Chigger Bites...! ouch!

woodjin

woodjin

Piney
Nov 8, 2004
4,341
327
Near Mt. Misery
Mike, don't be taken back. Chigger behavior has been studied extensively and there are concrete facts about how they operate. The only opinion i have about chiggers is that they suck (actually, that is pretty much a fact also). Here is the thing...a chigger does not burrow under the skin, it is possible that it might stay for a while but with people that is very rare because they can't hold on very well. When someone itches the bite they almost always dislodge the chigger from the first scatch, however, the chigger is probably already gone from showering considering we don't feel the effects of the bite till many hours later. That is why they say the chigger is gone by the time it begins to itch.

As i mentioned before, i've had chiggers many many times and I have found this information to be entirely true with my experience. But this is fact and not opinion.

Mike, I believe what you claim- you experienced. However, I would bet it was an attack of immature ticks. They hang in large groups and it is possible to get many bites at once. They are only a little larger than chiggers and their bites are very brutal. In fact, from your description "digging them out" it REALLY sounds like that is what got you. Like chiggers, they suck also. Their bites are often more long lasting that chiggers.

Don't take any offense, I have mistaken immature tick bites for chigger bites myself. From what you stated I think that is what got you (not a fact, an educated guess).

Jeff
 
PBFog

PBFog

Scout
May 19, 2009
60
0
38
The Pines whenever possible. Otherwise between Qu
Mike, your previous post reads as though you where digging chiggers out that burrowed under the skin (oh I see you say you used a magnifying glass now). Woodjin's post is well-founded in fact that chiggers do not burrow under the skin as many people believe. I used to believe that chiggers did this and would use nail polisher remover and even bleach to kill them, but that's only because I was an idiot and believed the myths of chiggers and not the truth.
Chiggers do attach themselves to the skin and suck skin cell fluid. They inject enzymes into the skin, which hardens the skin and forms stylostome (feeding tube), then they feed upon the dead tissue. If you do see a red dot in the middle of your chigger bite, chances are it's actually the stylostome tube and not the chigger. The reason the bite will itch for many days is because it takes up to 10 days plus for the stylostome to be absorbed by the body. Chiggers are only 1/150th - 1/50th of an inch in diameter and are practically invisible to the naked eye.
And to those of you that believe in itching chigger bites to your hearts content, that is about the worst thing you can do as that act very easily may lead to an infection caused by bacteria...nevermind further agitating your skin. But yes, a bath is great for removing chiggers from the body as it is very easy for them to be brushed away.
Further more, a chigger stuffed on your skin actually turns yellow, so if you've been finding them many hours later, they shouldn't actually be red. Still, you'd probably only see this if you had a magnifying glass.
That's about it for now I suppose.
 
Kevinhooa

Kevinhooa

Explorer
Mar 12, 2008
332
25
41
Hammonton, NJ.
www.flickr.com
Yes, they do indeed suck. I'll have to try some of these remedies here. In my family, it was either scratch em', or quit complaining. We were surrounded! I had a fun run in last summer after having to make a "pit stop" in the woods. I started driving again and felt something crawling on my thigh. A really big and depressed "oh no" ensued followed by a lot of searching. I did notice that after that huge fire near Atsion, the woods there and too the east really didn't have have too much, if anything. Batsto was a different story!
 
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