chiggers

I rarely get ticks or chiggers either one. Normally 2 or 3 right at the start of summer and nothing more. For some reason they just don't seem to like me. This summer I have been mowing weeds in some pastures for my neighbor Jeff, pulling an old Dunham rotary Cutter behind the Farmall H my dad farmed with for 45 years. It would occasionally hit my right foot with a piece of a weed, and leave a few pieces scattered on the deck of the tractor, but I didn't think anything about it. Sunday afternoon however, Chigger bites started showing in several places. :x When I was talking to Jeff and mentioned it he said to put New Skin (also sold as NU-Skin) on them. It works good, though is best if you out it on the bite as soon as it starts itching, and before you scratch it. Applied quickly the itching subsides in 2 or 3 minutes and the swelling is usually gone the next day. New Skin is on the same shelf as Band aids in most pharmacies, Walmarts, etc. New skin comes in a small sturdy bottle that can easily be carried in your pocket without breaking, though it is a little more difficult to carry someone to apply it to the places you can't reach.

When I was a kid mom used clear fingernail polish

Little buggers got me earlier this year, both ankles, both sides, and the top of my feet, looked like this. Didn't scratch them, I'm just very allergic to the bites. None of them here now, too dry in this part of Texas.

Blast it Fred you got there by seconds. You can by a nice bottle of clear, or colored nail polish at the Dollar store. Cheaper then anyother place. Buy a half dozen and spread them around to tractor tool boxes and hand one to wife and kids. The photo shows the giant economy size bottle. This is the type they use in nail salons to top coat finger nails so it is even stronger than normal polish. Stuff also works great as a softer locktite. Holds the nuts and bolts but will pop loose with a firm twist of your tools.

The news media says this year they are worst than they have been in decades. I've been having good luck spraying my legs and feet from the knee down with deep woods off before I put my socks and shoes on.

Their known as Red Bugs in Alabama, I get them every year
in the summer, when I get home I?ll rub Clorox or rubbing
alcohol on my skin where their at, that will get most of them,
have used fingernail polish too for the stubborn ones that?s
dug in....

Wow that looks nasty. I was helping a friend this spring, and a couple of days later he calls and said he had chiggers real bad. Asked if I got
them, I said no ( we were working together) and he said he never had them before. He lives on 30 acres and I live on a couple of acres a about
four miles away. He was on his 3010 and was running his bushhog ahead of me to show me where to spray poison ivy. So I was the one on
the ground doing the work.

Not up here. Got the fire ants pretty much under control and out come the chiggers. HEET 25% in the orange plastic top and green can gets them.

Scratch them open and put kerosene on them it takes care of them fast.

Prevention is the key!

Repellent with high DEET content and dusting socks, shoes, pant legs with sulfur works well.

There is also a sulfur pellets that can be spread on the lawn to repel them.

Once they have bit, they inject anticoagulant, drink until full, and drop off. The anticoagulant is what causes the itching, scratching is what causes the bleeding. From what I read, they do not dig in and continue to feed.

I don't know about the nail polish, kerosene or bleach etc. Chiggers don't burrow into skin so I'm not sure what effect these will do but itch cream/medicine works. By the time you start scratching you have probably brushed the chiggers off. Chiggers have claw like feet to hold on, then they bite, injecting saliva that dissolves skin tissue in which they feed on, not blood and this causes the itching.

I got hit like that on one ankle/foot a
couple weeks ago. Got a steroid shot and
creme, still healing. Deet from now on.

worst year I've seen for'em in long while in mid-Tenn.

Kerosene is also great for wire rope sticks and catfish spine sticks now those babies really hurt