July 4, 2025 • 12 mins
In this itchy edition of the Good Growing podcast, horticulture educator Chris Enroth shares his annual run-in with one of summer’s most irritating pests—chiggers. Just in time for the Fourth of July, Chris dives into the myths, facts, and personal stories surrounding these nearly invisible arachnids. Learn what chiggers really are, how they bite, why nail polish won’t help, and what you can actually do to protect yourself. Whether you're gardening, hiking, or dodging fireworks, this Garden Bite will help you stay itch-free and informed.
Watch on YouTube https://youtu.be/D1Wkcf0qQaY
Good Growing Blog Post https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/good-growing/2019-07-02-unseen-menacechiggers
Kansas State University https://www.ksre.k-state.edu/news-and-publications/news/stories/2025/03/entomology-chiggers-in-kansas.html
University of Missouri https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/g7398
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Chris Enroth: cenroth@illinois.edu
Ken Johnson: kjohnso@illinois.edu
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chris (00:06):
Welcome to the Good Growing podcast. I am Chris
Enroth, horticulture educatorwith the University of Illinois
Extension coming at you from MacOmb, Illinois. We have got a
garden bite for you this week.Well, I've gone and done it. It
it's kind of my annual thingthat I do every single year and
that is I go outside withoutprotecting myself from the
(00:29):
miserable, miserly, just darkgone little chiggers.
Yes, so the other day I wascrawling around getting rid of
some tree of heaven in thebackyard, and a few days later,
I had the telltale signs ofchigger bites all over my
midsection. Well, because thispodcast is going to be coming
(00:53):
out, oh, I think dropping righton the July 4, I'm sure many of
us are going to be outsideenjoying the day with with
family, friends, barbecuing,enjoying maybe the loud booms
and bangs of fireworks. And ifby chance you are crawling
around on the ground as as Iwas, maybe escaping or diving
(01:15):
away out of the the range of aRoman candle or a bottle rocket,
well, you might find yourselfalso in the habitat of the
dreaded chiggers. So what we'regonna do today for this Garden
Bite, I am going to cover anarticle that we wrote back in
2019 when I then also once againfell into a just an awful pit of
(01:41):
these darn dastardly littlearachnids. So it was the same
same kind of mistake, and I Iwant to to dive into some of the
misconceptions behind chiggers.
Enjoy. How can something sosmall cause so much agony? This
thought along with several otherexpletives ran through my mind
(02:03):
as I clicked from web page toweb page searching for a cure to
my constant itching. What wasthe source of my anguish?
Chiggers.
My entire body, mostly theprivate parts, were covered in
tiny little trigger bites.Through the blinding itching
hysteria of the next coupledays, I found lots of so called
(02:25):
curatives on the Internet, and Irealized there's a lot of false
information out there aboutchiggers. So in an attempt to
ease another poor soul's painand itching in this moment, or
at least to keep you from doingsomething really foolish to
(02:45):
relieve that that itching, let'sdispel some of these myths.
First, chiggers are insects thatfeed on mammals, and that is
false. Because first, chiggers,they're not insects.
Instead, they are classified asa tromboculate mite. It's a
relative of spiders and ticks.And according to our retired,
(03:06):
now retired extensionentomologist Phil Nixon, nymph
and adult chiggers, they'reactually predators. They go
after insect eggs, they will eatother mites and insects, and
they also eat decaying organicmatter. It is in fact their
youngest stage that feeds on anyhapless passerby.
(03:28):
These guys are very difficult tosee with the naked eye. They're
about one fiftieth of an inchacross. I guess if we had to
make this relative anything,it's like the size of a
pinpoint, but I would sayprobably even a little bit
smaller than that. Immaturechiggers feed on a variety of
animals, not just mammals, andthis includes birds, reptiles,
(03:53):
and, of course, mammals likehumans. Next myth.
