CHIGGERS!!!!!!
 

O.K guys and Gals,

If you can't help I guess I'm just out of luck. Three weeks ago I did a scouting trip into the woods. Got home and didn't shower, because I just got a new bike and had to get out and ride. Well, next day I'm itching like crazy and it turns out I get Chiggers. I've been told if you take a warm shower you won't get affected by them! If you've never had them...God Bless your soul! What an intense itch that lasts over two weeks.

Anyway, Monday night I went on my first hog hunt...didn't see anything. I was covered head to toe. Got home and took a nice long Warm-Hot shower as the bugs were aweful. I woke up last night itching like crazy all over my hands/wrists, some areas around my belt line and my ankles. CHIGGERS AGAIN!!!! How in the.... I don't get it. Especially on my ankles again. I had long pants on, long socks with knee high rubber boots and they still got in there. What gives?

Anyway, I'm not sure I can handle 2-3 more weeks of itching like crazy. Anyone know of anything that'll make em stop. I have used Benedryl. I've pretty much bathed in the stuff for all intensive purposes. Stuff helps VERY minimally. Is there anything else that will work. You advice/suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.

Jay

P.S...sorry for the long post

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I always put fingernail polish on them to kill them. Use clear though so you don't look like a geek.

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I've heard that troops in the field were at one point advised to eat a match-head a day to help ward off chiggers. Apparently, they can't stand the sulfur in the matches that eventually makes its way out of your pores.

Any Army or Marine people confirm this? I heard it from an Army reservist once.

Fritz

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I feel for you man. [X(].
Luckily in New England chiggers are not an issue. I can say I must be blessed becaus in all my travels I've never got any. I wish you the best of luck and a speedy recovery. And just be glad you weren't wearing shorts:eek:

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I HATE CHIGGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From what I understand the chiggers can live in your boots and wait for you to put them back on - so shower or not, if you don't brush off your boots and other wear, you're gonna get em again. Also, I think they can live in the carpet of your truck / house.

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Yeah what Haz said is true, wash the crap out of your cloths. and have your truck seats cleaned!

other than that wear some non sented bug spray.. chiggers suck.. i hate em. nothings worse that geting chiggers while hunting.

good luck!

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As a GA boy I can attest to the fact that chiggers can make your life miserable. Clear fingernail polish works to get rid of them and it cuts down on the itching. As far as keeping them away, the reason the matches work is the sulfur. You can also go to the drug store and ask for a small package of sulfur powder. Sprinkle it in your socks before you go to the woods and you will not be bothered.

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How long can these things live in your boot/clothing. Nonetheless, this is the first time this year wearing these boots, and I had just washed all my clothes. Nonetheless, they got in there. I will try out the nail polish today at lunch! Looks like I I will be washing my clothes again! I will be getting some scent free bug spray too. Anyway...gotta get back to itching and scratching. I'll look into the sulphur too!

Thanks for the help

Jay

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Control Measures
Skin Care

After returning from a chigger-infested area, launder the field clothes in soapy, hot water (125°F.) for about half an hour. Infested clothes should not be worn again until they are properly laundered and/or exposed to hot sunshine. Unlaundered clothes or those laundered in cool water will contain the biting chiggers to again reinfest your skin. As soon as possible, take a good hot bath or shower and soap repeatedly. The chiggers may be dislodged, but you will still have the stylostomes, causing the severe itch. Scratching deep to remove stylostomes can cause secondary infections. For temporary relief of itching, apply ointments of benzocaine, hydrocortisone, calamine lotion, New Skin, After Bite, or others recommended by your pharmacist or medical doctor. Some use Vaseline, cold cream, baby oil, or fingernail polish. (The sooner the treatment, the better the results.)

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Great follow up mosaic - welcome to the forums!

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When I was a kid living in Henderson Kentucky I had the unfortunate oppurtunity to feel the wrath of chiggers on my berry pouch. It was un-fun> I really cant tell you how bad it was cause I was only 7 but I can remeber, fairly vividly being scared to death that my parts were ruined. Ohh well. I wouldn't wish chiggers on my worst enemy.

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OUCH!

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Permanone will slay them .
Chiggers suck ! [:@]

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Just be glad you did not have to go to the hospital for them,.....talk about embarassing! This happened when I was a kid and it aint very fun showing yourself to a team of dr.s and nurses at 12 years old. Swollen like a grapefruit!

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Well, you say you need it to be 125 degrees or better....will just drying the clothes work. If I were to stick the clothes the dryer on high heat for a 20-30 minutes....wouldn't that work?

Jay

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I admire chiggers for their tenacity. They are a cross between ticks and mosquitoes. They crawl on you perfering ankels and groins. They take a bite of you and sucks some fluid, then drop off. The bite itches worst the a mosquitoe bite.

