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How Do You Prevent and Treat Chigger Bites?

image of a tiny chigger on a finger

Chiggers are a summertime scourge. Here is helpful advice for how to treat itchy chigger bites, and expert tips for preventing and avoiding these annoying red bugs.

When you’re in the outdoors, you might also want to know how to avoid mosquitoes, ticks, stinging caterpillars and other itchy hazards.

WHAT ARE CHIGGERS?

Red bugs, chiggers, berry bugs, scrub-itch mites and harvest mites are all terms used to describe members of the family of insects known as Trombiculidae. These reddish-orange mites can be found worldwide, but they really enjoy hanging out in damp, grassy and wooded areas, especially at the edges of forests.

In the United States, chiggers are mostly found in the southeast, south and midwest. They are most active from early spring to early autumn, until the first frost.

HOW DO CHIGGERS BITE US?

chigger under a microscopeChigger larvae infest humans by crawling up our shoes and legs as we make our way through the scrub.

What’s kind of cool is that chiggers do not actually bite us. Likewise, they do not burrow into our skin, and they do not suck our blood. Instead, chiggers use their mouths to drill tiny holes into our skin through which they secrete specialized salivary enzymes designed to break down our skin cells from the inside. Then, the chiggers slurp up the mixture through a tube formed by hardened skin cells called a stylosome.

Basically, it’s like drinking a big “YOU” protein shake!

Your skin does not take too kindly to all of this drilling and parasitic digestion by chiggers. Consequently, humans typically develop intensely itchy, bright red pimple-like bumps or hives or a generalized skin rash in the areas where the mites were attached, even up to 24 to 48 hours after exposure.

Chiggers prefer to attach to skin at areas where the clothing fits tightly against the body, such as at the tops of socks or around the elastic edges of underwear, so a rash in these areas may be a clue to the specific cause.

HOW DO YOU TREAT CHIGGER BITES?

So, what can you do for a chigger bites or rashes? First, forget the old myth of applying fingernail polish to the affected areas. Chiggers do NOT burrow into the skin, so trying to suffocate the chiggers with polish makes no sense at all. Second, chiggers do not lay eggs in the skin, so stop worrying about that.

hand in tall chigger infested grassChigger bites or wounds are a complex mixture of mechanical damage to the skin (the drilling), enzymatic disruption of the skin (the digestion), and your body’s own attempt to get rid of the parasite. Consequently, the most important thing to do is to prevent chigger infestation.

HOW DO YOU AVOID CHIGGERS?

Avoid camping in warm, moist temperate climates of high mammal density, including livestock pastures, with tall grass.

If the area is infested, get out of there quickly and wash your skin vigorously with soap and water. Itching is best alleviated through the use of topical corticosteroids (either over-the-counter hydrocortisone 1% ointment or prescription strength from your physician) and anti-histamines like Benadryl.

Watch out for severe chigger rashes that can become secondarily infected with bacteria; in these cases, consult a doctor immediately.

Now you know a “mitey” bit more about chiggers than you did before!

11 Comments on How Do You Prevent and Treat Chigger Bites?

  1. Clear fingernail polish isn’t to kill them. I grew up using it to stop the itching. Also, a good way to check for chiggers is to place a white paper plate in the weeds or grass where you intend to camp. If it’s infested, you’ll see them on the plate gathering. They move pretty quick. And by the time you feel the itching, their gone.

  2. scoutmomma // July 22, 2015 at 12:19 pm // Reply

    Used Chigarid. There is also Chiggerex, but it doesn’t work as well. Ask your pharmacist to show you where to find these in the drugstore.

  3. On them and poison ivy I like to wash area then dry with a hot hair dryer. Don’t burn yourself but it’s more wonderful than scratching. Then put on an ointment. Won’t itch for a couple of hours.

  4. One capful of bleach in your bath water will stop the itch. We’ve used this successfully for over 50 years. It works!

  5. For prevention use a mixture of baby powder & sulfur power. Mix together & sprinkle in underwear. For relief make a paste with Vaseline & sulfur powder, treat affected spots.

  6. tomahawk patrol man // July 21, 2015 at 2:58 pm // Reply

    The boy scout book says calamine lotion or clear finger nail polish

  7. Very hot water provided intense relief and one week into this torture I used Biofreeze gel and it worked great!!!!

  8. All I can say is they are the worst little creachers out there. What eats them anything?

  9. Vicks or any other ointment containing menthol helps relieve the itch almost immediately. Just be cautious where you apply because it can sting sensitive areas.

  10. Put bleach on a paper towel let it dry of course don’t use it on certain places might not want to use it on the kids

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