If you wear long pants tuckedinto your socks, you will not
get chiggers. Now I am sad tosay this is false for the most
part. Now while wearingprotective clothing is a
hindrance, and it might reducemaybe some of the biting that
you might get or some of thejiggers that can make it up into
(04:15):
an area to bite you, jiggers arequite inclined to climb around
on the host so they can find asuitable feeding site. Because
they're so small, you reallycan't see what they're that
they're climbing on you orthey're on you. And the thinner
the skin, the easier it is forthe invader to insert its
piercing mouth part, which iswhy you typically get bites
(04:37):
around your ankles or behind theknees, in the groin or armpit
area, and around belt lines.
However, in my own experienceover the years, I have found
that chiggers tend to stop at aspot where clothing is
restrictive, such as, you know,socks or belt lines. And even
(04:58):
once when I ventured out intothe Tallgrass Prairie in Kansas,
I came home with the emblazonedoutline of the vest I was
wearing and sugar bites all overmy chest and back. Now it is
time for our third, and I thinkthis is maybe one of the biggest
myths out there. Sugars burrowinto your skin, so you need to
(05:19):
suffocate them using somethinglike nail polish, bleach,
alcohol, turpentine, or fire.Oh, the list goes on and on.
This is false. I I would saythis is this is the top
misguided thought out there onsugars. They are not burrowing
into your skin. So you can atleast remove that unpleasantry
from your mind if you aresuffering from bites right now
(05:42):
as you listen to this.Therefore, if they're not
burrowed into your skin, there'sno reason to suffocate them.
And there's certainly no reasonto be pouring bleach on your
skin or heaven forbid holding aflame to the bite. What really
happens when you get bit by ajigger is that it uses its
piercing mouthpart and itinjects digestive fluids into
(06:05):
the top layer of your skin. Nowthese juices, react with your
skin cells and it forms like astraw like welt. And that
trigger uses this straw likewelt to suck up your liquified
skin cells. Kind of theinteresting thing is that when
exposed to air, the fluid oozingout of the bite will solidify
(06:27):
into a hard cap.
This is kind of a way you canuse to distinguish that you have
been bitten by a chigger asopposed to maybe getting into
poison ivy or mosquitoes or someother thing that might make you
itch and give you a rash. Nextmyth, chiggers can transmit
disease. False. Fortunately,none of our North American
chiggers have ever been reportedto spread any type of disease.
(06:49):
Now that's not the case in otherparts of the world, but we are
lucky, especially in my sake,for my case where I have had
multiple encounters with theselittle pests, that they do not
transmit disease.
The other myth is that chiggerswill bite you several times and
this is false. A chigger canonly bite you once. After that,
(07:09):
it will remain attached unlessthe host might scratch them off
or washes them off with warmsoapy water. Again, our retired
entomologist Phil Nixon pointsout that the trigger is going to
drop off of you if you donothing, it's going to drop off
of you within a day, maybe twodays. And it very often, the
itching doesn't start until, youknow, twenty four to forty eight
(07:32):
hours after that.
So usually by the time we noticethe itching, they're long gone.
They don't stay on us for verylong. And additionally, if you
do maybe, say, scratch them offunknowingly or you wash them off
is that once they once you dothat, they die. So at least you
get a little bit of revenge. Andit's also, you know, a good
(07:55):
piece of advice if you've beenin areas that you know that have
been infested by triggers in thepast or might seem like it,
which would be something like agrassy scrubby kind of area.
Go inside, take a shower, washoff your skin. That can at least
eliminate or relieve some futurebites and scratches that you
might have. Okay. So if you area poor soul suffering from a
(08:19):
terrible case of trigger biteslike like I have been, and
you're just listening to this totry to find some relief and
you're screaming, okay. I knowwhat's true.
I know what's false. But what doI do about these bites? How do I
get rid of them? Well, answer isyou don't. You simply have to
let this irritation run itscourse.
(08:41):
And I know your heart probablyjust sunk, but let me continue
because there's there's no cureall medicine for trigger bites.
