Loading...
Chiggers, also known as red bugs or berry bugs, are among the annoyances of summer. Unlike ticks or mosquitoes, they don’t usually carry deadly diseases, although we may have to revise that opinion soon. Chigger bites swell, redden and itch maddeningly. Can you keep chiggers from biting when you are outside?
Can Home Remedies Keep Chiggers from Biting?
Q. My garden is full of chiggers and the itch from the bites drives me crazy. I made a mixture of amber Listerine, oil of orange and vanilla extract and sprayed it on my body. I took special care to cover my ankles and bands around my underpants and bras. In addition, I sprayed my hair and neck.
I am happy to report it was very effective and smelled like bubble gum. I detected just one bite under my arm and will be more careful with that spot in the future. I hope this helps others who are bothered by those pesky critters.
A. Thank you for sharing your innovative preventive strategy. Many readers also suggest dusting socks and shoes with flowers of sulfur. This old-fashioned bug repellent can often be found in garden supply stores. Be careful not to inhale the powder, though. Take a shower when you come in from outside to scrub off any chiggers that may have escaped the sulfur deterrent.
How to Keep Chiggers from Biting:
Q. I am extremely susceptible to chigger bites. I never know where they are lurking.
I like to garden in my back yard and hike in the woods. A day or two later I am covered with bites that itch like crazy and then blister. They are ugly and take weeks to heal.
I have two questions. What can I do to prevent chiggers from biting me in the first place? If I get a bite, what can I do to control the itching and speed healing?
A. Chiggers (Trombiculidae) are tiny mites that climb on grasses and bushes waiting for unsuspecting prey to mosey by. Contrary to folklore, chiggers do not burrow under the skin but they do bite and afterwards they leave digestive enzymes behind. Some people like you are highly allergic to their enzymes and experience extreme itching, redness and swelling.
Keeping Chiggers Off Skin:
The best way to prevent chiggers from biting is never to venture outside without protection. Tuck long pants into the tops of socks and coat your shoes, socks and pants legs with a highly effective insect repellent. Consumer Reports rates Sawyer Picaridin highly against ticks, mosquitoes and other bugs. Another option is DEET (OFF! Deepwoods VIII or Ben’s 30 percent DEET Tick & Insect Wilderness Formula). Permethrin-containing products like Repel can be applied to clothing as well. Any of these repellents should be used according to instructions, of course.
Easing the Itch:
Once a bite appears, hot water may temporarily ease the itching, but a strong corticosteroid gel will offer longer-lasting relief. It will also reduce the inflammation. Your doctor would need to write you a prescription for that.
How Can You Keep Chiggers from Biting Your Skin?
Q. Chigger bites make me miserable. The most effective prevention I have found is a layer of baby oil around my ankles, behind my knees and around my waist and neck. Then I put sulfur powder in a sock and dust myself with it around my pants legs, socks and boots. For some reason, they can’t seem to get to my skin with the oil on it.
I also keep a towel in the garage, take my clothes off when I come in from outside and vigorously rub down with the towel before taking a soapy shower. And lastly, I apply sulfur granules to my lawn each year. It does take some effort but it’s worth it! You can get sulfur powder and granules at any garden center.
Finding Ways to Keep Chiggers from Biting:
A. Thanks for the tips. Chiggers are the larval stage of certain mites (family Trombiculidae). They hang out in tall grass and brush, waiting for an unsuspecting animal (maybe you) to happen by so they can grab a meal. This tactic might sound familiar, as it is also how ticks line up for a bite.
The best defense in both cases is to stay out of the undergrowth. That might not be practical, though. If you must venture into the woods and fields, wear long pants with the cuffs tucked into the tops of your socks. Your baby oil idea is interesting. We will try it ourselves soon.
Sulfur powder is a long-standing remedy to keep chiggers off the skin. (Another reader recommended it here.) Be careful not to inhale the powder when you apply it. It can irritate the lungs.
If you can’t find powdered sulfur, you may want to use bug repellent containing picaridin for additional protection. Consumer Reports has found that it works well against both chiggers and ticks.
Scrub Them Off!
The idea of rubbing the skin with a dry towel first and showering as soon as possible to wash off unattached or lightly attached chiggers is great. Lee Townsend and Mike Potter, extension entomologist at the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, agree.
Chiggers Carry Scrub Typhus:
In 2023, North Carolina scientists reported that they found evidence of the bacteria that causes scrub typhus in numerous chiggers captured in the wild (Emerging Infectious Diseases, Aug. 2023). The proportion of trombiculid larvae carrying the bacteria (Orientia species) varied from one location to another. At least some of them carried Orientia tsutsugamushi, which causes scrub typhus.
The investigators do not yet know if chiggers transmit this disease. The symptoms include fever and chills, headaches, sore muscles, enlarged lymph nodes, rash and mental changes, such as confusion. Scrub typhus can be serious or even deadly if left untreated, and most doctors are probably unaware that chiggers in the United States may be carrying it. Consequently, if you become ill after experiencing chigger bites, you should mention this possibility to the physician.
