Eat a banana then wipe the surface of your skin with the inside of the banana peel... It will stop your itching and things will go away... This is true with any itch... It is also good for any kind of irritation of the skin that itches.. Have used it for years....really works.
Good Luck!

Ridding the property would be tough. I have yet to see any insect, especially mosquitoes or otherwise that likes lavender. Grow it everywhere or use old english lavender soap, or dr. brommers lavender soap. Wet the bar and wipe yourself down with the suds before going out, then just shower at the end of the day; it saves on sudsing up twice. All the bugs will find you distasteful. Best of luck with the chigger hunt!

Charles, There are no chiggers in fields that have been fertilized with chemicals. It is coated with sulpher to make it release slower. My grandfather applied sulpher dust around our yard every few years in Texas. A five pound bag bought at the feed store. It has worked in Warren Co.TN. for 29 years.

As soon as you get in take off your clothes and rub yourself down with rubbing alcohol. Take a shower. If you itch anywhere hit it with rubbing alcohol. If you wait until you're itching and bumps show up you'll be sorry. I had this lard ass guy William Jeffrey Fitzhugh who weighed 370 lbs. had his huge back covered with them. There must have been 1,000.

My grandmothers remedy was to take a 1/4 cup of bleach and add it to your bathwater. The water needs to be as hot as your body can safely handle. Soak all the way up to your neck for several minutes and take a washcloth wipe the water around and behind your ears. This has worked for my family for many years. I even soak my granddaughters in it if I thing they may have gotten some on them. It's sort of like being in a swimming pool with chlorine. It kills them everytime.

Look this product up on line or find a good herbalist, yin-care. Love it. I put it on all bug bites. They got me all over. My back looked really bad. DH put if where I couldn't reach. Itch stopped within 30 min. It does smell but only a little. Lynn

Down in Cajun country we call them Bete Rouge (Red Bugs).

The best defense is loose fitting clothes. It took me years to acknowledge that this is true, but trust me it is. The seem to like a real tight place to dig in. Work boots will guarantee that you get a ring around your ankle, and your belt line will be the second place of choice.

The flea collar trick is good too, but I understand that those are more toxic than DEET. Tall rubber boots and the cuffs of your jeans can be sprayed with DEET, and that combination will do wonders to keep them from going any higher.

Hydrocortisone cream helps with the itching and inflammation. It's available at some dollar stores. If you do not have benadryl cream, try taking a small dose of benadryl and making cream by adding powder from inside a capsule to any lotion you prefer. Benadryl makes me sleepy at normal dosage (25 mg), so I always make sure I have solid tabs on hand, which I can break in half. Or I use children's liquid, which I have for my daughter. Be kind to your kid and yourself, add the liquid to koolaid or juice, because the taste is terrible!

For really bad bites, try some Nuskin instead of nail polish. It has anesthetic added, which helps. But either one will slightly numb the skin, then seal the bite, allowing the skin to heal from the inside out. Do not scratch, you force bacteria into the skin. Considering how common MRSA is now, you really want to avoid it.

Get powdered sulfur. Yes it smells but it Works! Rub a little on your ankles then wash your hands well. Do not let any get in your eyes- it really hurts. The sulfur gets absorbed into the body so you will smell funny that day, but I was living in the sticks, surrounded by woods and nothing bit me when I used it. Chiggers, mosquitoes, fleas, gnats ... All stayed away !!!

"I wear my socks up to my knees...they still make a motel out of me." - Seasick Steve Wold
Hey, not very constructively helpful. But check out his song "Chiggers" on YouTube. You'll at least be able to amuse yourself as you scratch.

We have lived in the woods in Tennessee for 30 years and the only thing I have found that works to keep chiggers and ticks off of us is REPEL Permanone. It is NOT for the skin. You are instructed to lay out your clothes and shoes the night before and spray both sides and let dry. I do this when I cut wood or hike where all of my clothing will be subject to them. However, to just walk in the woods or yard or work in our garden, which we mulch with hay that they love to live in, I simply pull my pants leg up to just below the top of my socks and spray my shoes, exposed socks around my shoes and pants up to my knees. I never get them when I do this. I have even seen hundreds of tiny seed ticks crawling on my shoes or pants leg and they never live to make it anywhere else. Once I do get bitten though, when I wander out and forget to spray, I have found that the only thing to do to stop the torment is scratch them until they bleed, rub with alsohol, WHOOO-WE!!! and the burn stops the itch. About 3 times a day for 3-4 days does it. Not a scientificly acceptable procedure i am sure, lol.
JC

