What do chigger bites look like?

[General Lee]

I'm seeing so many variables on line, not sure what I got going on. Everyone that I've seen chigger bites on, they were just little red dots resembling a mosquito bites. Over the past several years, once or twice a year "mysterious" red bumps would appear on my legs that STARTED as little red bumps but over the course of a day or two the bites would swell to a size of a quarter or more. They are very red and itch. I always chalked it up as a spider bite. Figured one got in my pants and bit me multiple times.

I got 4 bites right now around my waist line that started as I described above and swelled to the size of a quarter. The bites are very red and swelled and ITCH. I'm beginning to think they are chigger bites. I don't believe a spider is getting in my pants every year :laughing: Plus, I always assumed if you got chiggers, you got several dozen but the number of bites I've gotten were a few up to a dozen. Its just I've never seen or heard of someone else describing chigger bites the way mine are. I know everyone reacts differently to insect bites, but does this sound like chigger bites? Anyone have similar reactions from KNOWN chigger bites.

 

[mvwicker]

I hate chiggers, even though they supposedly carry no human diseases. It is possible to have just one chigger bite, or to have hundreds, or any number in between. In Missouri they start to be numerous around this time (August) and last until night temps drop below 40 F.

The key characteristic of a chigger bite is that it oozes a clear liquid (lymph) from a tube of scar tissue (stoma) that forms around the chigger as an immune reaction. Chiggers want your lymph, not your blood. Some think that a human immune system will kill the chigger, which is then slowly expelled, but most of them probably get scratched off. However, if you scratch a chigger bite, you can give yourself an infection that mimics another kind of bug bite.

If your bites don't ooze, then they are probably from some other bugs like fleas, bedbugs, or seed ticks -- very small ticks, for whom you are breakfast, the first blood meal. That can be dangerous since these non-chiggers can carry nasty human pathogens like borrelia (Lyme disease) and typhus bacteria.

 

[MWRR]

I have had more than my share of chiggers over the years. The chigger bites usually "appear" in places where there is clothing tight against the skin, e.g. on the leg where the elastic band is on your sox, around the waist (belt line). They also like areas like under the arms and especially the genitalia area. When I was a kid we used finger nail polish and "dabbed" it on top of the bite to "smother" the chigger. Most recently I have used Campho-Phenique. Now days if I go to the woods or in tall grass I spray with insect repellent.
As far as the bites getting the size of quarters, if you keep itching and scratching them the area can get the size of a quarter. DON'T SCRATCH them it makes it worse. Dab them with Campho or finger nail polish as soon as you notice them appearing. I will warn you that if you put finger nail polish on a well scratched chigger bite it will burn for a bit. It usually takes three to five days for the itching to stop.

 

[Bird]

The little red spots, itching like the dickens, are what we always had; never had any enlarge, as General Lee says, or ooze liquid as mvwicker says. Some folks used to recommend adding a little bleach to your bath water (does anyone still use a tub instead of a shower?), but our preferred treatment was the clear fingernail polish as MWRR says.

 

[jinman]

I've seen large red areas on some people who are very allergic. They almost look like a round inflamed mild lesion. My wife and her family seem to be quite allergic to chiggers, mosquitos, and certainly fire ants. I get a little red dot but she gets the swollen red puffy spot on her skin as General Lee describes.

 

[Western]

I've seen large red areas on some people who are very allergic. They almost look like a round inflamed mild lesion. My wife and her family seem to be quite allergic to chiggers, mosquitos, and certainly fire ants. I get a little red dot but she gets the swollen red puffy spot on her skin as General Lee describes.

Same at our house, the reaction is different for different people, most of us just get the small "pin" size itchy bites ans some get a worse reaction. I have always used a bleach water mix to hand wash itchy areas then Ishower, this seems to work if done soon after you start feeling the itch. i use the Deep Woods OFF too, but some times one or 2 will still get me.

 

[sherpa]

Could be "No-see-ums"
sherpa

 

[brin]

After a few times with the chiggers feasting on my family when we went to the farm we learned to not wear shorts, tuck our pants legs in our socks and spray our legs and ankle area over the clothing with backwoods OFF....enough was enough for us....LOL

 

[General Lee]

Never had any of them ooze. I know where I possibly picked them up and that day I did use OFF but I guess a few still got me. Thing is I didn't start itching until a day or two after. Can you use nail polish at any stage of the bite or is it best soon after?

 

[Cat_Driver]

They look like this ....
https://www.google.com/search?q=Chi...GcPuiQLtqoGABA&ved=0CEgQsAQ&biw=1715&bih=1083