A long story I hope you can learn from...I sure did

G

Geoff in Philly

Joined
Mar 7, 2000
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458
Reading Barry Jones' post on poison ivy, the responses he received and the one I wrote got me to thinking about one of my experiences. It is a long story that I hope amuses you. If you dont want to read it, the lesson is: dress for the situation, think about your environment, do your homework. The Story:
I went to university in Nashville. My roomate and I did yardwork/landscape work for rich citizens to pay our way. One "customer" had a completely overgrown area they wanted cleared. Nashville can be quite hot and humid: this particular day was brutal. Rick and I attacked the overgrowth with gusto. Hacking/chopping/raking/gathering...removing piles of long-dead leaves. Did I mention that all we wore was shorts and sneakers? As laundry was not a priority for me, I can tell you that is all I wore, nothing else, if you get my drift.
Later that night, or maybe the next day, almost simultaneousely, we noticed that we were scratching the same places...our respective crotches. The itch worsened rapidly to the point where we both went to the campus MD. I dont know if the diagnosis was accurate, but we were told it was chiggers.
If you have never had a chigger bite,let me try to describe it. You cant feel the bite itself. The swelling is like a hornet sting ... the itch (for me) was 10x worse. Did I tell you that I had Dozens of bites, all over my outdoor plumbing and the surrounding geography? Did I mention I had poison ivy on me calves and ankles too?
We got prescriptions that gave little relief. I am a man of reasonable will power and could refrain from scratching the itch for about 5 minutes. After 5 mins., I would plunge each hand into my front pockets, as deeply as possible, and do a full-tilt,up/down, side to side, rigorous, vigorous, rub/scratch/rotation maneuver at the same time as I would scratch one ankle with one foot , then hop to the other and repeat. A REAL COOL MOVE when trying to get girls. A cutie pie would see this and cringe in horror. I would mutter sharply "chiggers". Not a real good pick up line. It was a long few weeks> We were very disturbing to observe. Know your environment, and take precautions. Thankyou.

 
HAA HAAA!! Very funny story Geoff! So did you learn a lesson and pick up some Fruit Of The Looms or do you still go "COMMANDO" in public?

Checking to make sure I have underwear on...
Jim
 
Geoff,
I completely sympathize with that story. When I was about 11 a friend of mine and I built a "fort" in an abandoned field in our neighborhood. The field had not been mowed in a long, long time and was full of tall grass and other brush. We thought that made it a perfect place for us to hide out and pretend to be doing something important. Unfortunately it also made it a perfect place for chiggers to hide out and pretend to do something important. Let me say I was already familiar with chiggers (and they always go for the groin!). After our first day of building our hidden fort and playing soldier we returned home in the evening only to realize that we had both been eaten up by chiggers! I know I was covered from head to toe with the little bastards. To make matters worse my Mother's remedy was to cover each spot with fingernail polish to suffocate the little jerks.

Needless to say, that was the end of the secret fort, and I don't think I went near that field for at least a year or two.

Geoff, did you go to law school at Vanderbilt? If you did, drop me an email. My fiancee's Father went to law school there in the 60's, plus I think he did his undergrad there too.

pauldavidson@eudoramail.com

Paul
 
I well remember on the farm being "EATEN ALIVE" by chiggers. My grandmother would do the same thing with nail polish. The solution was to wear long sleeve shirts and pants. Then tye kerosene soaked rags around your wrists and ankles. This protected us on many a Blackberry picking expidition.

Cheers,

ts

------------------
Guns are for show. Knifes are for Pros.
 
I have many bad memories of chiggers. The interesting thing is that after people have been living in the area for a while, they tend to not show up as much (or maybe you become slightly immune or just smarter at avoiding them. I never walk through knee or higher grass during the chigger season). Nail polish is the best solution, but vaseline will also work(but it rubs off). I have never tried the kerosene soaked rags, maybe I should sometime.

Trying to explain the "chigger" phenomenon to Northerners and city folk is pointless. Several times I have had to lecture medical professionals who had never heard of such a thing and had no clue of how to treat it.
 
Hi Guys, one way to help keep chiggers off you is to dust your shoes & lower pants area with powdered sulfur when out in tall grass. They don't seem to like the taste of it.

Doug
 
that reminds me off my first pulled groin injury from high kicks during karate training.(circa 1980-1)

Hm?...ben gay otta work! bad idea and that is nothing compared to your experience.


 
Chiggers usually go for areas of tight clothing, particulary the elastic of your socks and yes, underwear,:eek: . Although I don't use insect repellent, it does work well to prevent them.

The itch actually comes from a chemical the chigger uses to make your skin digestable. Generally when the itching starts, they are already gone. Best thing to do is cortaid or calamine to reduce the itching.

I worked as a forester for a number of years and carried moist towellettes to wipe off if I got into any poison ivy. Worked like a charm.

I think I agree with becoming immune to somethings. I got poison ivy as a child and hadn't had it for years and I know I didn't wipe it off all the time.
 
I get chiggers evry summer(I have them now).My ankles look like I have been shotgun hit evry summer.I spray around the house but as soon as I get out in the woods BAM! they are all over me.I have come to luv my chiggers and look forward to the itch they provide:) Thats how I know its summer:)
 
First of all: I'll take your word for it, and I wont try chiggers on my intimate parts. That sounds horrible, really.

Then, another little story.

I went hunting, one day, with my cousins's husband and my uncle. My cousin's husband (Dennis) had to go take a sh!t, so he went away in the bushes as we waited for him.

Suddenly we heard some sort of a yelling.

The idiot had no kleenex or nothing, and he rubbed his o-ring with poison ivy... He ended up running back and forth grabbing and scratching his rear-end with wide, round eyes and sweat rolling down his face...

No one understud what happened until we got "on site" and saw what he had used as toilet paper... then we laughed for at least 15 minutes straight (my uncle almost had a heart attack from laughing... holy sh...)...

LOL

David
 
While hunting years ago I got a nice Mulie buck , my Uncle was with me and he dove right in to gut it . After it was gutted Uncle proceeds to clean his hands and knife with the surrounding vegetation.... it was either poison ivy or the deer had been eating poison ivy and it got in the deer's blood ... he got a helluva rash which went all over his arms and face. He was sick for about 3 weeks. Had to take cortisone medication. Nasty

the deer was healthy but the meat was inedible , it had a bad odour to it and would give ya the runs - I think the deer had been eating poison ivy. I know deer can eat poison ivy and not be bothered by it.
 
Number 1 reason to carry a knife in the woods:

So you can cut off the top of your socks so you don't use have to use poison ivy as toilet paper!!!:D
 
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