Cover up what you can they will burrow thru the socks and clothing to get at you. Hit a nest and you will be covered.

"Off" works well to keep them off of you. If you do get them, shower right away. For my clothes, I spray them with bug killer and then wash them. It's very important to do this before you bring them into the house. If you bring infested clothes into the house, then they will drop off and wait to get back on you. For the bites, anything to stop you from scratching. I have found clear nail polish to work but it stings as it goes on.

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Typing this currently covered in chigger bites from dove hunting last weekend. What has worked for me is a nice hot shower right after exposure. Take a wash cloth and dip it in Bleach and mix with water and whipe yourself down real good while in the shower. Stings a bit but much better than itching for 2 weeks. Also pinesol floor cleaner works I hear.

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Ok here is what I do . I scratch the heck out of them then i get in a tub of hot water with a coffe cup of clorex and soak in it maybe a little more if needed . get out dry off and cover them in clear finger nail polish .
As far as your ankles go to Wal-Mart and get you a pair of leg gators they go over your boots at the top and wrap tight around them and the pants have had great luck using them ai have a pair on every set of boots.. good luck

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I haven't been bothered by chiggers in years & heres how I got away from them. I would come in from hunting strip down & start my clothes in the wash. Run a bath tub full of hot water.............as hot as I could stand it put a cup of bleach in it. Soak in the water up to my neck until the water turned cool, drain the tub & take a shower. Hope this helps in the future.

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I fully understand what you're talking about. I picked up my share of them last Wednesday while out dove hunting. The itching only lasted about 3-4 days.

Nothing I know of really works except waiting them out! By the way, fingernail polish is an old myth. Chiggers don't burrow into the skin. They insert their head like a tick and attach themselves to a hair. Fingernail polish only helps with the itching in that it keeps the air off of it and makes you more aware not to itch it.

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Kinda lost on these chiggers, never had em, i had sand fleas while i was in boot camp for the marine corps at Parris Island in South Carolina, but no chiggers. What exactly are they? The myth about eating a match a day is false by the way!

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I have had a run in with them this year also here is a link with some good info
http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/...hopo/chiggers/

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keep a garbage bag at your vehicle and change your cloths as soon as you get out of the woods. if you can i would use high rubber boots when walking around in the woods. those bugs love (and i think they can detect thin skin) like your waist- ankles- and wrists so use bug dope of some kind or treat your cloths with permanone. when you get home put all of your cloths immediatly into the wash and then take a long hot shower. i use a scrub brush and soap to remove the remainder of them in the shower. i find the gold bond lotion kills the itch quickly.once bit it takes me about 2 weeks to fully recover from the bites and lumps. i tried one of those rhino skin suits but they are just too hot for me.if you keep a good routine of the above mentioned you wont get them no where near as bad. GOOD ITCHIN [&:]:(

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You wanna see some chiggers,come on over to the eastern shore of Maryland.Your right they are miserable,I know folks who dont hunt early bow because of them.They wait till 1st good frost.

They clear fingernail polish does work but is time consuming when really infested with em'.After you take a shower the best thing to use is plain ol rubbing alcohol.Get it from the dollar store,buy several bottles,just pour it on your infected area and rub it in.Burns a bit but kills em quick and seems to really help with the itch.

Now I know 2 hunters who do something a bit odd but I will say that they seem to not get chiggers like I do.They may get a few bites on the belly button area but thats about it.What do they do?Well it makes for some funny times at the cabin but what they do is wear a pair of pantyhose under their camo,They tell us that the chiggers cannot get through the small mesh and it appears to work but I cant bring myself to do it.Honest to goodness true story...

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If you have the chiggers head to the pharmacy and look for "Chigger X". They even carry it in Walmart now. I hear its pretty new but works great on getting rid of them if you have them.


Don

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ok i'm sure everyone is going to laugh about this but honestly i didn't know what an chigger was until i was watching the show 'blind date' lol

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I have used the Liquid New Skin to cover the skin area's affected by Chiggers....... it seems to help to stop some of the itching.
Thanks for the sulphur idea info ... I will have to try it.;)

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I also had my first visit by those little "Noseeums" this spring while crawling around hunting pigs. Got the Pig, 10 yards, he came under the tree where we were sitting and boy was he supprised when he saw us. Couldn't quite get a new round chambered fast enough to get a clean shot on one of his 2 buddies though. It was supposed to be my boys turn to shoot but when this guy walked in on us the whole thing lasted about 3 seconds.

Chiggers do like the most tender pieces. Deep Woods Off, be generous, does keep them at bay, it stinks so I just work the wind better.

I itched for 2 weeks but I really felt bad for my 7 year old, he must have had 30/40 bites on him. It was my own fault, but he was just along for the ride.