Mary
Mary on 8/23
Had a big problem with chiggers in my yard: they love pine straw. A tip from a pharmacist suggested sulphur which I used successfully for years. Tucking my pants into socks, dusting my sneakers and socks with sulphur powder works!!! If I was using my hands much, I would dust the gloves also. It is a struggle to find sulphur powder but worth it.
Virginia
Growing up in Minnesota I remember my father showering with Fles-naptha soap after coming from the garden. It stopped the itching from the bites. I don’t know if you can still buy that. Now living in California we have sand fleas (just as annoying as chiggers) in our yards when it is really dry. I find diluted Skin-so-Soft works or Avon now sells a repellent that also works well. It has the oil plus Picaridin. Worth a try plus smells good.
Kim
Brewers yeast? I read a long time ago that taking it as a supplement helps prevent mosquito bites. Wonder if it would repel chiggers too?
Figment
I use Bite Away, an electronic heating appliance, to control effects, if bitten.
My wife and I have found this effective since moving to Texas several years ago.
One, or sometimes two, applications just make it all go away.
We also use it for mosquitos, wasps, ticks, etc.
Our only remedy, hundreds of times.
The heat is painful for 20 seconds but then no further itching, etc.
Deb
Does anyone know what we can do for our Beagles when they get chigger bites? I believe this is what irritates the inside of their ears. Thank you in advance.
Susan
I do find that the old standard, clear nail polish, seems to stop the longterm itching if I apply it as soon as I notice the bite. Later on, it doesn’t have an effect.
Michael
Only thing I ever found to stop the itching is to scratch the bite until it bleeds and then put tincture of iodine on it!
Vicky
When we moved into our new house the yard was over-run with these beasts that I had never encountered. Any insect bites are a problem for me, but these were three weeks of torture per bite. I read somewhere that spraying soap and water might help, so we got a container that attaches to the hose and hosed down our acre of land. We didn’t seem to have a problem after that so I guess it worked for us.
Sarah Darwin
Charleston SC
A great way to stop chigger bites is to pour “Flowers of Sulphur” in a sock and tie the top in a knot. Then (I stand in the shower) pat your feet, legs, and up to your waist, or as far as you want to go. Do this before dressing. My husband and I found that this worked every time if we were consistent about using it before going out in the yard.
If we didn’t use it, we could buy a stick that stopped the itch. It turned out to be ammonia! Plain ammonia was cheaper, so we just used that, and it worked fine.
Granny Gruntz
*CHIGGERS LOOK LIKE TEENY-TINY RED SPIDERS.
*However, it is a very rare occasion when one ever ACTUALLY sees a chigger!
*AND – A CHIGGER BITE ITCHES FAR WORSE
THAN ANY MOSQUITO BITE EVER EXPERIENCED!!
*AND – chigger bites in the groin area are nearly unbearable! ;-(
*Be prepared IF camping, or in wooded areas!
joy
I am very allergic to chigger bites. Nail polish does no good for me but if I put a quarter teaspoon of cold mustard, from the fridge on a bite and cover it with a bandaid, the itch stops and the next day the redness and swelling will be gone. Be sure to cover the bite with a bandaid as mustard stains clothing.
Wayne
Indiana
When I was growing up in Indianapolis, there was a very intense chigger infestation at my wooded yard and my grandparent’s farm which was mostly wooded so I can say from first hand experience that powdered sulfur is very effective at keeping the chiggers off.
Kiki
We always pained chigger bites with nail polish. If helped stop the itching and suffocated the chigger after a day or two.
Wiley
Texas
A couple “quick fix” remedies that I have tried are Amber Listerine applied from a spray bottle to kill the itch and the other is a very strong saline solution. I heat about half a cup of water in the microwave, mix in as much salt as I can, cool the solution and apply with a cosmetic pad. I keep the pad in place until the itching has stopped and then apply a mixture of salt and lard, salt and butter or salt and coconut oil or coconut butter. WD-40 is also an excellent and quick chigger bite, mosquito bite and wasp sting remedy but I have a little trouble with the smell. It does provide effective relief though..
Nancy
Florida
As a child In Ohio I remember my parents putting yellow sulfur powder ( also known as flowers of sulfur) in a large salt shaker and shaking the powder on areas of clothing that might come in contact with vegetation. It was an effective deterrent.
Live Oak
SC
I have spent many years as a field biologist in the southeastern US and make the following suggestions about preventing chigger bites.
If you know that you have been out in chigger habitat (May to October in coastal SC) and have not applied preventative measures, take the following steps to prevent chiggers from attaching to skin:
1) Before sitting down in a favorite chair, wash all field clothes including socks and underwear in washing machine with warm water and soap. This procedure will remove chiggers from clothes.
2) Shower with soap and scrub with wash cloth (especially legs, groin and waist band areas) to prevent attachment or to remove recently attached mites.
