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Just call me Itchy and Scratchy


jarja_grl and G-man

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Cause I am here to tell you something.....chiggers are no joke! I have bites all over my feet, ankles and few on my torso, and this AFTER spraying down with repellent and wearing long pants into the woods.

 

How much longer until I get to be a geocaching veteran? I am going caching every weekend, I bought a GPSr, I read the forums, I'm planning to move a travel bug, and now, I have been consumed by chiggers! Surely, I don't have to proclaim myself as a newbie much longer icon_smile.gif

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Most of us have felt your pain. Trust me on this one ... there are worse places to get chiggers than the legs or arms icon_rolleyes.gif

 

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Co-founder of the "NC/VA GEO-HOG ASSOCIATION"

... when you absolutely have to find it first!

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My ex called 'em "Cryin' Chiggers" but I can't say why in the forum icon_redface.gif! Queen Anne's Lace weed are bad for chiggers. Growing up I always heard how you can see the little red dot in the center, that was the chigger. But anyway, they do make you 'itchy and scratchy' in a major way.

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quote:
Originally posted by allncham:

Down here, we call them red bugs. A little dab of clear nail polish helps within a day or two.


How do you get the little suckers to hold still long enough to put polish on them??

 

I don't see how it would help much as they are basically just 'Teeth with Wings'

 

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Free your mind and the rest will follow action-smiley-076.gif

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Oh man, you're not kidding. I've gotten my second dose of chiggars this year right now. After growing up here I know that after you spend time in the woods, when you get home you have to shower and lather up your legs and rump really well. Last week I took a quick stroll to nab a cache and didn't shower because I got a little busy afterwards.

 

I hate these freaking things!

 

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"A noble spirit embiggins the smallest man." - Jebediah Springfield

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quote:
Originally posted by jarja_grl:

icon_rolleyes.gif

 

How much longer until I get to be a geocaching veteran? I am going caching every weekend, I bought a GPSr, I read the forums, I'm planning to move a travel bug, and now, I have been consumed by chiggers! Surely, I don't have to proclaim myself as a newbie much longer icon_smile.gif


 

You are no longer the newbie when someone else with less experience than you shows up. icon_razz.gif

 

That Quack Cacher:

Lone Duck

 

When you don't know where you're going, every road will take you there.

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Cool! That shouldn't take long at all.

 

Now, I know I'm still a relative newbie, but I have found a few and am working the TB thing, next I want to try a micro and a virtual and attend an event cache.

 

It won't be long til I'll be an old timer, just wait and see....Not that I jump into to new stuff with both feet and act all obsessive and stuff and I can quit anytime I want, really....no, really! I just don't want to, that's all...uh huh...that's it!

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Being a geocaching veteran will not relieve you of chiggers. I got several hundred chigger bites this past weekend on my ankles and legs. Ankles look like I have a red 2 inch wide bracelet around them the bites are so close together. At least I think I am a veteran... hmmm maybe I am still a newbie.

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quote:
Originally posted by jarja_grl:

...next I want to try a micro and...


 

I keep telling you, Gwinnett Co Fairgrounds Micro! icon_wink.gif

 

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"A noble spirit embiggins the smallest man." - Jebediah Springfield

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quote:
Originally posted by Doc-Dean:

 

How do you get the little suckers to hold still long enough to put polish on them??


 

Basically the little sons of Satan dig into your skin and start dining! No problem to find ... by the red welt and itch!!!!

 

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Co-founder of the "NC/VA GEO-HOG ASSOCIATION"

... when you absolutely have to find it first!

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No chiggers here way out west on the left coast, so even the vets are unscarred. Lots of kooks in the woods, a few earthquakes, ridiculous real estate, state government that's a joke, but NO CHIGGERS!

 

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean someone really isn't out to get you.

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chiggers are a mite. the itching can be severe, in some cases it has required hospitalization! fingernail polish will not do the job. prevention is best, with deet products providing protection on the skin, and permethrin products keeping them off of your clothing. once you have them however, taking benadryl (diphenhydramine) by mouth will help some, as will using a cortisone cream on the bites. wash clothing worn in an infested area well before wearing again or you may reinfest yourself! the horrible little beggars are usually found in tall weeds- avoid them if possible. good luck. the itching will subside in a few days. try not to scratch too much! -harry

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There's another problem to watch out for ... scratching especially by kids can cause a nasty little problem called Impetigo... it can really get serious. So watch the little ones!

