Ruthie

To relieve itching and kill chiggers, if you didn't wash 'em all off, douse 'em with ammonia. Turn your head away to avoid the fumes. You could also dilute it some with water.

One year I got a case of wood mites from tearing poison ivy vines off trees in a very overgrown area. I didn't know WHAT was wrong, just that I was about to go mad from itching, and looked like I was in the last throes of a deadly skin disease. I finally went to a doctor who wouldn't even touch me. He said it was the worst case he'd ever seen. The prescription was a "human insecticide" at $50 for a tiny tube about as long as my finger. It didn't do a thing, so he told me to buy another tube. Before I did, an elderly woman in the grocery store looked at my arms and asked what that was. When I told her, she said to spread ammonia all over them, that it kills mites. I was desperate, so I did, thinking I was probably poisoning myself.

The very next morning when I woke up, the itching, bumps, and redness were ALL gone. No skin damage or dryness from using the ammonia, nothing. It seemed miraculous to me! Since then I've found that ammonia is the primary ingredient in those "stop-itch" creams for mosquito bites. And I guess mites even under the skin can't survive an ammonia bath either.

I suppose you could cover your entire body with long clothing, skeeter netting around your face and all of that....but with that Texas heat, you'd be trading one misery for another ;)

I am really lucky that I don't have those kinds of bug issues here in So Cal.....but then I don't have that kind of gardening space around me like you do either :(

Everything has its pros & cons I guess...

My husband (a Texan to the core!) teasingly says that the Texas remedy for keeping gnats from swarming your eyes, nose and ears is to cut a hole in the seat of your britches!! Haven't tried it, but if they're bothering you that bad...
ha ha

Chiggers! They are horrible! When I was first married and moved to Texas, I had this wonderful picnic for my husband under the mesquite trees. Didn't know about the surprise guests! Let's just say that chiggers are naughty and have no respect for a person's privacy. Boy did I learn my lesson. If I'm anywhere I think there might be chiggers, it's spray, spray, spray around the ankles or tape my pants legs around my socks!! Good luck, Darla

I am still itching from some I got into in early April. I think I'm going to have a scar in one spot on my leg :(. Next time Ammonia it is. Thanks

Reading through this forums, i'm beginning to think living in the pacific northwest is akin to living in paradise ;)

What in the heck are chiggers?

"What in the heck are chiggers?"

Parasitic larval mites. They inject the skin with digestive enzymes and suck out the goop. It's as awful as it sounds.

But they are tiny red things that are very difficult to see with good eyes. I had always heard and read that they also burrow under the skin, but this article says not.
Bill P.

This is the only thing I LIKE about our well water. We don't drink it, cause sometimes it smells a little sulfury. But bathing and showering in it makes us chigger-proof. We had a big picnic out here when we first moved to this place. LOL, we started getting calls a day later. "We're covered in chigger bites, they must be really BAD at your house!" Hubby and I were both scratching (HA) our heads because we had not had any trouble with them. We didn't figure out till later that it must be the well water.

Kristi