Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Get out your blow dryer - it’s Chigger season

Sorry about that. It's beautiful country but those little bastids are rather troublesome. I try to limit my woods time to the colder months.

Around the house, etc., cut the grass close, then spread powdered sulfur everywhere. Gone overnight!

Fire ants killed out the seed ticks and got a bunch of the other ticks but the chiggers (red bugs) are as plentiful as ever. I tuck my pants legs into my boots and spray with the stoutest insect repellent available. If you wear your pants legs outside your boots in chigger or fire ant country it is asking for grief. I have a friend that puts flea collars around his ankles. Claims ticks and chiggers wont go over them.

haven't got them since I was a kid.

Worked for VA DOC. Had some cool duties. One of them was a liaison between the DOC and USFS. Sawyer became a nightly duty. Kept a uniform and a set of fire clothes sprayed and hanging on the line in my basement. After several run-ins with chiggers, I did some research. They do not imbed or lay eggs or anything else in you. Just like a mosquito bite. When you shower, they wash right down the drain. The bite area is irritating and is slowed from healing by scratching. For me, I found the anbesol night time formula! It slightly numbs the nerve endings around the bite area so I wouldn't scratch and decrease the healing time. Sounds crazy, but it worked great for me. Applied at least twice a day and several more if needed. Made getting chigger bites bearable.

R.D.

Sevin dust sprinkled on your pant legs keeps chiggers off. Old timers would put a little bleach in their bath water to keep chiggers off.

I live in coastal SC and needless to say we have mosquitoes, sand gnats, ticks, and chiggers/redbugs literally all year long. For me this issue is something that I have to confront when I walk out the door but more important to me is my grandchildren when they visit. One other thing, I hate putting anything like sunscreen or bug repellent on my skin, especially the stinky stuff when I'm deer hunting. Worse, some folks get a bug bite and it's no big deal - I get a tick or redbug bite, no matter what I do, I end up with a sore that itches for a couple of days and takes a couple of weeks to heal. I hunt and fish and guide quail hunters from October to March and with clients the most problematic are the seed ticks and redbugs. Since my military days, I've adopted the practice of prepping my socks, hunting pants, and shirts with permethrin several times a year (it lasts through multiple washings); I also spray it on my boot tops and pants cuffs just before I hit the woods, especially when taking clients. If I do use a skin repellent I opt for something with picaridin. The use of both of these products seems to be the most effective solution for me. From what I've researched, both appear to be most effective AND risk free. The following link is not a recommendation to buy the brand of products referenced but simply it's a great explanation of the differences between both products and how each should be used, from a company that makes both products.

https://www.deergeartv.com/picaridin-vs-permethrin/

Always get a kick out of these home remedies that folk mention. As already mentioned, when the bite area starts to itch, the chigger is long gone, either brushed away, or had his meal and is moving on.

They are not very sturdy critters. If they can't complete their first meal, they die off. Lots of experience with chiggers from my Army days, here in Kentucky and Texas. With pants tucked into all leather boots and shirt tucked in, never got them. Actually hard for them to breach those barriers. Army jungle boots seems to be a super highway for them and let them roll right in.

Permethrin sprayed on your clothes and hunting kit (backpack and like) will keep the chiggers and ticks away.

Best thing I found for the bites was extra strength medicated acne pads. The salicylic acid seems to breakdown the junk left behind by the chigger and cleans it out. Not a miracle cure, but helps the bites heal a bit faster.

Yeah, no thanks.

I know it's great sport to make fun of Oregon on this forum but I tell you what, we got nothing to deal with compared to places that get tornadoes, hurricanes, chiggers, volcanoes, earthquakes, snakes, and all that. Worst I have to watch out for is poison oak, and I beat that by hunting above 3000', which also eliminates the ticks you might have in spring. I figure there's mosquitos everywhere so ain't counting those.

Overall, Oregon is damn pleasant place to be, for a country boy that stays outa the rat race.

They're really bad here right now. They're even driving the dogs nuts. There's a meridian line that runs from Columbia, SC dead weat through Atlanta and it keeps on going right to western Louisiana ... about fifty miles north and south of that line is the chigger belt and it is brutal here this time of year.

The only way to beat red bugs is to saturate yourself in bug spray before walking through the woods or tall grass. Or kerosene like the old timers used to do it when I was a kid in the 50s. Some claim you can do it with eucalyptus but it doesn't work. Might work for mosquitoes but not for red bugs.