Pauline in Texas mentioned walking through the weeds to see a calf, and later being tormented by chigger bites. This got me wondering why I am never bothered by chiggers any more. When I was a kid, I was tortured by them every summer, especially during the week I spent at Grandma's house in north Missouri. According to the Missouri Department of Conservation, chiggers still abound in Missouri.
I'm sure part of the reason I had so much trouble with the little critters as a child is that I was always sitting, laying, and rolling around in the grass. I also walked through tall weeds any time I felt like it. I still sometimes sit on the grass in my yard, when I'm fiddling around with flowers and weeds, but I haven't had a chigger bite in years, as far as I know.
Oh, but I remember them well: They would get in places where clothing is tight, like the legs and waistbands of undergarments. They loved to burrow as deeply into my belly button as possible, creating an itch I could not scratch enough, and making my belly button stink to high heaven. (Too much information?)
They liked the coziness they found in armpits, too, and the nice, snug, hidden areas under my socks.
Reading the article I linked to above, I see chiggers prefer the tender skin of women and children. Maybe in my old age my skin is so tough the chiggers won't have me.
Finally! Something good about getting old. Chiggers reject me. But they still like the taste of Pauline in Texas.
We used to think the chiggers were living under the skin, so we'd paint the chigger bite with fingernail polish hoping to smother the tiny bugs we thought were living in us. Turns out they didn't burrow under the skin; that was just another old wive's tale.
I haven't been bothered by them in years either. Even though I still roll around in the grass with my boys. They will come away covered. I never had a tick until I was in my mid twenties. They never seemed to be a problem until I got older, but my poor boys. I know summer has arrived when I start plucking them out of their scalps.
ReplyDeleteChiggers are still alive and well in Ohio too. Some of us at the campground have been bothered by them. It seems they like the tall grass and we try to avoid waling in it when possible. As long as we keep our area mowed we are just fine. I remember when I was a child we were advised to stick our pant legs in our socks to keep the chiggers away.
ReplyDeleteThis place is still covered with them. I haven't gotten bitten in a long time, but I can still see them crawling all over the place. Especially at work. The little swine are drawn to my white shirt and if I swipe them off they leave little red spots so it looks like I have been peppered with buckshot. Aargh!
ReplyDeleteThey all came down here and really they don't bother John but they love me. I wonder if darev2005 is talking about ticks. I've never been able to see a chigger.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have chiggers up here in NY that I know of.. we have a lot of ticks now however. It is funny when I was a kid I roamed the woods, fields and streams and never once had a tick on me. Now I can't go anywhere without getting ticks.
ReplyDeleteAre they the same thing as red bugs?
ReplyDeleteThats what we call them down here.
I have heard of Chiggers before. If they are the same thing we have them here too.
They love the moss in the trees and moss is full of them. One time my cousin got them.. really bad. Between his legs. I have always heard that finger nail polish gets rid of them. But another thing that helps is athletes feet/jock itch spray. It gets rid of them and helps the itching.
Those things used to eat me up. No problem since I have got older.
ReplyDeleteI too used to be eaten alive as a child. But then when you are small even short grass is taller for a child. Plus, they seemed to be where we were, picking black raspberries, apple orchards, picnics. But like you I was always sitting in the grass.
ReplyDeleteNow I am older and realize I am allergic to grass and get itchy contact dermatitis when I touch it. So I stay out of it. When I weed my flowers/garden I sit on a little stool.
My youngest son is plagued with mosquito bites in the summer. Poor guy they love him!
Inga
It makes me itch just thinking about all the chigger bites we got going blackberry picking. They were so tiny you could barely see them but they sure let you know they were there. We used clear fingernail polish too.
ReplyDeleteAfter they released wild turkey's in our area several years ago we now have what everybody calls turkey lice. They'll eat you alive much worse than chiggers. The only thing my husband has found to kill them is taking a bath in bleach water. There's a special spray you can buy to spray your clothes before going out in area's where turkey's are known to be. My husband tried the spray and I washed his clothes seperately, the washer was covered in those tiny bugs when the load was done and I washed them again to be on the safe side.
It makes me itch just thinking about all the chigger bites we got going blackberry picking. They were so tiny you could barely see them but they sure let you know they were there. We used clear fingernail polish too.
ReplyDeleteAfter they released wild turkey's in our area several years ago we now have what everybody calls turkey lice. They'll eat you alive much worse than chiggers. The only thing my husband has found to kill them is taking a bath in bleach water. There's a special spray you can buy to spray your clothes before going out in area's where turkey's are known to be. My husband tried the spray and I washed his clothes seperately, the washer was covered in those tiny bugs when the load was done and I washed them again to be on the safe side.
We always did the same thing, and Thomas still does it and swears by it. It seems to work for him.
ReplyDeleteWhen my husband and I were teenagers in love, before we were married, we went on a date to one of the conservation areas here in Missouri. We walked through a deep, shaded thick woods to a place that was lightly shaded, in a pretty little secluded grassy area. It looked like those places we used to see in ads on tv. We spread a blanket and then just had all kinds of picnic, and some of that real fruity awful wine that we used to drink in the early 1970's. Finally when it was time to go, we went through the meadow, the the high woods line weeds, then through the deep woods and back to the car.
ReplyDeleteWe had barely gone down the road at all before we were both itching and twitching, with skin crawling all over. We were both miserable, so I had him just drop me off at my folks house and he went on home, too. I got inside the house and started getting out of those crawling clothes. I was crawling with teeny, tiny "seed" ticks as my Mom used to call them, and a couple of regular sized ticks, too. I also had chigger bites all over my ankles and the waist band of my shorts. My Mom helped me pick all of the ticks off, and made sure none were in my hair. And after I showered I checked again for any of those those ticks sticking to me. I put rubbing alcohol on all of my chigger bites, and that was all I could do. My boyfriend, now husband, had the same situation when he got to his house (except his Mom was not home.)
What we learned that day. Do all kinds of picnic-ing on a picnic table, in the car, or on a bed. Never do any kind of picnic-ing near a woods in a grassy meadow. Don't time travel back in time and try to drink that terrible sweet cheap wine. It will give you a headache and it probably attracts ticks and chiggers.