Really, again, the best strategyis once you've been in areas
where you suspect to harborthese nasty guys is that you or
you start seeing the bites,Basically, wash any clothes that
you were wearing duringexposure, take a warm shower,
(09:01):
any bedding, things like that,take that and and and launder
it. This will remove anychiggers that may have made it
onto your clothing or you, mighthave dropped off of you. And
once the itching begins, thereare various products available
to relieve your discomfort atdrugstores or talk to your
(09:22):
physician who might be able toprescribe something or or give
you something a little bitbetter medical advice than what
I could ever give. So takesolace that usually the itching
is going to subside within aweek.
I mean, for me, was usuallyfour, maybe five days long, and
then everything kind of feltstarted to feel better. During
this time though, while you'reitching, try to scratch as
(09:44):
little as possible. I know thisis very difficult to do. And
also, make sure that you'rekeeping your hands and your skin
with the the sites of whereyou've been bitten. Keep that
clean so that you can avoid anysecondary infections.
I would suggest take as manyshowers as you want during this
time period, as, you know,running water can help to
(10:08):
alleviate some of that itchingand making sure that you're
keeping those areas clean. Now,what can you do to protect
yourself? Because I will saythis has happened to me many
times and I suspect it willcontinue to happen to me in the
future because never leaving myhouse is an absurd option. So
(10:28):
what I do is I usually have likea can of insect repellent
containing something like DEETin my bag. I still do the the
technique of tucking my pants inmy socks and then treating, my
lower half of my body in sometype of product that contains
DEET.
So that's really my my primarystrategy for that. If you have
(10:50):
any tall grassy areas in youryard, you know, some of the
things you can do is you can mowthese down to make them a bit
more neat and manicured.However, I usually encounter
these guys in areas of prairieor timber or woodland where
they're not supposed to bemanicured. They're supposed to
be a little bit more wild andnatural. So that's why I usually
(11:10):
turn to a can of insectrepellent containing DEET,
because my dislike of chiggersis overwritten by my need to be
outside.
So perhaps I am my own worstenemy. Well, was some
interesting information aboutchiggers and what to do about
(11:31):
them if you get bitten anddispelling a lot of those myths
about what's going on when youstart scratching around this
time of year. Well, the GoodGrowing podcast is a production
of University of IllinoisExtension edited this week by
me, Chris Enroth. Hey,listeners. Hope you have a happy
fourth of July.
We will leave a link to thearticle that I just read in the
(11:52):
link down below along with otherlinks of where if you are a
sufferer of trigger bites,places where you might find a
little bit of relief or at leastsomething to distract you to
read while you try to avoiditching. Well, listeners, thank
you for doing what you do bestand that is listening or if
you're watching us on YouTube,watching. And as always, keep on
(12:12):
growing.
Welcome to the Good Growing podcast. I am Chris
Enroth, horticulture educatorwith the University of Illinois
Extension coming at you from MacOmb, Illinois. We have got a
garden bite for you this week.Well, I've gone and done it. It
it's kind of my annual thingthat I do every single year and
that is I go outside withoutprotecting myself from the
(00:29):
miserable, miserly, just darkgone little chiggers.
Yes, so the other day I wascrawling around getting rid of
some tree of heaven in thebackyard, and a few days later,
I had the telltale signs ofchigger bites all over my
midsection. Well, because thispodcast is going to be coming
(00:53):
out, oh, I think dropping righton the July 4, I'm sure many of
us are going to be outsideenjoying the day with with
family, friends, barbecuing,enjoying maybe the loud booms
and bangs of fireworks. And ifby chance you are crawling
around on the ground as as Iwas, maybe escaping or diving
(01:15):
away out of the the range of aRoman candle or a bottle rocket,
well, you might find yourselfalso in the habitat of the
dreaded chiggers. So what we'regonna do today for this Garden
Bite, I am going to cover anarticle that we wrote back in
2019 when I then also once againfell into a just an awful pit of
(01:41):
these darn dastardly littlearachnids. So it was the same
same kind of mistake, and I Iwant to to dive into some of the
misconceptions behind chiggers.
Enjoy. How can something sosmall cause so much agony? This
thought along with several otherexpletives ran through my mind
(02:03):
as I clicked from web page toweb page searching for a cure to
my constant itching. What wasthe source of my anguish?
