This was in a parenting newsletter I subscribe to. Thought I'd share.


Chiggers

Depending on where you live and how much time you spend outside, you may or may not be familiar with chiggers...

If your kids spend a lot of time outdoors in the spring and summer, either hiking, camping, or simply playing in the backyard or park, then you are likely just as familiar with chiggers as poison ivy and ticks. Or even if you don't know what a chigger is, you are probably familiar with the very annoying itchy red bumps that they leave behind.

Facts About Chiggers

Chiggers, which are also called harvest mites or red bugs, are very small and can not usually be seen without a magnifying glass or microscope. Their 'bite' also isn't usually noticeable, which is why you usually don't even know you were around chiggers until you start itching and notice the rash about 12 or 24 hours later.

Once on your body, they typically move around looking for a good place to feed, which is usually a thin layer of skin.

They will also begin to feed if they reach a barrier, such as the waistband of your clothes or your armpit.

But chiggers don't even really bite you in the traditional sense, like a mosquito does. Instead, they attach themselves to your skin, inject saliva with digestive enzymes that helps to break down your skin cells, which the chigger drinks. It is these enzymes that cause the itchy rash.

Although chiggers can stay attached to your skin for several days and continue eating, they are very easily brushed off and are usually knocked off once you begin to scratch the rash or take a shower or bath. That is why it can be a good idea to have your kids take a quick shower or bath after they have been playing outside in any type of 'wild' areas of your neighborhood. Another good reason is just so you can wash off any insect repellent that you had put on.

Myths About Chiggers

One of the biggest myths or misconceptions about chiggers is that they can burrow under your skin and drink your blood. This leads to the common treatment for chiggers of putting clear nail polish on chigger bites to suffocate the chiggers. Since chiggers don't actually burrow under your skin, this 'treatment' is unnecessary.


For more information:

http://newsletters.keepkidshealthy.com/cgi-bin/knowwhat.cgi?l=pediatrics.about.com/od/dermatologytopics/a/06_chiggers.htm

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By Karen~admin on Saturday, June 3, 2006 - 10:36 am:

UGH! I remember chiggers!

By Imamommyx4 on Saturday, June 3, 2006 - 09:47 pm:

I had chiggers around my ankles really bad one time. I was making rounds with a doctor and standing there with one foot scratching the other ankle and then rotating. A nurse walked up and laughingly commented that I either had ants in my pants or had gotten into some chiggers. She recommended Ban Original scent roll-on. I had already used several things including the nail paolish and nothing was working. So I went across the street to a drug store and got some. You know that for about 8 to 12 hours I didn't itch. It still about a week for them to quit bothering me. But every time it would start to itch again, I'd wash my ankles in warm soapy warm then coat them in the Ban rollon and it would stop for 8 to 12 hours. Go figure.

By Bea on Saturday, June 3, 2006 - 10:38 pm:

I had them all over my feet after a picnic once. A friend recommended Chiggerid and I used it. RELEIF!!!!!!

By Shalom2t on Sunday, June 4, 2006 - 11:25 pm:

My grandmother used lard and salt mixed together - it worked - both the chiggers and I burned. UGH!

By Crystal915 on Sunday, June 4, 2006 - 11:52 pm:

Funny, we always were told to put nail polish on them. My dad was on bike patrol during the summers, and ended up with a bad case one year (under his bullet proof vest, all over his legs, just BAD!!), did the nail polish trick. I don't go in the woods much any more, but those are good tips to know!

By Ilovetom on Monday, June 5, 2006 - 08:08 am:

I had *one* once. LOL. I put fingernail polish on it and it smothered it I guess.

By Angellew on Monday, June 5, 2006 - 09:09 am:

I have never ever heard of this!!!! Another thing for me to obsess about!!!

By Pamt on Wednesday, June 7, 2006 - 05:59 pm:

My mom's mom made my mother and her 2 sisters hula skirts out of Spanish moss once. My mom said that they had chigger bites all over their nether regions and itched for days--LOL! WE always painted them with fingernail polish. I have many memories of standing buck naked in my parents' bathroom while my mom painted me all over.

By Karen~admin on Friday, August 11, 2006 - 04:41 pm:

thread spammed 08-11-06