Chiggers!

[Rackonteur]

How do you get rid of them?

I recently moved to a new property that seems infested with chiggers. The lawn and field are mown regularly – usually once a week – but I have been eaten alive from walking in the grass.

As a child – 60 years ago – I played outdoors in a big yard all day long. Barefoot. We knew to watch out for bees in the clover, and “briars” (tiny sticker plants really) – but the only biting itchy bug I remember was mosquitos.

There is clover here, too – white clover – and dandelions and other tiny pretty wildflowers, but no other “weeds” that I can see. I don’t know why there are chiggers, but the important question is, how can I get rid of them without killing the wildflowers and grass and the birds and good snakes and other wildlife that live here? Not to mention possible ponies for sometime in the near future?

I realize that 60 years is a very long time in the life of the great outdoors, but I have never experienced chiggers like I have here.

Same general climate as where I grew up (Southeast US), same basic weather patterns. No creek or other stream anywhere around, unlike where I grew up.

[candyappy]

As of yet I have not had any chiggers this year and I have been walking in fairly deep grass. I don’t think there is anything you can do to get rid of something you can’t see.

Maybe spray your shoes/pants with OFF? I wear shorts as soon as the weather is warm enough until it gets cold so I have never used any spray , but at times my ankles get devoured by them . I just use the dogs brush and scratch till they hurt. That seems to stop the itch.

[xeroxchick]

I remember chiggers as a child but for some reason don’t have any issues now? I do use Off liberally over my legs when out walking the trails or feeding. My grandmother used to put clear fingernail polish on our bites. I am a magnet for bites so not sure what’s up.

[leaf]

I hear you, and nothing really to add as to prevention.
But fifty years ago we dabbed toothpaste on the chigger bites. I don’t necessarily recommend this, yet it did take away the crazy itch. Probably because the toothpaste cauterized the bites.
So you might not want to do dog brush and toothpaste

[walkinthewalk]

Nothing’s the same as it was 60 years ago, lol. 60 years ago my horses ran with beef cattle on 98 acres of pasture 24/7, with a big open barn for shelter. They were not sick a day from metabolic issues, founder, yadda yadda.
”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹.
i retired to the SE and we dealt with chiggers when we first moved here — well DH did — chiggers and ticks would lay in wait for him, lollol. The land had been vacant pasture. We keep things mowed down but the first couple of years we bought Sevin Dust and spread it over the yard area closer to the house.

We have been here almost 17 years and knock-on-wood have not had chigger issues since those first few years.

Chickens might help if you can shut them up at night so the coyote and other predators don’t kill them. Guinea Hens are good too but they like to wander off and it won’t be long until somebody eats them so don’t waste your money.

Try the Sevin Dust and keep mowing:)

[ladymcts]

I have no advice for controlling chiggers. But I do have advice for living with them … I use paddock boots and half chaps when riding. I was about ready to retire a pair of half chaps anyway, so I kept it around for anti-chigger protection. Works really well. So if I have to work on the fence line or something else where I know I’ll be wanting to walk the grass quite a bit, then I’ll don my leather half chaps and spray with Off.

Biggest lesson learned with the dang chiggers is that they live on your clothing too. So as soon as you’re done, go change clothes and throw what you were wearing right into a wash, preferrably with hot water.

[ParadoxFarm]

I use Chigg-away. It really does work. https://www.amazon.com/Chigg-Away-So…/dp/B00KKX40PS

Hate those little suckers. :winkgrin:

[Feathered_Feet]

If your property isn’t too big (or money is no option), look into beneficial nematodes - they help with all sorts of outdoor pest problems. (I have never used them on chiggers, but I have used them with great success on a variety of other pests). I think there are several different types so be sure to look for the types that are good against chiggers specifically.

A few links from a quick google:
https://www.vintagerosery.com/bugs.htmhttps://www.vintagerosery.com/bugs.htm
http://www.organicdynamics.com/ronsa…icles_0307.htm
https://wtop.com/garden-plot/2015/09…ivy-darn-deer/

[4horses]

I think i would buy permethrin concentrate and dilute several gallons worth and spray the yard or at least the pathways you walk on.

[StellaTMK]

Something with DEET, OFF or Sportsmans. And spray BEFORE you put on socks or shoes. Two friends walking on a trail - one wearing those sandal things and the other with paddock boots and socks. both spray their lower legs. the friend wearing sandals had no bites, the one wearing the paddock boots had bites UNDER HER SOCKS where the DEET didn’t reach. Guess which one was me in this story. And I should say that both of us are reactive to chigger bites so it wasn’t a ‘they dont like him thing’

[buck22]

My buckskin is a chigger magnet, and I am too (we both must be sweet tasting!) and we are both highly reactive. My welts stay with me for weeks.

You must avoid tall grass and brushy/bark areas. Chiggers nest/swarm in/around loose tree bark (think dying tree, woodpile, etc). Lord help you if you disturb a swarm. My buckskin did a few years ago, the rash of bites was so significant, the skin sloughed off his cannons.

Chiggers are strongly attracted to dark colors. When I was a tournament archer, we used to shoot outdoors several days a week in the summer. If you missed the bale, you really wanted your $25 arrow back, but had to risk the chiggers to get it. To evaluate the “chigger factor” we would carry a piece of black construction paper, place it in the brush next to the bale and wait 5 minutes. If it was covered in chiggers, you just lost $25. Wear light colors, it makes a huge difference.

There is a permerithin spray that is available at Wallmart that comes in a yellow can. You coat you clothes 2-3 days in advance of wearing them. Really saturate the clothes with the spray and then let them dry for 24 hours, and you’ve got good protection for a week. As mentioned they WILL get under chaps, socks, breeches, no matter how tight fitting. You have to spray EVERYTHING you’re planning to wear. Even your shoes.

I live in the Atlantic seaboard area, and chiggers in my area seem to vastly prefer hot dry conditions, wet conditions less so.

If you are in a chigger area, you should make a point of washing your arms and legs immediately after possible exposure. I mean minutes. If I curry my buckskin, I go and wash my arms up to the shoulders immediately. Chiggers are very easy to kill before they’ve bitten, they literally wash away with plain water and die, but once they bite…

If you do get bitten, or find a few bites and suspect more, or suspect your horse may have been exposed, pine tar soap is a godsend. It really helps alleviate the itch and swelling before it happens.

I have known people who were hospitalized from chigger bites, they are nothing to mess around with.

[4horses]

Why wouldn’t you spray the yard? I would cut the grass as short as possible and spray everything around the house, whatever pathways you walk the most. Putting insecticide on me, would not be a solution because those chiggers would be attacking my dogs and horses.

[nashfad]

spray your legs/ankles with bug spray b4 you put your socks and pants on then spray your socks and pants

[SugarCubes]

@StellaTMK

Something with DEET, OFF or Sportsmans. And spray BEFORE you put on socks or shoes. Two friends walking on a trail - one wearing those sandal things and the other with paddock boots and socks. both spray their lower legs. the friend wearing sandals had no bites, the one wearing the paddock boots had bites UNDER HER SOCKS where the DEET didn’t reach. Guess which one was me in this story. And I should say that both of us are reactive to chigger bites so it wasn’t a ‘they dont like him thing’

I woke up with around 30 chigger bites on my foot (and in between my toes ) and the only time I’d been outside the day before I was still in breeches, tall socks, and tennis shoes and had sprayed my legs and feet with DEET. I was wondering how the hell I had gotten so many bites, but that would explain it! Those things are AWFUL!!