Every summer those buggers get me on the trails. Last September I must have landed on a nest and had a less-than-pleasant two weeks.
What I don’t get is that searching for “chiggers” did not get any hits. I must be doing something wrong. Share your wisdom! I’m ready to give up trail riding in the summer. Those things are evil.
I got them real bad last year on a recon ride for a race. Then two weeks later in the race got them again.
During the race I took a ton of hand sanitizer and baby wipes and doused my legs and wiped them off. It mostly worked but a few got into my socks and I had bites all over my feet.
I swear a napalm bath would feel better than getting chewed up by those things again.
I use Duck Duck Go and get lots of hits. Try Trombiculidae.
Summer after my freshman year in college I came home and was working on a surveying crew. We had a job in Louisville down by the Ohio river flood plain which was almost entirely a massive blackberry thicket. To gain access we drove our Broncos through the thickets to flatten them down.
After finishing the job on the way home I knew I was in deep trouble. By the evening my entire lower legs were almost an entire welt from chigger bites with hundreds more bites from my waist to my knees and all around my private parts. Several days of endless itching agony followed. About as miserable as I’ve ever been.
Living in the desert now I don’t miss chiggers in the least.
As a kid living in central Fla, we used to get chiggers after climbing the live oaks. If I remember correctly we used to pain the spots with clear nail polish.
Growing up in Kansas, chigger bites were a part of life in the summer. Since living in the Pacific NW, I don’t miss them one bit!
I meant hits on this website.