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Chiggers

CooterBrown

CooterBrown

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2020
Messages
1,970
Red Bugs(chiggers)
How to not get them and what to do if you get them?
Natural remedies to not get them?
Natural remedies once you have them?
 
permethrin...

yup dont sit on the ground. dont use that big pile of dead brush as a ready-made blind (even though god made it look so perfect).

if you really got em bad i know this sounds silly but pantyhose work. might scare off some other hunters too! pull em up real slow, stare at them and say "it puts the lotion on its skin..."

once you got em though the best remedy i found is to scratch em till you bleed. they're a good time.
 
All other "cures" are just distractions! My gp gives me a prescription to keep on hand just for chiggers or mosquito bites and you will stop itching in hours and usually are gone within a day or two max...
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Permethrin is the answer for me. I wear rubber boots with my pants tucked in, which also helps a lot. If you’re wearing lace-up boots, add boot gaiters.
A less effective, but still useful, tactic is to get in the swimming pool or hot tub immediately after potential exposure. It’s anecdotal, but we always used to get fewer ticks and chiggers if we’d jump in the pool for 15 minutes after picking blackberries than if we went straight in and showered.
Once you get them, use whatever anti-itch cream you like for poison ivy or other itchy things. Contrary to popular belief, chiggers bite you and then fall off before the skin even reacts; they aren’t burrowed into your skin, so old remedies like putting fingernail polish on them to suffocate them don’t work.
 
I think the nail polish thing does help with scratching maybe .. .. so maybe that why it is associated with a remedy

I physical barrier to help u from scratching the skin off and lessening potential for infuckion
 
I spent 23 years in the Marine Corps - all of it on the east coast. I am a chigger magnet.
I pray that someone can correct what I am going to type here but the only thing that can relieve the torment of chiggers other than packing up and moving to the south pole is time...

I have tried everything else.
 
Scott F said:
I spent 23 years in the Marine Corps - all of it on the east coast. I am a chigger magnet.
I pray that someone can correct what I am going to type here but the only thing that can relieve the torment of chiggers other than packing up and moving to the south pole is time...

I have tried everything else.
Click to expand...
Prevention tho? Any ideas?
 
TNbowhunter said:
A less effective, but still useful, tactic is to get in the swimming pool or hot tub immediately after potential exposure. It’s anecdotal, but we always used to get fewer ticks and chiggers if we’d jump in the pool for 15 minutes after picking blackberries than if we went straight in and showered.
Click to expand...

I tested this this summer on a tick. Had one on my arm so submerged it in a highly chlorinated pool. The tick never released but after a couple minutes the tail end started floating up and it was dead. The bite still itched like crazy for the next week.

sounds like chiggers often wait to bite, and my experience is bathing or showering as soon as possible does help reduce the number of bites
 
beej32 said:
I tested this this summer on a tick. Had one on my arm so submerged it in a highly chlorinated pool. The tick never released but after a couple minutes the tail end started floating up and it was dead. The bite still itched like crazy for the next week.

sounds like chiggers often wait to bite, and my experience is bathing or showering as soon as possible does help reduce the number of bites
Click to expand...
So if it will kill tics and chiggers what does it do to the largest organ we have, our skin. Just asking
 
I battle them 8 months out of the year... Hair Dryer is your best friend. When you start to itch, turn your hair dryer on high and blast them til you can’t take it anymore. As the bites heat up, it will feel like the best scratch ever, and it will dry out the bites and lessen the time of their itching by about 75%. I used to suffer for 3-5 days. Now, I blast em with the the dryer once, maybe a 2nd time 12 hours later if I feel em again. Then they’re gone. Heat dries the bite. You’re welcome
 
Nothing than what has already been said, permethrin on my clothes and I tuck my pants into my boots and my shirt into my pants. If I do get bitten I do something like steve-0h mentioned, but instead of a hair dryer I run hot water over a spoon and press the spoon on the bite. Seems to speed up the healing process.
 
CooterBrown said:
So if it will kill tics and chiggers what does it do to the largest organ we have, our skin. Just asking
Click to expand...
You don't put it on your skin. The key is to treat your clothes with it and let it dry before wearing them. I spray my next day's clothes down the night before and hang them to dry in the garage. Trust me, from personal experience I can share that any potential, unproven issues with permethrin are far inferior to the very real problem of tick-borne illness.
 
Another fan of permethrin. I also spray down my socks and am in the process of moving all of my field socks to over the calf length.

I spray everything! Shirts, pants, underwear, socks. The only stuff that doesn’t get sprayed is my late season gear.

Not sure if it would help on chiggers, but I have used Dawn dish soap to wash for a few days after exposure to poison ivy. Dries the skin and eases itching quite a bit.
 
Weldabeast said:
I think the nail polish thing does help with scratching maybe .. .. so maybe that why it is associated with a remedy

I physical barrier to help u from scratching the skin off and lessening potential for infuckion
Click to expand...
That's the first time I've seen a reverse bad word blocker. :mask:
 
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