Scratching makes it worse. Scratching doesn’t help. The chiggers are still there, just under my skin, having descended over a course of 4-5 hours. They touch nerves, little nerves that send impulses to the brain. These impulses are “Itch Impulses” that keep on coming as long as the chiggers are there. The skin is their home after hanging on low vegetation. They came with wild turkeys decades ago. This is my take on the situation.
OI picked up chiggers ( no capitol C) some place during a hike with Mark. We had decided to take a circular hike. Some place along the six miles, I must have brushed against low bushes. They landed on my wool socks. From there, they worked their way into my ankles and lower legs. The itching began that evening at bed time.
It’s as is if a fire started and smoldered for several hours. I started itching with ten fingernails and ten toe nails. Tired from the hike, with blister on right heel and Mark’s e-mail “Excellent hike”, the chiggers took the starch out of that for me. After we visited Pennys Pond, I decided to add it to my growing list of “Magical Places” I’ve visited (see essay titled MAGICAL PLACES on tomstock.org). However, even with the chigger discomfort it is still magical for me.
Only my tiredness and sleep quelled the itch. When I awoke to pee at 4AM, the itch, the fucking itch, was alive and well. More scratching, more itching. Chiggers are the most irritating critters I’ve ever encountered. I’d take spider bites, tick bites, mosquito bites, bee bites, and wasp bites instead of chigger bites. Actually, chiggers don’t bite. On skin, their instinct is to burrow in and use skin as a nursery. In a sense, I am raising these little buggers.
I tried not scratching. That lasted about 30 seconds. I tried to just ignore… about a minute before ripping apart my skin which was now red, inflamed, and a major five alarm fire. Hundreds little points of pain had all joined together to make me more aware of my ankles than ever before.
I’ve dealt with chiggers. I had a much more severe case three years ago. The itching was everywhere. I had heard that drowning works. I filled the bathtub with hot water and stayed immersed for an hour adding more hot water. I drowned these little suckers. After an hour soak, those collective stings were gone. How happy was I…astoundingly so.
At four AM, I had to do something. I washed my ankles with soap and hot water. Moments later, relief. No scratching. I was chigger-free. Hallujah, I am chigger free! Looking at the bigger picture, my chiggers were mother Earth’s way of increasing my awareness…yes, chiggers have made me more aware.
Susan
Chiggers–sounds like poison ivy with legs! Thanks for relating your
experience and the cure.
Tom Stock
susan,
I was wrong about chiggers. They were tiny ticks. as I walked in brush, I picked up dozens of the. they were so small I didn’t see them. hours later, my legs are on fire. I saw no ticks. this morning, a red swelling like a pimple on my abdoman with a dark speck in the middle which i was able to remove with a fingernail. I misdiagnosed myself. The ticks migrated through the wool of my socks to my ankles and even at this tiny stage ( incomplete metamorphasis) they are developed enough to penetrate skin ( thin on ankles and lower legs). they use their front legs to detect heat, then crawl to it. I had hundreds of tiny tick bits which I thought were chiggers.
thank you for reading some of my posts. I hope you will continue to read more. today I posted a report of a walk I took last Saturday..a magical place I call it.
tom