| A Word Edgewise by Mary Joe Clendenin |
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| A Word Edgewise by Mary Joe Clendenin |
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Last Updated 01/20/06
FOR THEIR SIZE, CHIGGERS BITE ARE PURE TORTURE
Chances are, if you have ever picked berries, or fished from the banks of a river or lake, or walked across a field, or picked black-eyed peas, or just ventured outside in Texas during the Spring or Summer, you have been host to a few dozen chiggers--and you’ve spend hours scratching the itching bites that getter bigger and more irritated by minute. I’ll wager, if you are not native to the Southwest, or maybe Florida, that you have wondered what on Earth could have bitten tasted your body juices with such obvious relish.
Imagine what torture the little buggers could inflict if they were big enough to see!
Actually, they are big enough to see after a time of feasting on your body, preferably around the waist, or where your socks fit, or on especially tender folds of flesh where they were not easily dislodged. After the feast, he measures about 1/50 inch long, hairy body six legs and all. What speed that little creature must have to crawl about 2,000 lengths of his own body to get to a selected tender spot to banquet. It seems only a few minutes from exposure to itch.
Undisturbed chiggers feast on a host for about three days and then fall off to become the next stage in the insect development, the nymph. The chigger, the larvae stage of a particular mite, feeds on man, domestic animals, wild animals, poultry, and birds. The nymph, and the adult mite, has eight legs instead of six, and feeds on insect eggs, small insects, or other organisms. The entire life cycle can require from two months to one year. As many as 1-5 generations may be produced per year depending on the temperature, moisture, and location.
"Chiggers 1/50 inch long cause bumps and itching like that!" You might say if you are a new-comer to Texas. On me they get big and red, the size of a dime with redness all around. What if chiggers were as big as mosquitoes and could fly! The world would not have to wait for atomic bombs to destroy it. Chiggers would rule the planet! Talk about biological warfare--wonder if chiggers could be shot from guns?
Adults, the parents of chiggers are mites which are free living, do not require hosts. They usually overwinter in protected places and become active in the spring, although in Florida they may be active all year. (Better plan another place for winter vacation if you crave outside activities--I don’t think they can swim, or at least not bite while swimming.) Females lay eggs in a sheltered area. In about a week, the eggs hatch into an ectoparasitic, six-legged larval form. The orange-yellow or light-red larval stage crawls on the soil surface until a suitable host is found. Notice, you don’t have to be in grass to get chiggers.
Those little red bugs, usually red, are very selective about their hosts. My two sisters, Ray and I went on a trip together one summer. We went by the diamond mine (field) in Arkansas, all four of us following the same trails, doing the same things. Two of us were covered with chiggers that evening. Ray and sister Nell were scorned. Wonder what determines their choice. We picked berries last summer. I got chiggers but
Ray didn’t.
Unfortunately, chiggers especially like young children, too. One year, when we lived on the branch on the old home place, Fitzgerald Nursery, our sons, Pat and Mike, became luscious hosts to colonies of chiggers. Such misery for the little ones. Swollen bites that itched constantly until we doctored with everything we could think of: and had available: soda and water paste, rubbing alcohol, vinegar, baby oil. I think the good bath with soda in the water and then baby oil helped more than anything. Perhaps the baby oil dislodged the chiggers and let healing begin. Household ammonia, or window cleaner with ammonia in it, stops some of the itching.
The best cure for such bites is prevention. Insect repellents seem to work if generously applied to the skin and clothing. Read the labels to be sure of safety and to see if chiggers are included in the lists of pests repelled..
With Fourth of July holiday activities coming, take it from this morsel of chigger bait, be prepared. That little red member of the Trombiculidae family, practically unseen, will sure make itself known in an unpleasant way. Be a host to a nest of ants for the picnic if you must, but repel the chiggers.