Chiggers Are Not Your Friends
Last week I wrote a post and mentioned that we showed a foreclosure home and I got bit by fleas. Well, fleas would have been so much nicer. I realized it was chiggers. This is my first (and hopefully, last) chigger experience. Since I realized it was chigger bites, I have been through the plethora of information on the big G and Wikipedia. Here’s what I learned:
Chigger bites ITCH intensely. Did I say chigger bites ITCH? The bites are at my waistband area so clothes rub and scratch against them making them ITCH even more.
It seems that in the past, rumor had it that the chiggers burrowed under your skin and stayed there until you did something like paint them with clear nail polish to get rid of them. Well, that’s a myth. They do not hang around under your skin. (ugh, just the thought of that makes me shudder).
Chiggers are not bugs, they are the larval stage of a mite known as Trombiculidae. (I’m sorry but 
in my lexicon, mites are bugs). Those guys live in parks, weeds, lawns, bushes, and golf courses. It is the digestive enzymes in chigger bites that cause the intense itching, that then causes damage from the scratching you will do. They can, of course, also cause allergic reactions. The whole thing can last up to 3 weeks; I’m in week 2.
Best way to treat them is to avoid getting them but since they are everywhere that probably won’t happen. Most likely, you will be bitten at some point in your life. Chiggers are approximately 1/150 of an inch long--bring your magnifying glass.
I have tried a calamine type lotion which I find to be the most soothing and calming; and it’s only $1.44 a bottle. Craig bought me a Benadryl Itch Relief Stick that works like a ball-point pen on the bites. This burns and makes the area feel like it is on fire so I don’t use it as much.
Oh, by the way, did I mention that they ITCH?
Broker-associate
Re/Max Sunset Realty
727-237-0083
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