Chiggers.
My entire body, mostly theprivate parts, were covered in
tiny little trigger bites.Through the blinding itching
hysteria of the next coupledays, I found lots of so called
(02:25):
curatives on the Internet, and Irealized there's a lot of false
information out there aboutchiggers. So in an attempt to
ease another poor soul's painand itching in this moment, or
at least to keep you from doingsomething really foolish to
(02:45):
relieve that that itching, let'sdispel some of these myths.
First, chiggers are insects thatfeed on mammals, and that is
false. Because first, chiggers,they're not insects.
Instead, they are classified asa tromboculate mite. It's a
relative of spiders and ticks.And according to our retired,
(03:06):
now retired extensionentomologist Phil Nixon, nymph
and adult chiggers, they'reactually predators. They go
after insect eggs, they will eatother mites and insects, and
they also eat decaying organicmatter. It is in fact their
youngest stage that feeds on anyhapless passerby.
(03:28):
These guys are very difficult tosee with the naked eye. They're
about one fiftieth of an inchacross. I guess if we had to
make this relative anything,it's like the size of a
pinpoint, but I would sayprobably even a little bit
smaller than that. Immaturechiggers feed on a variety of
animals, not just mammals, andthis includes birds, reptiles,
(03:53):
and, of course, mammals likehumans. Next myth.
If you wear long pants tuckedinto your socks, you will not
get chiggers. Now I am sad tosay this is false for the most
part. Now while wearingprotective clothing is a
hindrance, and it might reducemaybe some of the biting that
you might get or some of thejiggers that can make it up into
(04:15):
an area to bite you, jiggers arequite inclined to climb around
on the host so they can find asuitable feeding site. Because
they're so small, you reallycan't see what they're that
they're climbing on you orthey're on you. And the thinner
the skin, the easier it is forthe invader to insert its
piercing mouth part, which iswhy you typically get bites
(04:37):
around your ankles or behind theknees, in the groin or armpit
area, and around belt lines.
However, in my own experienceover the years, I have found
that chiggers tend to stop at aspot where clothing is
restrictive, such as, you know,socks or belt lines. And even
(04:58):
once when I ventured out intothe Tallgrass Prairie in Kansas,
I came home with the emblazonedoutline of the vest I was
wearing and sugar bites all overmy chest and back. Now it is
time for our third, and I thinkthis is maybe one of the biggest
myths out there. Sugars burrowinto your skin, so you need to
(05:19):
suffocate them using somethinglike nail polish, bleach,
alcohol, turpentine, or fire.Oh, the list goes on and on.
This is false. I I would saythis is this is the top
misguided thought out there onsugars. They are not burrowing
into your skin. So you can atleast remove that unpleasantry
from your mind if you aresuffering from bites right now
(05:42):
as you listen to this.Therefore, if they're not
burrowed into your skin, there'sno reason to suffocate them.
And there's certainly no reasonto be pouring bleach on your
skin or heaven forbid holding aflame to the bite. What really
happens when you get bit by ajigger is that it uses its
piercing mouthpart and itinjects digestive fluids into
(06:05):
the top layer of your skin. Nowthese juices, react with your
skin cells and it forms like astraw like welt. And that
trigger uses this straw likewelt to suck up your liquified
skin cells. Kind of theinteresting thing is that when
exposed to air, the fluid oozingout of the bite will solidify
(06:27):
into a hard cap.
This is kind of a way you canuse to distinguish that you have
been bitten by a chigger asopposed to maybe getting into
poison ivy or mosquitoes or someother thing that might make you
itch and give you a rash. Nextmyth, chiggers can transmit
disease. False. Fortunately,none of our North American
chiggers have ever been reportedto spread any type of disease.
(06:49):
Now that's not the case in otherparts of the world, but we are
lucky, especially in my sake,for my case where I have had
multiple encounters with theselittle pests, that they do not
transmit disease.
