chiggers - AR15.COM

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Posted: 5/20/2003 6:23:36 PM EDT

Damn, my kid got into chiggers. They are very bad. How do you treat the bites/itching. HURRY, this kid is driving me nuts with his scratching and jumping around.

Posted: 5/20/2003 6:28:04 PM EDT

[#1]

I have a cure. It involves the following:
1) A razor
2) A match
3) An icepick

Interested?

Posted: 5/20/2003 6:36:06 PM EDT

[#2]

Get some lice shampoo. It works great. In a pinch you can use flea dip for dogs.

Posted: 5/20/2003 6:38:32 PM EDT

[#3]

I allways take a bottle of clear finger-nail polish,the applicator makes a good dobber! Put a dab on each bite it will stop the itching and kill the chigger(cuts off his air )!

Try putting calamine lotion on him after the treatments,and you can get some flour of sulpher to put on his and your ankles and legs before you go out in the boonies again!

Bob [:D]

Posted: 5/20/2003 6:39:16 PM EDT

[#4]

Clear nail polish works. Rub it around the affected area and it hardens. This cuts off the oxygen to the little buggers. It works.Continue to apply until they are dead.

Posted: 5/20/2003 6:40:28 PM EDT

[#5]

Dave do a search on Yahoo, Plenty of remidies. Nailpolish, good soapy bath, vinager, flee bath. Take your pick.

Posted: 5/20/2003 6:43:50 PM EDT

[#6]

Thanks guys.....I am currently filling the bathtub with clear fingernail polish. Seriously, thanks for the ideas....dont know why I didnt search the net first.

Posted: 5/20/2003 7:07:36 PM EDT

[#7]

call the local drugstore and ask for Chiggerrid

I have known several people that have used it and swear by it.

Posted: 5/20/2003 7:37:44 PM EDT

[#8]

benydryl!!! while on vacation to missouri, I got covered in Chiggers from the tops of my feet to my ballsack!!! I had a really severe reaction and i was itching soo bad. My mother, the nurse, told me I might be having a reaction OVER and beyond the normal reaction and to take 4 benydryll and to call 911 if it gets hard to breathe. The bennys worked, no drowseyness either. me and my lil cousins PAINTED my legs with nail polish, the only color we had, pink. I finished the more sensitive areas my self of course. All from standing in the grass for 5 mins, without any repellent, on a river bank watching a barge.

it sucked bad. bennys and nailpolish work.

Posted: 5/20/2003 7:43:03 PM EDT

[#9]

I've had success with a cotton ball soaked in rubbing alcohol. Hold it on there for a couple minutes each. It really burns the hell outta your balls.

Posted: 5/20/2003 7:45:18 PM EDT

[#10]

I had over 50 chigger bites once.. way up on my thighs. It was horrible! I woke up scratchin like I had crabs...

Posted: 5/20/2003 7:58:01 PM EDT

[#11]

I'm convinced God created chiggers to give us a small preview of what hell is like. Nail polish is a good cure.

For prevention, find someone dealing in Mary Kay cosmetics & get a spray bottle or roll-on of 'Skin So Soft'. Spray it/spread it all over. When it's dry, put on your socks & dust some powdered sulfur from the garden store over them, maybe up to the knees. Put on your shoes & head to the woods.

-hanko

Posted: 5/20/2003 8:00:06 PM EDT

[#12]

christ they sound horrid.
What exactly do chiggers do and why do they attack in such massive numbers?
All I can say is im glad I've never had to deal with any.

*edit*
one more thing I forgot, With the nail polish remedy listed above, how do you get the chigger corpses out of you when they die? I'm assuming if you nail polish them over they must go below the skin somewhat?

Posted: 5/20/2003 8:32:02 PM EDT

[#13]

Contrary to popular belief chiggers do not burrow into the skin. They'll live on you for 4 or 5 days (if not washed off with soap and hot water) periodically injecting enzymes into the skin which liquifies it so they can suck it up. This causes the severe itching. Nail polish probably just provides a "scab" that keeps away secondary infection since the enzymes keep the wound from healing for a few days. Your not actually smothering anything.

