. When I go to bed tonight . I’ll be putting on Sarna, a smelly but effective OTC itch medication consisting of camphor oil and menthol.
I can’t help but feel good about how many millions of chiggers might have died in the recent fire.
I thought it would be nice to revive this old thread.
I got my first dose of those little bastards yesterday doing some survey fieldwork almost around the corner from where I live.
Doing a 2.5 acre boundary with about 30% of it being knee high grasses and low shrub growth. I knew I was somewhat doomed when I realized that my field guy hadn’t maintained our usual stock of deep woods off in the truck. I really should have gone back to my house for more spray.
I sprayed what little we had around my pant cuffs and under the cuffs around the tops of my work boots. We spent about two hours in the grass and before we left, I felt them starting to go to work.
Tonight, I am applying some floucinolone, a potent prescription steroid ointment that I use for eczema to help with the itch. When I go to bed tonight . I’ll be putting on Sarna, a smelly but effective OTC itch medication consisting of camphor oil and menthol.
I can’t help but feel good about how many millions of chiggers might have died in the recent fire.
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It’s been years since I’ve been walking in the deep woods during summer as much as I have been this year due to a shoulder injury and permethrin has worked great knock on wood for both ticks and chiggers. I use it every year during turkey season as well works great. When I get chiggers I just remind myself how lucky I am that it ain’t poison ivy I’ll take chiggers any day over poison ivy sumac or oak.
I will take the Poison Ivy over the Chigs/tick larvae.I can identify poison and avoid it if I choose too.If it gets on my shoes and clothes i can try and avoid handling them in the woods,upon taking them off at home I can wash real good and usually avoid getting it if I"m careful but you can't see the chigs till they're on you and then they can travel right off your clothes onto you,they go through your socks.Ivy can mess you up worse then chigs I agree but I think Ivy is more avoidable.Chigs are everywhere especially along trails and road where tall grass grows.the deer use our roads and trails as well and this is where the ticks drop off and lay their eggs and the larvae climb the grass and wait for the next meal to walk by.Also Ivy is fairly uncommon in most barrens habitats,tick larvae are not uncommon
One of the few good things about winter time no chiggers when your crawling through the woods
I always cringe when I see a bicycle rider sitting along a road in the pines either waiting for someone to pick them up or taking a rest.
That was me years ago. Go for a motorcycle ride in the woods, take a break and sit trailside, then wonder later how I got these rashes. Yea I‘m a slow learner LoL
A buddy of mine once got his chest covered laying in the grass photographing Mushrooms.I"ve had them in worse places.Hint they like hot sweaty places where clothing is tight
Not chiggers, but bug related.
If you see an old guy hiking or biking next summer w/ a blue solo cup on his head. Thats probably me.
If you see an old guy hiking or biking next summer w/ a blue solo cup on his head. Thats probably me.
Happy Chigger Season. Here I am again to report my first case of chiggers. 
Doing a 48 acre survey update today with one of my guys in Franklin Township, Gloucester County in a hardwood forest with a light understory. Not chigger territory in my mind, but the chiggers thought otherwise. Of course, my guy told me on our way there that the he had next to no spray in the truck, as we were almost there. I still thought we should be okay and did not stop to buy any.
Our biggest problem on arrival was clouds of Asian Tiger mosquitoes coming out of the leaves like a fog. I was getting bit in my neck ears and arms almost instantly. I went back to the truck and got the can, with almost no propellant and about an ounce of juice, and we dribbled it onto our hands. I wiped it wherever I could and went back in. It was a little better but not that effective.
At lunch I got some 25% deet Deep Woods Off at a CVS (=$$$) and I sprayed my head, upper body and arms like I was spray painting old patio furniture. Still, I was not considering chiggers as a potential issue so I did not spray my pants or cuffs.. The mosquitoes were still unbearable but the bites were fewer. We headed back to the office a little early and it wasn't until I was halfway home that I started feeling the scourge of those little bastards. Both ankles inside 8" leather boots were on fire.
As soon as I walked in my door I soaked a paper towel in alcohol and wiped about 15 chiggers off of my my ankles. The damage was done because I felt the bite twenty minutes beforehand. Now I can look forward to about a week of itching. I use Sarna Sensitive for the itch and it works well. Original Sarna is loaded with camphor oil and makes you smell like your grandmother's winter clothes closet. It works a little better than Sarna Sensitive which has no order. I found Sarna through a YouTube dermatologist about 5 years ago when I was having a bad bout with eczema and it really bolstered my faith in all YouTube medical advice. And, I save a lot of money by not having to pay mediocre doctors for otherwise free advice.
So, after starting this post about 8 years ago, I appear to be developing some reliable data. And that is, that chiggers do not become a problem until August. I argue with one of my hunting buddies every year during spring turkey season that there are no chiggers in April. He insists that he has gotten them earlier than that. I say NO WAY. Larval ticks maybe, but not chiggers.
If anyone needs me, I'll be in the woods dripping with Deet until about November.
Doing a 48 acre survey update today with one of my guys in Franklin Township, Gloucester County in a hardwood forest with a light understory. Not chigger territory in my mind, but the chiggers thought otherwise. Of course, my guy told me on our way there that the he had next to no spray in the truck, as we were almost there. I still thought we should be okay and did not stop to buy any.
Our biggest problem on arrival was clouds of Asian Tiger mosquitoes coming out of the leaves like a fog. I was getting bit in my neck ears and arms almost instantly. I went back to the truck and got the can, with almost no propellant and about an ounce of juice, and we dribbled it onto our hands. I wiped it wherever I could and went back in. It was a little better but not that effective.
At lunch I got some 25% deet Deep Woods Off at a CVS (=$$$) and I sprayed my head, upper body and arms like I was spray painting old patio furniture. Still, I was not considering chiggers as a potential issue so I did not spray my pants or cuffs.. The mosquitoes were still unbearable but the bites were fewer. We headed back to the office a little early and it wasn't until I was halfway home that I started feeling the scourge of those little bastards. Both ankles inside 8" leather boots were on fire.
As soon as I walked in my door I soaked a paper towel in alcohol and wiped about 15 chiggers off of my my ankles. The damage was done because I felt the bite twenty minutes beforehand. Now I can look forward to about a week of itching. I use Sarna Sensitive for the itch and it works well. Original Sarna is loaded with camphor oil and makes you smell like your grandmother's winter clothes closet. It works a little better than Sarna Sensitive which has no order. I found Sarna through a YouTube dermatologist about 5 years ago when I was having a bad bout with eczema and it really bolstered my faith in all YouTube medical advice. And, I save a lot of money by not having to pay mediocre doctors for otherwise free advice.
So, after starting this post about 8 years ago, I appear to be developing some reliable data. And that is, that chiggers do not become a problem until August. I argue with one of my hunting buddies every year during spring turkey season that there are no chiggers in April. He insists that he has gotten them earlier than that. I say NO WAY. Larval ticks maybe, but not chiggers.
If anyone needs me, I'll be in the woods dripping with Deet until about November.
Sorry to hear of your problem. I have found that ever since wearing the knee high boots all the time in the woods my chigger-tick issue has been minimal on my ankles. As long as I spray my pants when I see them the issue on general is not occurring as much.
I agree Guy, knee-high boots would have helped. My mistake was not expecting them in the type of woods I was in.
The mosquito population was literally the worst I have ever seen. That was another anomaly about this place. Very upland and very dry, but with Asian Tigers, that doesn’t seem to matter.