Is it possible to be immune to chiggers?

Badfish740

Explorer
Feb 19, 2005
589
44
Copperhead Road
I hear a lot of talk of chiggers on here but I swear I've never gotten them, and I've done my share of bushwhacking that's for sure. I've been lit up by mosquitos plenty of times and I get poison ivy just by looking at it, but I've never had chiggers even after trudging through some truly nasty swamps. Am I really that lucky?
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,602
8,180
It is not the swamps they are in. They hang out in weeds along roads and other places.
 

Gibby

Piney
Apr 4, 2011
1,640
442
Trenton
I swear I've never gotten them

Badfish, you haven't tried hard enough. Last Saturday I was out with Dragoncjo all day and did they ever make a meal out of me. For some reason the bites don't make me itch any more, but I look like I was hit with #8 shot from the waist down. Don't sit in the tall grass while waiting to see where a Timber disappears to or walk few miles in waist high grass looking for Milk or Corn Snakes if you don't want to get them. I have had bites on me for the last few months and I am always asked what is wrong with my legs. For me, chiggers are a reminder of the fun I have with good people on the weekends. :)
 

Ms Oats

Scout
Aug 7, 2013
51
2
49
Bayville, NJ
My boyfriend is covered from the knees down, I don't have a single bite, but its always the reverse with poison ivy and mosquito bites. I doubt I'm "immune", just think I've been lucky, plus if we're walking a narrow trail, generally he leads (in case of snakes, he loves them, I'm terrified), so maybe they're sticking to him first!
 

Boyd

Administrator
Staff member
Site Administrator
Jul 31, 2004
9,503
2,766
Ben's Branch, Stephen Creek
Walk through a place with some high grass - like a rye strip maybe. You will get chigger bites. Now, it's certainly possible that you just don't have much of a reaction to them. But they're gonna bite you. :)
 

MarkBNJ

Piney
Jun 17, 2007
1,875
73
Long Valley, NJ
www.markbetz.net
I would think that people's reaction to them varies, as with poison ivy, or mosquito bites. But I doubt anyone is completely immune. And yeah, as the others said, the place to roll around in naked to test your theory would be low weeds by a trail.
 

Boyd

Administrator
Staff member
Site Administrator
Jul 31, 2004
9,503
2,766
Ben's Branch, Stephen Creek
Man, between the chiggers and the mosquitoes I'm just about completely eaten up. They are terrible down here. Out on a walk today, I reached down and picked up a leaf from the ground. Watched in horror as a whole army of the little devils ran from the leaf to my hand and frantically brushed them off. This is one of the only times I've actually seen them.

But I learned my lesson... DON'T PICK STUFF UP OFF THE GROUND! :confused: If you actually are "immune", I hope you will donate your body to science. It would be a great gift to mankind if they could develop a "chigger vaccine". :D
 

gipsie

Explorer
Sep 14, 2008
547
67
55
atlantic county
Mosquitos love me, ticks don't bother me, green heads look for me and chiggers have radar that says gipsie alert! I have played it smart the past couple of years and haven't gotten chiggers. But I have pics of my jeans sitting overnight in the washing machine and the agitator being COVERED with them little red bastards!
 

Gerania

Explorer
May 18, 2004
280
30
Marlton
I got chiggers in my yard this year. It was a first for me.

Hey, Boyd's got a picture! You've changed since I bought the old GPS from you. I look exactly the same as I did eight years ago. ;)
 
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Gerania

Explorer
May 18, 2004
280
30
Marlton
I'm pretty sure that it was that long ago. I drive through the area every once in a while but since the blue mail box is gone, I forget where you used to live. BTW, my son lost that one in the woods.

If Boyd's selling anything; buy it. I not only got the GPS, but the box, all of the literature and, if I'm not mistaken, the receipt. He also showed us how to use it.

Anyway, I've gotten chiggered three times this summer and I haven't waded through a rye field nor the scary weeds. Well, maybe I did.
 

Boyd

Administrator
Staff member
Site Administrator
Jul 31, 2004
9,503
2,766
Ben's Branch, Stephen Creek
Actually 8 years sounds about right. I moved away from Medford in 2006; I loved that place but they clear-cut the woods next door and got a variance to build two McMansions on lots that were too small. Then the real estate market went bad and those million-dollar homes sat empty for years. What a waste. Now I have a hideaway down South in the pines surrounded by protected land that nobody can build a McMansion on. :)
 
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