Small South Dakota Pest Packs Wallop!

The headline is deceiving. The pest I'm talking about is Chiggers. That's how it's spelled. Not Jiggers. Chiggers.

To keep it clean, I elected to use a picture of Chigger bites. Not a picture of MY Chigger bites. You can thank me later. According to Web MD they're tiny little buggers these Chiggers:

They're called chiggers -- bugs so small you need a magnifying glass to spot them. They aren't dangerous, but their bites can leave you with a powerful urge to scratch.

Here's another fun fact about those little itch makers:

Adult chiggers don't bite. It's the babies, called larvae, that you have to watch out for. They're red, orange, yellow, or straw-colored, and no more than 0.3 millimeters long.

So, the next question is, how do these Chiggers do the damage?

Once chiggers latch on to your pants or shirt, they crawl around until they find a patch of skin. There, they use sharp, jaw-like claws to make tiny holes. Next, they inject saliva that turns some of your cells into mush.

Turns out there's not a lot you can do to make these bites itch less.

Then treat your bites with an over-the-counter anti-itch cream or ointment, like menthol, calamine lotion, or hydrocortisone. You can also get relief if you take antihistamine pills or use a cold compress.

How about you? Did you run into any Chiggers this past weekend? Do you have a favorite remedy in dealing with the ITCH? If so, let me know. Oh, and please share this with your Facebook friends who might be itching today too.

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