LH
Oregon
A super effective way to stop the itch of a mosquito or flea bite is to dip a metal spoon into hot water for about 10 seconds or so, and then put it on top of the bite (when it feels barely tolerable–don’t actually burn your skin!). You may have to reapply the spoon a few times…rarely you may have to repeat the next day as well. I usually get a bad reaction to bites and scratch them relentlessly even in my sleep, but this has worked miracles for me! The heat neutralizes the venom; this is supposed to work for all kinds of insect bites. There is also a little battery operated device you can buy online which has a safe little “laser” button which has the same effect–great when you don’t have hot water and a spoon available. It’s called a “Therapik.” Makes a great gift for camping friends–the friends I’ve given one to have practically cried with joy after they’ve experienced how well it works! :-}
Kay
Bolton, Texas
Garden dusting sulphur is the best repellent. Put some in an old sock, and dust pants and shoes on the outside. If bitten, make a little paste with sulphur, and put on the bite. Always carried this or Chigaway while in the Army. Works well.
Oksana
I use plain rubbing alcohol to ease the chiggers’ bites. It helps.
Judith
Virginia
Chiggers might not transmit deadly diseases, but I think they can cause the meat allergy “alpha-gal,” which I have, and which I first read about in The People’s Pharmacy. This is a serious and potentially very dangerous allergy that probably is underdiagnosed.
gardencat
Texas
Dusting powdered sulfur on my shoes, top edges of my socks, waistband of my pants, etc. keeps them off me. When I forget to do that and get bit, something called Chigarid stops the itch. Be warned: it goes on like varnish–and stays on for days–and smells like gasoline.
Brenda
Texas
When we were kids in Nebraska, chiggers were a constant bother. My dad used to come home from working with grazing lands covered with them. We always dabbed clear fingernail polish on them to suffocate them.
J. David Auner
Springfield, MO, USA
This morning, getting around to the farm chores, I noticed my belly button itching. I was out getting the goats back at dark in woods and brush so that probably explained the three little dark spots surrounded by a little inflammation in my umbilicus. Unable to remove the little bugs, I put the last of my little bottle of tea tree oil from Walgreens, the itching went away and when I read this article, the smallest of the three peeled off with rubbing and I am considering trying to extract another drop of the oil to redose the remaining parasites. Farmers mostly are forced to ignore ticks, chiggers etc. Luckily I live in an area without much tick fever, Lyme, Zika, West Nile or other microbes brought to us by migrating birds or escaped from military labs.
edythe
florida
Wear calf high rubber boots. Chiggers climb up your leg they don’t drop on you, the rubber boots keep them off you, you do not need pesticides.Or you can spray the outside of the boots. I live and work on a farm , I also really react to their bites.
Also you can’t wash them off ,when you come inside peel your pants off and use a washcloth to wipe off your legs. You can’t see chiggers they need to be wiped off right away.
Be careful not to put the same pants back on as I have experienced leaving work pants in the mud room then putting them back on to work and immediately getting bit. Apparently they survive well on our clothing.
It Takes a long ,very hot, clothes wash to remove chiggers. Ticks will survive a washing machine.
Dale
Greensboro, NC
We use clear fingernail polish to “seal” the spot. It will stop the itching almost right away. Always works!!
Gerry
Florida
Try ammonia on the bite. Put a little on a cotton ball,and hold it on it for a few minutes; Mother Nature’s antihistamine!
Diane Roesch
Central Florida
Over the counter benadryl gel helps my chigger bites. If a particular bite is in a position where rubbing on clothing kicks off new bouts of itching, I’ll put on a tiny dab of gel and then cover it with a bandaid. That seems to keep the itching to a minimum. But prevention is the key. I pre- treat my hiking clothes with the Sawyer permethrin spray a couple of times over the Florida winter hiking season and that has helped a lot. Don’t forget to do your socks, too!
Nicholas
Dallas, Texas
A day after working in a south Texas forest, I found my legs were covered with red, itchy bumps from waist down. Chiggers. The doctor wanted to put me in the hospital, but I declined. The sprays and meds he gave me had no effect, but a country woman neighbor told my wife to suggest I sit in a cool tub, splash water on my legs and scatter baking soda all over them. When I did that, the itching immediately began to diminish. Within a couple of days, the bumps were gone. Our new friend said in south Texas chiggers were called “grass tigers,” and I know why.
John
Cary, NC
Have clothes impregnated with “insect shield” by sending them to Insect Shield in Greensboro for treatment – lasts 70 washes. I work in the woods and fields, and since I have worn these clothes, I have had zero chigger or tick bites. Cost is around $25 dollars for a pair of socks, pants, and shirt.
Brenda
I get a lot of chigger bites each summer. I cover each bite with clear nail polish. That seems to stop the insane itching. I may have to repeat every few days until it goes away.
lee
in college in kansas i’d get chigger bites all the time. the local lore was to immediately paint the bitewith clear nail polish to block the air. might be a placebo but it always worked for me
Eve
WA
Chiggers, nasty little biters! I used 1 T bleach in a gallon of cool water in tub and soaked feet and lower legs. Worked great. Instant relief.