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I hunted Florida hogs a few years back and one of the guides and I came across a natural spring,it was hotter than heck out and we stopped for a drink,the guide told me to take it easy because I may get a belly ache from all the sulphur in the water.The guide then told me that that is the reason many of the locals are not pestered by chiggers and skeeters.When you perspire the sulphur is offensive to them.It reallyh does work.By the way many of the hogs that we harvested and dressed reaked of sulphur too[:'(]

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here where i live chiggers are pretty bad also i can walk out in my yard and get a couple.There is this stuff that i buy called chigarid it works pretty good and its not just for chiggers.

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Chiggers suck!!!! If I am able to take a hot shower as soon as I get home from hunting or Disc Golf I won't get the chiggers as bad. Most of the time I'll get like one or 2 bites and thats much better then 20-30 on each ankle like I had earlier in the year. After the hot shower I will wet my ankles and waistline down with rubbing alcohol. Before I get done with a hot shower I will put my feet together and face the shower and direct the water to my ankles and turn the water as hot as I can stand it for as long as also. Doing so will weaken the ich when you already have the welps.

I too have had that experence many times. The chiggers loved me as a kid, I HATED THEM. They would last for a week and durning that week I couldn't do anything with out feeling the inch and hurt. Nothing is wose then haveing them there...... NOTHING.

Last bit of advise, DON'T ICH THEM If you do they will last for at least 2 weeks. If you don't ich them the ich will be gone with-in a week.

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I just moved to Oklahoma a couple of years ago and had the same thing happen to me while riding my 3 wheeler last summer. I have had chiggars before but I have never seen them as bad as they are here (they seem to leave much bigger bites and they are more plentiful). I did not even stick my big toe in any fields this summer, I just stuck to fishing in the lake for entertainment. When I started setting up my tree stands and cutting shooting lanes to get ready for the season a couple of weeks ago, I would go out to the barn in my shorts, take off my watch, and spray down completely with deets on my bare skin. Then I would spray down my camo shirt and pants after I put them on. Then I would spray down my socks. Then, when I put my boots on, I would spray down in them and up my ankle and legs and all around the tops of my boots. Finally I would spray my hat and spray a little in my hands to rub onto my face and neck. I know this probably sounds extreme and you will go through a lot of deets like this but so far it has worked pretty good. It worked great the first 2 days, then on the 3rd day I spent about 6 hours in the field without reapplying the OFF and I got a few bites, still it's better than the misery of being covered with bites.

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you need to spray your clothes, underwear, socks w/ permanone or any repellant w/ permitherine in it. its TOXIC to the chiggers. i find that clorox works great while showering. also, make sure you wash your bed sheets immediately in hot water. i am sure they are on your bed. good luck

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Ditto on the permanone. Treat your early season hunting clothes with this stuff (find at Wally world, BP etc).
It lasts about 2 weeks for one app. I have watched ticks do a hot foot dance on my pants while hunting once. Made my a firm believer in the stuff.

Once on opening weekend of Bow season here in Missouri I found an old ground blind that was built at the base of a tree and had three sides built up about 3' high with cedar limbs. I jumped into the pile of leaves that had formed in the blind and wiggled down into the leaves so they covered 85% of my body.

Well needless to say the chiggers ate me up. could not count the bites, aroound circumference of my boot line and waist band. Some of the buggers even got to my "berry sack" as someone before metntioned.

To get rid of I used Chigger Rid. A nail polish like substance that has an anti-septic in it that has a slight sting to it when applied to half-rubbed-raw bites so beware and don't do like me and keep the stuff off your "berry sack"!!

OOUUCCCHHH!

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Great post Sharkey. Thanks

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Walmart sells a cream called chiggrid. I used it on my son this summer and it worked better than anything else. The itching isnt from the chigger itself but from the enzymes it secreted into your skin while it was feeding on you. This enzyme liquifies the skin around the chigger so it can feed. Chiggers dont stay in you for long. Usually by the time the itching gets bad they are done feeding and out of you. Usually within 24 hours. The itching continues on for a week or two. Try the chiggrid.

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Hunter_x
Never did that. OUCH!!!!!
I laughed in pain when I read that.

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That must stink.[:@]

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went out last week squirell hunting and had to go through a thicket of grasses and brambles to get to my honey hole. this stuff is usually cut down but it wasn't. my friend went there a couple days prior and got ate up. so i new the cosequenses. i sprayed my whole body ,cloths, socks,boots everything with deep woods off unsented of course and never got one bite.knock on wood. but it worked. i waded through this stuff chest high and not one bite. hope this helps

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The little buggers got me this past weekend and I'm itching like crazy! Went out to cut the shooting lanes to several tree stands. Wanted to do it at least three weeks before the season. Anyway, when I got home, I noticed my legs starting to itch. Thought it was skeeters, but nooooooooo, it them damn chiggers. Going to have to spray down on opening day.:(