 

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Co-founder of the "NC/VA GEO-HOG ASSOCIATION"

... when you absolutely have to find it first!

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We got chiggers a few weeks ago. I was wearing pants and they got all over my legs stomach and back. They get in the bands of your clothes like the band around my waist....I always thought the chigger was actually in the skin, but reading up on them I realized they aren't. Im glad too, it freaked my out thinking of a little bug infested in my skin. At last their almost all gone.

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I'm glad to hear yours are almost gone. I had read that they itched for a week or so and it's a week today and I'm still itching...grrrrrr.

 

Poison Ivy on my arm and chiggers elsewhere...here's hoping for things to clear up soon. At any rate, if I can get my hubby/caching partner moving, I'll be right back out there this weekend risking more bites for the fun of the sport. icon_smile.gif

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There was an article many years ago in Scientific American about Chiggers, which described the deal with chiggers. Before going on, I will say that we somehow don't seem to get chiggers although they are definitely present in Texas. Our rule of thumb is, don't ever stand still, especially in high brush, not to sign the log, not to look around, etc. Although we are extreeemely sensitive to PI, we somehow avoid the chiggers. Anyway, when the chigger digs in and gets ready to dine, his proboscis (snout) gets BIG, and it is this that sucks our tender flesh into the chigger's belly. Even if the chigger is suffocated or otherwise killed, with nail polish or whatever, the proboscis remains for awhile which still causes itching until it dissolves or whatever. Killing the chigger does not magically make it disappear; herein may lie the basis for some of the YMMV discussion. Our 2 cents,

astrojr1&The World Famous G-O-GardenerGal

 

astrojr1&G-O-GardenerGal

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As an update, the chiggers bites don't itch very much anymore but haven't completely disappeared, so my ankles still look like I'm recovering from chicken pox. My poison ivy is just now starting to heal and is very very gross and ugly looking and on my forearm, to boot. It's too dang hot to wear long sleeves all day so I just mostly gross out my co-workers with it. Good thing I don't work in food service, huh?

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icon_cool.gif After reviewing this thread I'm happy to say that here, in California, we enjoy an occasional mosquito or rattle snake. I prefer either to chiggers. Just reading the thread inspires one to jump in the shower.

jarja_grl you have my utmost respect and sympathy.

 

"Today's truth remains valid only as long as it withstands the test of tomorrow's discoveries" - George Hicks

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There is a cure! After our most recent geo-outing inflicted a nearly terminal case (maybe 500 bites on my ankles, the other 2/3 of the Trek Trio suffering a sum total of 3) of chigger bites, I thought for a few seconds about using a paint brush to apply nail polish/Chigarid then decided there must be a better way. Having learned from the helpful folks here that the problem is mite larvae, the simple question was what would kill them? Without risking sharing the same fate? A review of many web sites (including the EPA and FDA) indicated that there were insecticides in veterinary use but all warned against human skin contact. Then it came to me in a blinding flash – marketed as fit for human use, sold over the counter, scrubbed on the heads of hundreds of thousands of grade school children every year, that’s right, HEAD LICE SHAMPOO!!! Just follow the directions. Surprisingly, goes on dry, then is lathered with water and rinsed off. The 0.33% pyrethrin does the trick. Just to make sure it really worked, I initially treated only one ankle, keeping the other as a control. The next morning, the difference was so astounding that the experiment was immediately abandoned and I shampooed the remaining ankle. Problem solved. Only observed one weird thing. After shampooing the control ankle, each bite exuded a tiny droplet of clear fluid which dried to an amber colored grain, all of which brushed off the skin.

