I went out to my friend’s home/RV at Lake Talquin just outside of my lovely town of Tallahassee friday afternoon… We decided to walk down to the edge of the water so we could see the sun set. I feel a bug biting my ankle, but upon scratching it through my sock, I feel nothing again… until saturday morning.
fast forward to Tonight.
I’m sitting here with my ankles swolen, due to the almost 90 chigger bites. My they are almost exclusively on my legs, and for the most part clustered around my ankles. Glands in my groin are swollen due to the inflamation, and my right leg has been aching for days. I bought some Lanacain to bring the itching under control, but my legs are both sore, and even my muscles in my right leg hurt. I’ve felt a bit nauseated from time to time, although it is getting better. To add to the grossness level, they are beginning to blister and pop, each one oozing clear fluid like miniature disease ridden volcanoes.
All in all, I’d like to blast every chigger on the shore of that lake to a death in hell. Or maybe round them all up and drop them en masse on Afganistan.
I feel your pain. Okay, maybe i don’t REALLY feel your pain, but you know what I mean. Go and have some ice cream or something, and you’ll feel all better. Good luck!
Lake Talquin? Really? I grew up not far from there. Fished that lake for years with my dad until I left home. sigh Memories…
Anywho… Chiggers… Yep, the bite… ah… er… They suck?.. umm… Okay, thay totally blow! Had both legs covered one summer by the little monsters.
Try a doctor. Steriods might be able to bring everything back to a tolerable level. At least that’s what they gave me for my latest pioson ivy adventure. Helped a lot.
First a little background on the nasty little chigger. It is a parasite, a mite that doesn’t just bite you it burrows into the skin and stays there feeding and being a pain until after a few days when it dies and falls off.
At this point, it may be a little too late for first aid cause your bites are by now 2-3 days old. If the blisters are beginning to burst the buggers are probably already dying.
There is a product you can buy call Chigger Rid that will kill the little buggers. It is basically a clear fluid identical to fingernail polish that you dab on and it suffocates the mite hastening its death. Clear fingernail polish will work just as well though. It should be applied as soon as possible after the bites. Just dab it on all the red bumps. Now try benedryl for the inflamation and take an Non steroid anti inflamatory for the pain. Ibuprofen or naprosen will do much better than tylenol or aspirin.
The groin pain does concern me though, it doesn’t seem to quite fit with all the other symtpoms. It is possible you may have sustained a strain during your little adventure. It goes without saying that if your symptoms don’t improve in a couple of days, you should see a doctor.
[sub]I am not a doctor. Although I am an RN, any suggestions I offer are given from a common experience point of view. [/sub]
After a particularly vicious chigger-attack following a camping trip a couple of years ago, I did an internet search on chiggers. With all due respect, Mermaid, the idea that chiggers burrow into your skin is a popular myth, perhaps one Cecil should address. They just inject you with an unusually potent itch-inducing saliva. Muffinman might be more allergic to the bites than most.
We’d already tried the nail-polish technique before this, with no positive effect. I agree with the Benadryl and NSAID advice; a topical cortisone cream might also do some good.
Next time, muffinman, be sure to spray yourself liberally with OFF before you venture into a place where chiggers are likely to lurk, especially areas with long grass and underbrush. Chiggers prefer to bite you where they can wiggle into the folds of your skin and clothing, so you need to spray your body under your clothes. We had hundreds of bites on our feet (under our sandal straps), waists (under the waistbands of our shorts), armpits, and groins.
Have you ever had a bunch of chigger bites in your groin? Pure hell, believe me.
I feel your pain. What has worked for me, mother-in-law(sh e had at least 100 bites), son, and wife is a dilute bleach bath. Just enough bleach to make the bathwater smell like a double-shocked pool( I used about 3-4 Cups per tub full). Both a pharmacist and a nurse relation recommended it. I saw references to it on the web in various places, just search for chigger treatment.
As an added bonus, you don’t have much B.O. for the next day or so.
Ok for goodness sake chiggers do not actually burrow, they attach themselves to the skin. My point was that you need to be aware that there is still a microscopic parasite still attached to your person and killing it was the first order of business.
Good luck!