The scourge of chiggers and what you can do... [View all]

.... I purchased an acreage 10 years ago. For the first seven years, we came up here on the weekends and worked on this or that. Finally, 2 years ago we moved up here.

We've been into gardening from the beginning and clearing brush or doing anything out in the grass was torture that evening and the next few days. If you live in an area that doesn't have chiggers you don't know how lucky you are. Getting bites all over your ankles, knee bends, and other sensitive areas is really not much fun and once you have the bites the medications you can use to alleviate the itching work only a little.

So, the best defense is to not get bitten to begin with. My wife and I spent hours on the intertubes looking for ideas. We have used some of them and we have also tried things we were told would not work and found that they in fact did work.

So, while I would be a liar if I said there was anything short of staying indoors that would prevent ALL chigger bites, you can cut them down by 90-95% if you are willing to take certain steps.

First, I'm sure all of you know that chiggers hate sulfur and if you have a relatively small area of the outdoors that you frequent in the summer, you can spread granulated sulfur in that area and few chiggers will hang around.

Failing that, there are two things you can do, prepare before you go out, and/or treat after you come back indoors.

Our most effective preventative against chigger bites sounds yucky and maybe is but it works and that is what counts. Before you put on your socks coat the tops of your feet, your ankles and your leg up to about halfway between your foot and knee with "creamy' vaseline. You can buy this stuff at any drug and most grocery stores. It is pretty cheap. You need to put on a thick coating of this stuff because it is going to mechanically stymie the chigger that wants to bite you. Try not to use your tightest socks after applying this to keep from rubbing too much of it off. You could try regular vaseline, we have not tried that but I'm betting it would work also, if being a bit more yucky also.

Just doing this will reduce your chigger bites a lot. You can also take an old sock filled with powdered sulfur and dust your shoes and pants over your ankles. This will help some also, but not as much as the vaseline. Do both if you can.

If your infestation is acute (ours is really bad from late May to usually around mid-July here in Texas), or if you went outside and visited a chigger infested area without making prior preparations, there is something you can do when you get home.

First, get out of your shoes, socks and pants as soon as possible. It is highly likely that they are covered in chiggers that haven't made their way to your skin yet. Put them away because the little jerks can make their way to your body after you remove them - throw them in a hamper far away from where you will be

Now, we have read on the internet that this next step doesn't work but it dang sure works for us. Now you need to REALLY WET your feet, ankles and halfway to all the way up to your knee (depending on how long you were outdoors) with rubbing alcohol. Wet a cloth, really wet, not just damp, and go at it. Or EVEN BETTER, use alcohol-based hand sanitizer instead. Being more viscous, it is easier to apply a nice thick layer on your skin - I don't know if it kills the little bastards or just weakens them, all I know is I don't get many bites when I do that.

Or course, at this point you need to take a good shower and scrub your feet, ankles and lower legs with hot soapy water. Happy gardening.