 

Not only did it work like a charm for me, but it comes with a nifty little comb and an opportunity for a little situational humor. My local drugstore stocks shampoos on the same aisle as nail polish and hair coloring, right next to the counter with cosmetics and perfume. So excited about this brainstorm, I had rushed right over on a weekend evening (still in bushwhack gear) and found myself sharing the aisle with three young ladies obviously intent on finding just the right finishing touches for their personal appearance. After a minute or two of fruitless searching, I was approached by a clerk who inquired if she might help me find something. In a clear and confident voice I thanked her and responded that “yes, could she help me find the HEAD LICE SHAMPOO?” Being of middle age and apparently having some experience with these matters, for a moment she stared a bit skeptically at my obviously bald head – clearly no haven for head lice. “Oh no,” I clarified, “it’s not for head lice, it’s for my chiggers,” while pulling up a pant leg to validate my claim. At this point, I noticed she and I were now alone in the aisle, the silence broken only by her laughter and the sound of several pairs of receding footsteps.

 

So instead of using this idea to make a fortune off of other, chigger bitten geocachers, the idea is now in the public domain. By all means, use insect repellent but if the chiggers still find me, I have my bottle of HEAD LICE SHAMPOO handy.

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"You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there." Yogi Berra

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mY dR. told me to use the lice shampoo and spray also!

 

I also hear a goofy prevention is: put a dog flea collar around each ankle before you go out.

 

The gross part is that itcing is really those dang chiggers disolving your skin. I got the chiggers in June and STILL have the scars from them.

 

Thank God they stopped at my thigh/butt line. Having them in the privates is a nightmare!

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Do not use dog collars. The pesticide is safe for animals, but can cause severe skin reactions to certain people. I wish I had the link for the Army Training Manual on Pesticed applications. They showed a man with his legs all lacerated cause he used dog collars icon_frown.gif

 

Scary stuff...Kar

 

EDIT: Here is a link stating not to let it come in contact with skin, otherwise it may be safe. Survival Homesteads

 

[This message was edited by Team Shibby on September 21, 2003 at 09:59 PM.]

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Chiggers sound bad, but Scabies is FAR worse, in my opinion. If you go GC'ing in Central or South America, watch yourself... *shudder*

 

http://www.aad.org/pamphlets/Scabies.html

 

While I've not heard of it in the New England area, some friends traveled to Central America (somewhere below Mexico, unsure of which nation though) and got it. Very nasty.

 

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16x16_smiley-mad.gif Don't hurt me. I'm new here.

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I made a basic error this weekend that fits right in with the theme of this thread. Before going out, I ALWAYS dust my socks, the top of my boots, pants legs, underwear and waistband with sulphur. A lesson painfully learned many years ago at Benning School for Boys.

 

It was a beautiful fall day and Mrs. Hiemdahl and I were going out for a couple of easy caches.

 

Interestingly, after one particularly bad case of chiggers, she will not venture into brush or tall grass under any circumstances.

 

Anyway, I wandered off into the brush, found the cache and then made the big mistake. I sat my pack down for a moment while fishing around for a fresh ballpoint pen.

 

We then happily went off and found a few more caches. That night I had multiple bites over my right shoulder and armpit. In the few moments that the pack had been sitting on the ground it had apparently become infested.

 

Definitely a lesson learned the hard way. From now on, I will always dust my backpack.

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Chiggers---Have you ever tried seed ticks. Seed ticks are the larvae stage of the Lone Star Ticks, some other ticks also,. These little buggers can really make getting a case of chiggers look like a picnic. When the female lays her eggs and they hatch the whole group, to numerous to count, climbs to a high point and they wait for unexpecting geocacher to walk by. Once on the host they start feeding. Thats when some real itching starts. I got into a bunch of these critters last year and it took almost 4 months for the swelling and itching to stop.

 

BASSETSLAVE

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If you have the nose of a basset there is no cache that you can not find and you are never lost.

anibasset1.gif

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I had a bad case of chiggers and seed ticks last week, I had only limited success with my own advice (lanacain sunburn gel)!! It helped somewhat, especially at night when I was trying to sleep. I'm going to try that lice shampoo next!

 

I shower vigourously after a trip to the woods and in spite of that I still found live seed ticks on me after two days!!! They are very small and look like a tiny freckle or something. It really grossed me out. I'm going to get that shampoo and bathe with it after an outing. A friend of mine frequently goes with me caching but always waits from a safe distance.

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