Posted: 5/20/2003 9:06:37 PM EDT

[#14]

Here, read all about them - http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2100.html

As for the nail polish - it performs just as advertised. Suffocates the little bastards. Arachnids and other insect types all breathe through pores in their body, and chemicals such as alcohol, ammonia, very quickly kill them (ever spray down ants in the kitchen with Windex? Works g-r-e-a-t, and without putting poisons where you prep your food). Just as any layer of goop (OR nail polish) also suffocates them.

Posted: 5/20/2003 9:20:16 PM EDT

[#15]

A couple summers ago I got over 100 bites on my legs. Most were on my feet and ankles, with a few around my wasteband. None in my nether regions, thank you.

For 3 days I had a 104 degree fever. Not much fun. Even using any and every ointment I could find, the bites lasted for almost 2 months. Most were just itchy scabs by that time, but annoying none the less.

Nothing really helped me except time and anti-itch cream. I think I'm just allergic to the bastards.

Posted: 5/20/2003 9:26:43 PM EDT

[#16]

They also lay eggs, they hatch, move a few inches, cycle repeats.
You 'couple months' was a few generations. Gross, huh?

Used to run around in the scrub around Ft Sill, OK, and often got the little bastards in rings on my legs, just over my boot tops. Calamine is good, if a pain in the ass.

Posted: 5/20/2003 9:35:14 PM EDT

[#17]

AHHHHH.......silence. He is sleeping now finally. He took a soapy bath. After that we coated all the areas with clear fingernail polish. He had about 20 bites. Some on his neck, armpit area, and waist. They tore him up.
He got them from school. They had a picnic on the unmowed football field. He told me there were kids in tears at school today. Arms and legs covered with bites. I think he is not as bad as some. I thought the fireants killed all the chiggers in Texas. WTF? I hope all the chemicals used to kill the fireants didnt mutate the little bastards into some form of Super Firechiggers.

Posted: 5/20/2003 9:37:20 PM EDT

[#18]

Quoted:
They also lay eggs, they hatch, move a few inches, cycle repeats.
You 'couple months' was a few generations. Gross, huh?

Used to run around in the scrub around Ft Sill, OK, and often got the little bastards in rings on my legs, just over my boot tops. Calamine is good, if a pain in the ass.

View Quote

He has a perfectly straight line of bites under his arm...about 4 in a row. I was wondering if it was the same chigger or multiple chiggers.

Posted: 5/21/2003 4:32:55 AM EDT

[#19]

Sulfur powder works before hand and I've heard taking garlic pills will help keep them off. They dont like the taste of it but no one else can stand to be around you either. We get some type of commercial bug spray at work that works pretty good if you remember to use it. Spray around your boots and pants legs and that keeps them off. The guys on the line crew used to buy cattle ear tags that have been treated to repel bugs and lace them into their boots. They claimed it works.

Posted: 5/21/2003 4:56:23 AM EDT

[#20]

Quoted:
Sulfur powder works before hand and I've heard taking garlic pills will help keep them off. They dont like the taste of it but no one else can stand to be around you either. We get some type of commercial bug spray at work that works pretty good if you remember to use it. Spray around your boots and pants legs and that keeps them off. The guys on the line crew used to buy cattle ear tags that have been treated to repel bugs and lace them into their boots. They claimed it works.

View Quote

Guess I'm just a redneck, we always dust the legs of our jeans and the tops of our shoes with diesel fuel. Keeps the little buggers away.

Posted: 5/21/2003 5:28:16 AM EDT

[#21]

I'm convinced you can build up an immunity to them, I have a South African friend that picked up a case that landed him in the ER. It looked like someone had peppered him with birdshot. He had hundreds of bites, the other three native Texans with him didn't have a single itch.

Powdered sulfur (You can buy it by the pound in garden stores) and Chiggerrid is the way to go.

