Chiggers are small tiny little bugs that are hard to see. They are so minute that you could place them on a pinhead and would have a hard time seeing them. Chiggers live on weeds and will gladly jump on anything that walks or runs through a weed patch or happens past a single weed. They usually aren’t found on tree bark, branches or areas where the grass has been kept cut and neat. The funny thing about chiggers is that even if you are wearing long sleeves, socks and jeans they will still jump you.
Once they get on you they will dig into the skin. Their bite will cause it to itch and sting. Depending on where a chigger is at on the skin they can cause some serious problems. Chiggers like any bug will crawl about on the skin. If it doesn’t get scratched off it may decide to move to another spot, but most of the time it will stay in the same place.
A chigger’s bite is quite toxic for its size. Without doing any scratching, scratching makes things swell, the bite will make a bump. A chigger loves to go to the warmest places on the body. These are places a person is more likely to sweat such as the under arms, under the elastic bands of a bra and under the elastic of underwear. This doesn’t mean a chigger won’t be happy on the face, arms or legs.
When a chigger gets on the eyelid or around the eyes, it can cause an eye to swell shut depending on where it is and how a persons skin reacts to the bite. The eye can swell in as little as twenty four to forty eight hours. When this happens its better to go to the doctor instead of attempting to get the chigger off yourself or with the help of someone else. The eye is too delicate to mess with.
A chigger can be seen by holding a bright light on the bump and will appear as a red dot. If you’ve scratched the bump and it bled out then the chigger may have been scratched off, but not always. If the tiny red spot moves under bright light then it’s the chigger. If you aren’t sure about the red dot then touch it with a pinpoint to see if it moves. If it moves then use the pinpoint to remove the chigger. If the chigger has dug into the skin where you can’t see it put rubbing alcohol on a cotton swab or ball then hold it over the bump for a few minutes. This will make the chigger come to the surface so you can get it. Calamine lotion will provide some relief to the itching along with taking an over the counter allergy medicine like Benadryl. They can help calm the skin’s reaction to the bite.
