I's gots the chiggers

[mrhughes1982]

Ive got a bad case of the chiggers Whats the best way to get rid of the itcha and what do you do on the AT if you get em. Any good painless advice would be much appreciated.

I am going to go scratch myself now....

ahh feels so good

[ShoelessWanderer]

Good luck! There isn't really a remedy. I got a TON last weekend (think chicken pox, that's what I look like)...give it about a week and what every you do, don't scratch! Makes it much worse!

[JJJ]

Try applying bacon grease or Vaseline.

[warraghiyagey]

Scrub your skin with rock salt, that'll get rid of them. . .

[mister krabs]

A Bleach bath worked for me, though it's supposedly an old wives tale. Couple cups in the bath water.

[beakerman]

actually when you have been in an area where you think there are chiggers jsut washing does wonders for getting the little buggers off of you before the damage is too great--failing a proper washing brushing the affected areas helps. The little buggers don't drink your blood and their mouth parts are very weak--that's why you can wipe them or wash them off. What they do is hook into your sweat glands and such with their mouth then proceed to spit into your skin and digest you. The itch is your bodies natrual defense to this digestion..by the time you itch the chigger is probably already gone--most likely dead of starvation because you broke his mouth off.

For the after itch use any antihystamine cream.

[MikenSalem]

Try applying bacon grease or Vaseline.

Let the bear baiting begin! maybe a little peanut butter too! Oh shoot just go for the gusto use honey!

[MikenSalem]

Scrub your skin with rock salt, that'll get rid of them. . .

Why does this sound like the 8'th fire?

[truthisnature]

My uncle gets them all the time when he is hunting...he swears by lysol. He washes with a bottle of that and they are gone...so he says.

[Thoughtful Owl]

There is an ointment called "Chiggerex" that I picked up in WalMart Pharmacy. It is for chiggers, tick and other bug bites. Of course your not going to find it out on the trail, but it you hit a local town you might be able to find it.

I personally have started carrying the little jar (1.75 oz.) in my backpack. The little weight it adds is well worth it for the comfort and relief.

[MikenSalem]

Fingernail polish seems to help I've herd it's mostly due to keeping the air off the chigger. There also Chigger rid which is a sticky goo with camphor in it available at WalMart. I've herd about the bleach which can cause a chem burn. Miserable people will try most anything. Avoid high wet grass, wash off and shake out your clothes the first chance you get will help. Also bug dope on your legs & arms is always a winner. Well worth the weight in the pack. Best of luck, those things really itch.

[warraghiyagey]

How much fingernail polish does it take to cover your whole body??

[Panzer1]

Ive got a bad case of the chiggers

Lets see a picture!!


Panzer

[MikenSalem]

Just get a can of clear Lacquer at sLowes or homeCheepo. it's the same thing. I was hunting beavers when I was a teenager and laid up in some grass by the lake BIG mistake. I had 68 in one arm pit and just as many under the other and a hundred elsewhere. I decided we could stick to traps.... Don't bother with the Lacquer or the polish it really don't work as good as Benadryl pills.. The camphor stuff is okay and Ivy Dry is the BOMB now that I think about it

[MikenSalem]

Please no red pen_cils. Family sight you know

[warraghiyagey]

So, you were hunting beaver. . . then ended up all itchy. . . .

[MikenSalem]

Life was so simple then...

[warraghiyagey]

. . . sigh . . . .

[Gumbi]

Chigger bites don't go away quickly, they will make your life miserable! And there is precious little you can do to make them go away! I haven't found anything that relieves the itch and I usually end up scratching until the bites scab over (not good).

An ounce of prevention is definitely worth a pound of cure! The best thing to do is wear bug spray to prevent chigger bites.

Use a hairbrush to scratch with so that you don't tear up your skin as badly as you would if you scratch with your fingernails.

[Hikes with a stick]

I read a good article on chiggers a few weeks ago... Don't remember the link. Went something like this...

Talked about how chiggers do not burrow into your skin, and they do not hang around very long at all. What they do is they create a straw like tube in your skin. Once they are done drinking from it, it stays there and you essentially have a hole in your skin. The straw prevents it from healing over. The reason it itches so bad is because it is open to the air.

Bad part about this is that if you scratch it with dirty fingernails, it is quite easy to get a serious infection from it. That's one of the reasons that clear fingernail polish is recommended. It covers up the hole, prevents air from getting to it, and it keeps it clean. However, I would not cover big areas of your body with this stuff, because your skin does need to breathe...