Posted: 5/21/2003 5:45:34 AM EDT

[#22]

Oh Lord - this thread brings back horrible memories of my youth. When I was 10 we went fishing at a little pond near Manhattan, KS. We stood on the bank for 2 hours and caught one bluegill. I found out about later that evening I also caught a load of chiggars. My mom counted over 200 bites on ONE leg. I was sick for 4 days and itched for three weeks. Nothing and I mean nothing stopped the misery. The itching finally stopped and then came back in another two weeks (apparently after reading this thread I realize it was another generation of chiggars). To this day if at all possible I never stand in a grassy area if I can stand on pavement/dirt. And I would take a load of tick and mosquito bites any day over chiggars. You can't see those sneeky chiggar bastards until it's too late and the itch is ten times wore than any mosquito's and lasts a heck of a lot longer. Those of you who don't live in chiggar areas can thank your lucky stars that you can walk in the woods or grass without the ever present fear of the of the VORACIOUS, VISCIOUS, CHIGGAR. Maybe I should have gotten help after that chiggar attack.

Posted: 5/21/2003 7:38:30 PM EDT

[#23]

Tucks pads! Seriously! They relieve the itching, but only temporarily. Just wipe them all over the stings. From what I understand, you can use them on an itchy bung hole as well.

Posted: 5/21/2003 8:04:07 PM EDT

[#24]

The best prevenative measure for chiggers is to eat two match heads. I went two days without and it sucked, then one of the locals told us about it, your sweat smells like sulfer, but the chiggers hate in and left us alone the rest of the time.

Posted: 5/21/2003 11:17:48 PM EDT

[#25]

Quoted:

Quoted:
They also lay eggs, they hatch, move a few inches, cycle repeats.
You 'couple months' was a few generations. Gross, huh?

Used to run around in the scrub around Ft Sill, OK, and often got the little bastards in rings on my legs, just over my boot tops. Calamine is good, if a pain in the ass.

View Quote

He has a perfectly straight line of bites under his arm...about 4 in a row. I was wondering if it was the same chigger or multiple chiggers.

View Quote

My guess is more than one.
We'd usually get them nestled in snug places - socklines, boot-top lines, waistlines, one guy in a ring under a sweatband. They seem to like to nestle in.

Posted: 5/22/2003 6:14:13 PM EDT

[#26]

The best remedy for chiggers is kerosene. It beats the hell out of nail polish and Chiggarid. Chiggarid is just glorified nail polish anyway. I've had between 200 and 300 chigger bites on me several times and I've tried alot of things and believe it or not kerosene is the best. It kills(smothers) them quicker and helps relieve the itching. Just don't smoke until the kerosene dries!

Posted: 5/22/2003 6:21:29 PM EDT

[#27]

Uhhh,...they like to be called CHEEGROES now instead of CHIGGERS.

Posted: 5/22/2003 6:59:32 PM EDT

[#28]

We had them bad about two years ago, hundreds of bites over both of us....the best thing is Dog Shampoo, the itching stopped and they cleared up,only I was only interested in humping Mrs. Winds leg for awhile.

Posted: 5/22/2003 7:01:51 PM EDT

[#29]

Reducing the Itching
Immediately after exposure to chigger-infested areas, take a hot bath to kill and remove chigger larvae. Then apply an antiseptic solution to any welts that have appeared to kill trapped chiggers and to prevent infection. Destroying the chigger usually does not stop the itching completely because the itching is caused by tissue reaction to the fluid injected by the chigger. Normally, two to three days pass before the itching stops. Temporary relief can be obtained by applying a commercial product that contains a mild, local anesthetic. Your pharmacist can suggest an appropriate product for your needs.
Any unusual allergic reaction, fever or infection should be treated by a physician.

[img]http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/nathis/arthopo/chiggers/chig2.jpg[/img]

Posted: 5/22/2003 7:31:45 PM EDT

[#30]

My father-in-law, whom was farm born and raised, was a life long hunter. When he came home after being in the field, he would soak in a bathtub of hot water with a cup of bleach added. He claimed this killed the chiggers he picked up while hunting. I tried it several times and it seemed to work, but as mentioned in previous posts,it does little to relieve the itching at the time.

Posted: 5/22/2003 7:48:09 PM EDT

[#31]

Bathtub full of warm water, bleach, a condom... That is how I get rid of them.

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