I have just recovered from a massive chigger bite attack (2 and 1/2 weeks of misery). By the time I figured out what they were, I had scratched them all into little blisters. I tried many things, but the most effective treatment for me was Resinol (a diaper rash treatment found in smaller drug stores). If you can't find Resinol, Desitin works almost as well. Once the blisters dried up, I began using Miracle Hand Cream on the bites to help soften the dried blistered skin. Hope this helps.

someone asked if there are any chigger free states. I have lived in Massachusetts and Maine and visited New Hampshire and Vermont. We do not have chiggers up in this neck of the woods. At least they have not found me ever. Having lived in Oklahoma for a dew years, I can attest to the pests in that state. The ideas on preventing poison ivy are great. I never thought of soaping up with brown soap as a preventative.

(This is in 2 posts so look for both)
This will help to eradicate them from your home. The salt is hard on the carpet backing but after 2-21 day cycles you should have destroyed the life cycle and they should be out of your house, excluding reinfestation from outside. Then you need only to put the salt down inside just prior to hatching cycles in spring or to stop another infestation. My Great Granny Sue taught me this and it has never failed me. In California I've not had trouble with chiggers but on my great grannys' 250000 acre farm in Oklahoma it was something we dealt with. I have even salted my lawn and all the dirt areas of my property during heavy flea infestation years with absolutely no detriment to the plants but getting rid of the pests completely. I breed and raise Labs and use salt in their play area all year to keep from getting fleas. Granny Sue salted the yard heavily all around the house even right up to her victory garden and that kept us kids from dragging in "critters" with us and the dogs. You will have to use your own discretion about how much salt you want to put down in your yard, but 5lb boxes of IODIZED salt are cheap and so is fels naptha soap so I would say try this before spending big $'s on some other cure or some heinous toxin like deet or pyrethrins. Keep the salt in your carpet for 3 days at a time so put it down right after vacuuming. Not so thick it lies on top of the carpet. You shouldn't be able to see the salt on top, you want it to get down in the fibers where the critters are.

Chiggers, fleas, ticks and all those poisonous plants...poison oak, ivy and sumac....This method has been tested for years and by 100's so I know it works. BEFORE exposing! Get a bar of "Fels Naptha" soap. It is a laundry soap you can get it at most stores even Wal-Mart in the laundry section. It is sometimes hard to find in the city areas. Before you dress to go outside, use the soap and lather it up thick all over your arms, legs, hands, neck and other exposed areas, be careful around eyes and mouths. Then let it dry on your skin. It will dry invisible and I have some of the most sensitive skin you can imagine but even I can do this. Now go out in the woods, yard etc. and enjoy yourself. If you sweat alot on a hot day you might have to put more on. When you come in take your clothes off in the laundry room and put them straight into the washer, now go take a nice shower. You shouldn't have any bug bites because they have to get a big mouthfull of soap to give it to you and it is usually poisonous to them so they don't bite. Any oils from poisonous plants will be on the outside of the soap layer, as will the bugs. Use that washcloth everyone told you about and go ahead and scrub clean. Not too hot and don't scratch or you'll push the toxins into your skin. Don't forget to put the washcloth out in the washer with your clothes as soon as you are done.
Now, lets get rid of the little buggers, in your house at least. Pets and visitors will bring them in so first, put a 3" strip of iodized salt all the way around your home. Now sprinkle iodized salt into the carpets. Hardwoods and tile will need to be washed regularly but carpet is where they hide and breed. The iodine in the salt breaks down the eggs making them sterile and stopping the reproduction cycles, the sharp edges of the salt crystals scratch the crustacious shells of the insects themselves and cause them to get diseases, and dehydrate from the exposure. This will help t

I agree with the shower immediately after working outside, and putting all clothing straight into the washer, but I also do a couple of other things that seem to help.

Before I go out, I wash my arms and legs with Ivory Dish Liquid and don't rinse it completely off. In the hot, humid weather it can get a bit sticky if I leave too much on, but it cuts chigger (and red ant) bites down to practically nothing.

Benedryl Gel is the best!!!!
Horsemint tincture is a fair preventative on clothing and skin, and works well to stop the itch of bites if one gets you.

CE

Most comments above are spot on! Good 'ole fashion hot bath or shower, latter preferable, with lye soap (several brands available in the laundry section, look for bar of this brown soap or refer to the Queen of Clean in her book)
with wash cloth. Scrub well, dry, then apply Witch Hazel, U.S.P. astringent, to the affected area. Witch Hazel is a remedy made from the Hamamelis virginiana plant. This liquid is also good for other bites and minor cuts.

