![]() ![]() They more successfully feed on reptiles, including lizards, snakes and turtles, or birds or small mammals. A scratched off chigger will not bite again.īecause most of us respond to chigger saliva with itching and scratching, we do not make good hosts for the larvae. Some swelling may slightly envelop a chigger, but the chigger remains on the outside, and all it takes is a slight scratching to remove it. If nothing interrupts its meal, it will feed for three to four days before dropping off.Ĭhiggers don't burrow into the skin. Our immune system walls off the area where the chigger has injected its saliva, forming a narrow, hardened tube, called a stylostome, through which the chigger feeds, as if through a straw. Once a chigger has an opening, it injects saliva, which contains proteolytic enzymes, to liquify the tissue so it can ingest it. Chiggers don't sting like bees or suck blood like mosquitos or ticks, rather they scrape or puncture the skin with bladelike mouthparts, called chelicerae. Most chigger larvae feed at the site of a hair follicle or pore. Some of these sensitive areas are difficult to scratch in public. Chiggers also find it easier to attach where skin is thinner, not leathered by exposure. ![]() Imagine also how many points of leverage might be provided for hungry larvae by a single pair of support hose.Ĭhigger larvae also push against opposing flesh, which helps explain why bites tend to occur more frequently in the underarms, between the thighs, at the backs of knees and in elbow crooks. Imagine a little chigger pushing its back or legs against the elastic of your shorts to help it pierce your skin. Places where clothing fits snugly also offer chigger larvae the advantage of something to press against to attach themselves. These sites tend to accumulate chiggers like fence lines attract cattle. ![]() They move relatively slowly and, at least on humans, their travel can be impeded by folds of flesh or barriers, such as elastic leg holes or waistbands of shorts, watchbands, backpack straps and sock tops. Once aboard, chiggers roam around, seeking possible attachment sites. Whenever a potential host comes within reach, they nimbly hitch a ride. They are sensitive to movement and, some say, to the carbon dioxide animals exhale. Larvae improve their chances of encountering an animal host to parasitize by climbing to the tops of grass blades, twigs and other objects in their environment and waiting. This is the only stage in the chigger mite's life cycle in which it is parasitic. To mature, chigger larvae must feed on animal tissue. The six-legged larvae, too small for most people to see with the naked eye, create distress all out of proportion to their size. Tiny larvae-orange-yellow to light-red and about 1/5th the size of a period-hatch out about a week later. For most of the period from spring through fall, adult female chiggers lay eggs almost daily. At least their children are a problem for humans. They feed on insects and their eggs -even mosquito eggs-as well as on smaller mites.Ĭhigger adults bear problem children, however. You can sometimes spot them in the soil, but they are harmless to us. Adult chigger mites have eight legs and are a little larger than the period at the end of this sentence. In the adult stage, chiggers are sometimes called red bugs or harvest mites. However, all are closely related, and the species have similar life cycles. We have at least two species - Eutrombicula alfreddugesi and Eutrombicula splendens-and possibly four different species of chiggers in Missouri. You'll find them in berry patches, on stream banks and in flower gardens and if you linger too long in a clump of them, they'll inhabit you, too, from toenail to cowlick or ponytail.Ĭhigger mites are bright red members of the genus Eutrombicula. They hang out in wet areas and in dry pastures. They inhabit woodlots, lawns, fields, golf courses and parks. That means they are everywhere, from north to south, east to west, corner to corner. That's because chiggers are ubiquitous in the state. How many have suffered from chiggers? Probably nearly everyone in Missouri, at one time or another. ![]()
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