not sure if chiggers live in SoCal.

BTW - here is how they "work":

"Chiggers" are the larval instar of tiny mites. The adult females injects something alright, but it is not a poison. They pierce the skin and lay eggs in your body. When the eggs hatch, the larvae want to get out of course, so they wriggle back up THRU your skin, and then they leave.

Nice, eh?

To be PC its "chigroes" not chiggers -

A way to kill the itch, run the hottest water you can stand over the rash (really hot). It'll itch like mad. After several minutes of insanity inducing itch, it'll stop. Then it won't itch for several hours.

Awww....RWebb, I could have gone on just believing my "poison" theory. Man, that is sickening! Especially given how many bites I had that time. Imagine the amount of eggs!! Oh...nasty!

I wonder if this is why there is that home remedy idea out there of putting clear finger nail polish over the bite to "smother" them? Does that work as far as you know? Not sure what that would result in though, maybe something worse??!!

Shiverrrrrr!!!

JA

Bug bites can kinda spread if they're hanging around the host . . .

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1277085093.jpg

Wear gloves.....try not to touch yer dick w/o first washing yer hands or wearing surgical gloves.....otherwise Omar the Tentamker will get all swole up....

Poison ivy will last fourteen days if you put something on it, two weeks if you don't...

I'd try maxing it out with a really hot shower. If you do have poison ivy, most of the over-the-counter stuff is like trying to put out a forest fire by pi$$ing on it. See a dermatologist.

poison ivy -> epsom salt bath, FTW.

yes, that or kerosene

Now, have I ever told you about Guinea Worm??? chiggers are nuthin'...

crisco works just fine for chiggers. or vaseline.

+1 Never scratch it.

This is the best advice by far. If you want to get some relief in areas that you can't get under the tap you can also try using a hair dryer on hot. Leave it on as long as you can stand it without burning yourself and you're back to normal.

I believe, the heat causes the histamines to rise to the surface of your skin giving you relief for hours at a time.

I used rub all the pharmacy crap on poison ivy and bites, but now I just run a hot tap or grab the hair dryer and in less than a minute I feel completely fine.

***Note if you were just exposed to poison ivy use cold water and soap. If you can shower within 20 minutes you can minimize or reverse the effect, but once you've really got it then go hot hot hot.

yes any oil or grease will clog the little breathing tubes from their azz -- they stick those up thru your skin to the surface

of course, then you have a bunch of dead chigger larvae in your skin, rotting away...


sure you don't want to hear about the Guinea Worm???

So this is what folks grew up believing in the southeast where the nasty little things are prevalent.

Here's what Wikipedia says about them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiggers
So, not quite as gross.

Guinea worms. I've seen a show on parasites that showed these things and how they are extracted. Yuck!!!

Jeff, there is one type of bug thing that spreads: scabies ...pronounced :skay-beez: ...they burrow under your skin. They're a type of mites.

A guy I used to work with a long time ago got an infestation of them on his arms. I forget what the remedy was, but you can get rid of them.

From Wiki: Scabies, also known as sarcoptic mange and colloquially known as the itch, is a contagious ectoparasitic skin infection characterized by superficial burrows and intense pruritus (itching). It is caused by the mite Sarcoptes scabiei. The word scabies itself is derived from the Latin word (scabere) for "scratch". More severe forms of scabies include crusted scabies and Norwegian scabies.

More (with photos... some are very scary) here:
Scabies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

interesting - even as a biologist for many years my boyhood cultural Southernisms were never corrected...

One of my kids had scabies and it was pretty bad. Made me itch just to look at him. Picked them up travelling on a Greyhound bus...back when people still did that. Had to wash everything in house with very hot water. Doctor directed the use of a very strong topical lye-basd lice treatment (called RID) that was so strong it burned his skin a bit for a while....but it finally got rid of them. I understand that they have better medicines for this now.
If you have them, you must treat them as soon as possible or they will be on everything and everyone in your house. http://www.medicinenet.com/scabies_pictures_slides

I don't think its scabies. It has to be posion oak. They blister up and now a couple of them popped and the damn juice is running down my leg a tiny little bit. I can't wait to see my doc. F these over the counter meds. I am going to wait at my doctor's office before he gets there. The itch seem to be getting better, but my face and eye lids are swollen. That happen to any of you guys? But, nothing like that is happening to my wife. Thankfully we got rid of our little boys and are playing at grandparents.

For those of you that went to the doctor to treat posion ivy or oak, how long did it take to heal to the point of function normally again withour scratching balls all day long?

:(Fuch mike, why didn't you tell me this earlier

Oh, BTW, thanks for the hot water tip. It works wonders. The feeling is much much better then sex. Who was the one that said it was like 20 minutes of scratching? I think more like an hour it felt so good.

Jeff

I think you need to get laid in a hot tub. :)
Good luck.