The brown soap above is the 'ole fashion soap that is still good for removing stains and washing clothes. It is also good for removing the oil of any of the poison ivy plants- ivy, oak, and summac when bathing takes place after exposure! It will also aid in drying any areas of existing ulcers causes by these plants.

Take care and give the above a try. Much cheaper than a doctor's visit and expensive meds. To see if an area is infested, place a white paper dish vertically in the area and wait about an hour. If the critters are theere, they will appear as little red spiders about the size of a pin head.

Be aware your dog or other people can bring them into your home and can infest the floor to the furniture, like a couch, which will spread the "joy" of their existence!

Old Salt

WHEN I COME IN AFTER A DAY IN THE WOODS I TAKE A WASHCLOTH AND SOAK IT DOWN WITH ALCOHOL AND JUST WIPE DOWN WITH IT - NO MORE CHIGGERS.

Growing up in Texas we always added about a cup of bleach to bathwater and completely submerged the affected areas for at least a minute to rid ourselves of chiggers, (redbugs to us)
this never failed to get rid of the offending redbugs.

TO GET RID OF MOST CHIGGERS ON THE SKIN, SHOWER REAL GOOD, AND RUB WITH A WASH CLOTH. I hardly ever have a chigger bite, even when walking in the grass barefoot. works for me!

[IMG]http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd290/maizied/week6001-1.jpg[/IMG]

Mr. Ricketts, I was happy to see your post. We are down here in deep south Texas and feed our orphan kittens chigger milk. We have a chigger cow that puts out about 2 ounces a milking and have been looking for a suitable chigger bull to cross breed with. Please post fees and location!

The best remedy by far for chiggar bites is.....as soon as you notice a new one, apply good old fashioned Mennan's Speed Stick deodorant to the bite. This is the very original variety in the white and dark green applicator stick. If you start treating right away, and do your best to not itch, it will usually be gone in less than 3 days. If you start itching it increases the amount of time it will take to go away. I read this hint somewhere along time ago and it has now worked for years, perfectly. And on everyone who has tried it so far. Chiggars love me and in the past I would have itched at each one for months before they would heal. And you can use this treatment anywhere you get bit. Beleive me, I have had to use it in some very private places with no issues.

I was born and raised in Minnesota, and lived outside Minneapolis/St. Paul until I was eleven. I knew nothing of chiggers until we moved to Alabama. What misery I and my siblings went through when we made our acquaintance with those almost-microscopic red devils! We, too, were told to apply fingernail polish to the welts that formed. Treating ankles was no big deal, but when it was necessary to doctor "other places", well, forget the nail polish! I just scratched that itch!

chiggers are a real menace ive found after ten years in the guard that if you wear flea collers on both ankles you can keep lots off you and eat mollasus alot the indians were not affected buy them and i think one can be alergic more than others. good luck in the bushes j.b.

"Chiggers love me! Yes I know. For the itching tells me so. I am weak but they are strong. Shouldn't garden in a thong."
People in the South don't believe me, but I don't think we had chiggers where I grew up in northern Pa. and southern N.Y. states. Anyone know if there are chigger-free states? I might consider moving.

I believe the politically correct name for the little buggers is "Chigros" ;)

When we pick blackberries, we use a rag to wipe a little kerosene on our wrists and ankles. This is something that has been passed on down the line in our family.
Also, a friend of the family swears that diluting Listerine (or the store brand)and spraying it around the patio keeps them at bay.

Fingernail polish, etc. is ineffective on chigger bites. They do not "burrow" into the skin, but rather form a tube and inject enzymes that cause the itch.

Ref: http://www.medicinenet.com/chiggers_bites/article.htm

About the only thing one can do to ward off the little buggers is DEET spray on skin and clothes, permethrins on clothes ONLY, or sulphur powder.

Relief from itching by way of benadryl, calamine, lidocaine cream, or any other itch preventive.

When I was growing up in Oklahoma, the chigger cure du jour was to put fingernail polish on each bite in hope of smothering the little critter we were told was still in there, burrowing into our skin and making us itch. As you might imagine, this idea caused me to lose a great deal of sleep--and not just from the itching. I could imagine tunnels under my skin, and those chiggers boring away.

The fingernail polish gambit was especially festive when we didn't have any clear polish and ended up using my big sister's Revlon Fire Engine Red polish ...

--KC

Heck, in Texas we don't try to get rid of chiggers....we breed them. I have a 1gram chigger bull that can cover all the chigger hefers you can provide.

wr