The other myth is that chiggerswill bite you several times and
this is false. A chigger canonly bite you once. After that,
(07:09):
it will remain attached unlessthe host might scratch them off
or washes them off with warmsoapy water. Again, our retired
entomologist Phil Nixon pointsout that the trigger is going to
drop off of you if you donothing, it's going to drop off
of you within a day, maybe twodays. And it very often, the
itching doesn't start until, youknow, twenty four to forty eight
(07:32):
hours after that.
So usually by the time we noticethe itching, they're long gone.
They don't stay on us for verylong. And additionally, if you
do maybe, say, scratch them offunknowingly or you wash them off
is that once they once you dothat, they die. So at least you
get a little bit of revenge. Andit's also, you know, a good
(07:55):
piece of advice if you've beenin areas that you know that have
been infested by triggers in thepast or might seem like it,
which would be something like agrassy scrubby kind of area.
Go inside, take a shower, washoff your skin. That can at least
eliminate or relieve some futurebites and scratches that you
might have. Okay. So if you area poor soul suffering from a
(08:19):
terrible case of trigger biteslike like I have been, and
you're just listening to this totry to find some relief and
you're screaming, okay. I knowwhat's true.
I know what's false. But what doI do about these bites? How do I
get rid of them? Well, answer isyou don't. You simply have to
let this irritation run itscourse.
(08:41):
And I know your heart probablyjust sunk, but let me continue
because there's there's no cureall medicine for trigger bites.
Really, again, the best strategyis once you've been in areas
where you suspect to harborthese nasty guys is that you or
you start seeing the bites,Basically, wash any clothes that
you were wearing duringexposure, take a warm shower,
(09:01):
any bedding, things like that,take that and and and launder
it. This will remove anychiggers that may have made it
onto your clothing or you, mighthave dropped off of you. And
once the itching begins, thereare various products available
to relieve your discomfort atdrugstores or talk to your
(09:22):
physician who might be able toprescribe something or or give
you something a little bitbetter medical advice than what
I could ever give. So takesolace that usually the itching
is going to subside within aweek.
I mean, for me, was usuallyfour, maybe five days long, and
then everything kind of feltstarted to feel better. During
this time though, while you'reitching, try to scratch as
(09:44):
little as possible. I know thisis very difficult to do. And
also, make sure that you'rekeeping your hands and your skin
with the the sites of whereyou've been bitten. Keep that
clean so that you can avoid anysecondary infections.
I would suggest take as manyshowers as you want during this
time period, as, you know,running water can help to
(10:08):
alleviate some of that itchingand making sure that you're
keeping those areas clean. Now,what can you do to protect
yourself? Because I will saythis has happened to me many
times and I suspect it willcontinue to happen to me in the
future because never leaving myhouse is an absurd option. So
(10:28):
what I do is I usually have likea can of insect repellent
containing something like DEETin my bag. I still do the the
technique of tucking my pants inmy socks and then treating, my
lower half of my body in sometype of product that contains
DEET.
So that's really my my primarystrategy for that. If you have
(10:50):
any tall grassy areas in youryard, you know, some of the
things you can do is you can mowthese down to make them a bit
more neat and manicured.However, I usually encounter
these guys in areas of prairieor timber or woodland where
they're not supposed to bemanicured. They're supposed to
be a little bit more wild andnatural. So that's why I usually
(11:10):
turn to a can of insectrepellent containing DEET,
because my dislike of chiggersis overwritten by my need to be
outside.
So perhaps I am my own worstenemy. Well, was some
interesting information aboutchiggers and what to do about
(11:31):
them if you get bitten anddispelling a lot of those myths
about what's going on when youstart scratching around this
time of year. Well, the GoodGrowing podcast is a production
of University of IllinoisExtension edited this week by
me, Chris Enroth. Hey,listeners. Hope you have a happy
fourth of July.
We will leave a link to thearticle that I just read in the
(11:52):
link down below along with otherlinks of where if you are a
sufferer of trigger bites,places where you might find a
little bit of relief or at leastsomething to distract you to
read while you try to avoiditching. Well, listeners, thank
you for doing what you do bestand that is listening or if
you're watching us on YouTube,watching. And as always, keep on
(12:12):
growing.
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