Chiggers...infestation?

so how do you prevent them besides staying indoors. way back when we dumped a bunch of sulfur in our socks.
bumpy

I may check with a vet, I know it sounds crazy, but they have great experience with all sorts of bugs including chiggers/mites. I had an infestation of fleas and it took forever to get them out of the house. I used those bombs, the only disadvantage to them is that you have to remove or clean every single surface when you are done. It may not seem like it's on things, but trust me, it is. Wash every surface you can with hot soapy water, the heat kills the chiggers. If you are out camping and suspect they are on some clothes or something, you can actually lay the clothes out on blacktop, just the heat from the sun on the blacktop is enough to kill them, or so I have read.

hope that helps

Bumpy, a few steps to prevent/avoid chiggers (works moderately well for ticks, too):

a) Bug repellent around pants cuffs & waistband, ankles down to top of footwear, legs if bare (I prefer long pants). I still don't totally trust this one, so usually use b) and/or c).

b) Shower with soap & washcloth; scrub all pits, ankles, legs, waist area. Best if within 2-3 hours of exposure.

c) If possible, avoid tall grass & bushes.

Item b) also prevents / helps with poison oak/ivy.

I'm very meticulous about using b), since I do volunteer work in the deep woods & tall grass for a few hours several days a week. Yep, I had a miserably itchy childhood, always playing in the woods & meadows, until I learned this stuff.

That's my method, anyway.

Jim, "I found my sleep number. It's seven. Seven beers."

Yes, chiggers can live in the carpet, etc. Rather than using a bomb (as taddyport mentions, you have to clean everything afterwards), try using Zodiac Household Spray. It's a flea and tick spray meant to be used on upholstery and carpets. Check for color fastness (spray in a small corner to make sure it doesn't discolor, etc.). Then spray everything that can't be washed - mattresses, cushions, blinds, floor. Spray into corners.

For fleas and ticks, you would repeat the spraying in 2 weeks to kill anything that hatched after the first spraying. I'm not sure of the life cycle of the chiggers, but a second spraying won't hurt.

I have used this stuff on chiggers and it killed them.

Were you picking wild berries ?
As kids it was sulfur or kerosene to try and keep them off while picking wild blackberries
Finger nail polish on top of the bites, they burrow in
Don't remember ever having them infest the house or our beds

jjjandrbaker wrote:
I camped at McKinney Falls last week and got more chigger bites than I have ever experienced.

I have camped there more times than I can remember and never had a single chigger. Is this your first time to get them there?

I've noticed, or think I have, that mowing the lawn regularily keeps the tick and chiggar numbers down.
This year we have them in the yard though. A hose end sprayer, application of insecticide will get rid of them for the season. use one that kills bugs in the ground where they winter, and breed.
At campgrounds, if one RVer in one site would spread some insecticide it would probably knock them down for the season.
I know lots, of Folks say it harms the environment, from their apartment,in the city.
We used coal oil around ankles and on pants, in the country. Gaiters sprayed with repellent should stop them getting on you.

If it helps any, I was attacked by chiggers several times when I lived in the midwest, I got them at friends homes and from parks. The thing is they never spread to my house or RV.

The gift that keeps on giving. We stayed at McKinney Falls in early May and didn't get any. Stayed at Cedar Hill a few weeks ago and we got em. Changed bed clothing right away and several days later, bites were still showing up (mostly dw). Did the nail polish thing, which kind of helps. We never had them infest trailer.

When I was a kid we used to 'camp' weekends and holidays on an old family farm north of NC's Hanging Rock SP, near the VA border. Mom and Dad had an old 8x28 house trailer, and I had a little 12x12 A-frame. It was literally 54 acres of chigger and tick heaven. It'd been years since anyone lived there, and we were the buffet for a bunch of starved bugs.

We never had any problems with the indoors getting any infestation other than the odd tick that rode in on our clothes and fell off before latching on. It was just the woods & waist high weeds in the fields. They seem to love living on Queen Anne' Lace.

Like I said, an itchy childhood...

Jim, "You _can't_ be careful on a skateboard."