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#155588 - 10/09/11 08:46 PM Chiggers Suck!
Samoset Offline
member

Registered: 07/04/08
Posts: 429
Loc: Newnan ,GA
Been doing some side work thining out some woods. And I must of been dancing on a bed of them because they ate me slap up. ^ SUBJECT^
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Some peopole live life day by day. Try step by step.

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#155591 - 10/09/11 09:08 PM Re: Chiggers Suck! [Re: Samoset]
Glenn Offline
member

Registered: 03/08/06
Posts: 2617
Loc: Ohio
So, are you now sporting the Calamine polka-dot look?

You've got our sympathies.

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#155597 - 10/10/11 06:59 AM Re: Chiggers Suck! [Re: Glenn]
Samoset Offline
member

Registered: 07/04/08
Posts: 429
Loc: Newnan ,GA
Not yet I didn't have any in the medicine cabinet. So I'll probably pick some up before work this am. As taking a cheese grader to my inner thighs is starting to sound like a good idea..
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Some peopole live life day by day. Try step by step.

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#155598 - 10/10/11 08:27 AM Re: Chiggers Suck! [Re: Samoset]
Dryer Offline

Moderator

Registered: 12/05/02
Posts: 3591
Loc: Texas
I get eaten up by those things every year. About the only thing that stops the itch is hot water or ice. Otherwise, spray on the Off before trail work.
It's a myth that there is a little chigger inside the bite so don't go trying to remove it.
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#155600 - 10/10/11 12:08 PM Re: Chiggers Suck! [Re: Samoset]
billstephenson Offline
Moderator

Registered: 02/07/07
Posts: 3917
Loc: Ozark Mountains in SW Missouri
Go to your local pharmacy and ask if they have a "Bite and Itch" lotion. Most all our locally owned pharmacies have one that the label themselves.

The active ingredients are diphenhydramine & pramoxine. A four ounce bottle of it costs around 5-7 bucks around here and it will last at least a year if you don't give it to friends who get bit up. (My experience is that once they try it they won't give it back to you, so prepare for that if you offer it to someone in need wink )

This is the only thing I've found that will relieve the itching. It just takes just a tiny dab applied directly on the bite and it works very quickly and lasts a long time. There is no need to slather it on. That won't make it work any better.

Dryer is right, you won't find a chigger burrowed into your skin, but in my experience you do have to break the little blister that forms on a chigger bite to help stop the intense itching. I do that and then apply the lotion.

Taking B vitamins everyday also helps a lot keep the itching to a minimum and helps speed the healing of the bites. I get my "B"s from two packets of "Emergen-C" every morning.

This "Bite and Itch" lotion also works amazing on bee and wasp stings. I carry some in my 1st aid kit.

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#155616 - 10/10/11 04:40 PM Re: Chiggers Suck! [Re: billstephenson]
oldranger Offline
member

Registered: 02/23/07
Posts: 1735
Loc: California (southern)
The preventive for chiggers was powdered sulphur applied around the ankles and socks. As I remember, it worked flawlessly.

Haven't lived in chigger country for a while. You have my sympathies.

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#155622 - 10/10/11 06:27 PM Re: Chiggers Suck! [Re: oldranger]
billstephenson Offline
Moderator

Registered: 02/07/07
Posts: 3917
Loc: Ozark Mountains in SW Missouri
I've read that. Also read a kerosene soaked rag tied around the ankles. I don't know where you'd get sulphur in bulk anymore.

Eating lots of garlic is another preventative, but it also prevents my wife from getting close to me frown

For sure, premethrin treated clothes and a good bug repellant will help. Getting out of those clothes and into a shower ASAP helps a lot too.

But chiggers are hungry and tenacious if nothing else, and if you step into a nest of them you are going to get bit up.

This time of year is one of the worst because for the most part they are all gone, and we're all sick and tired of using repellant, but there will still be some isolated hatches, mostly in the forested areas, and they will get you if you go in there.

I am aching to get out in the forests right now, but past experience has taught me that I have to wait at least until after the 15th of the month to do it, else I'll surely get bit up. By the end of the month the forests will be safe again smile

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#155626 - 10/10/11 07:00 PM Re: Chiggers Suck! [Re: Samoset]
Samoset Offline
member

Registered: 07/04/08
Posts: 429
Loc: Newnan ,GA
Thanks for the advice and sympathy everyone I have to go back out there to work again Thursday and fri. I will ne taking many more prevenitive measure this time. As for now I'm just itchy. Thanks again.
_________________________
Some peopole live life day by day. Try step by step.

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#155703 - 10/12/11 01:05 AM Re: Chiggers Suck! [Re: Samoset]
Narf Offline
member

Registered: 12/25/06
Posts: 76
Loc: Missouri
bleh. feel ya there.

i'm a complete magnet for chiggers and ticks. could go out with 2 dozen people, not a single one getting a tick on them and me pulling 2 or 3 off within minutes.

not sure if everyone's do this either but mine will ooze. i've probably permanently ruined several hundred pair of socks over the years from it.

hit a nasty seed tick patch about a month ago (of course the friend who walked in the exact same spot came out unscathed). it was an impromptu adventure so didn't have my clothes treated so my feet/lower legs got destroyed. still have several spots but almost healed up.

doesn't help i live in missouri ;/

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#156670 - 11/02/11 09:57 PM Re: Chiggers Suck! [Re: Narf]
skcreidc Offline
member

Registered: 08/16/10
Posts: 1590
Loc: San Diego CA
Oh shoot, I thought this was the Chargers suck thread...sorry

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#156731 - 11/03/11 09:21 PM Re: Chiggers Suck! [Re: Narf]
billstephenson Offline
Moderator

Registered: 02/07/07
Posts: 3917
Loc: Ozark Mountains in SW Missouri
Quote:
i'm a complete magnet for chiggers and ticks.


I used to think I was a chick magnet, but, turns out I'm a just a tick magnet too frown
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"You want to go where?"



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#161621 - 02/02/12 12:33 PM Re: Chiggers Suck! [Re: Dryer]
Jackamo Offline
member

Registered: 11/06/11
Posts: 50
Loc: Central Oregon
Originally Posted By Dryer
It's a myth that there is a little chigger inside the bite so don't go trying to remove it.


interesting, i grew up in florida where chiggers/redbugs are pretty common, and our folk remedy was to paint the bite with nail polish and suffocate the little buggars...
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He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.
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#162662 - 02/23/12 07:56 PM Re: Chiggers Suck! [Re: skcreidc]
Dyingjohnnie Offline
member

Registered: 02/22/12
Posts: 51
Loc: SLC, Utah
Two years later.... CHIGGERS STILL SUCK! hehehehe
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#162718 - 02/24/12 02:00 PM Re: Chiggers Suck! [Re: Dyingjohnnie]
skcreidc Offline
member

Registered: 08/16/10
Posts: 1590
Loc: San Diego CA
Still waiting to see if the Chargers still suck.

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#163602 - 03/09/12 02:35 PM Re: Chiggers Suck! [Re: skcreidc]
OldScout Offline
member

Registered: 03/17/03
Posts: 501
Loc: Puget Sound, Washington
Only in play-off games.

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