Apparently, it's that time of year again.....:(

Daniel Koster

Daniel Koster

www.kosterknives.com
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Oct 18, 2001
Messages
20,978
...For me to dance with chiggers in the pale moon light. :mad: :thumbdn: :( :mad: :grumpy:


I am covered with over one hundred chigger bites. How do I know? I counted them...yes, I am an OCD-type person. :barf:

I have been in constant pain for two days....was eyeballing my fillet knife earlier...I could almost deal with the exposed raw flesh (from cutting them blisters off) better than the blisters themselves.

I have so many bites, my legs from the knee down are swollen like sausages.

I did the campho-phenic, I did the Benadryl anti-itch cream and spray, I did hydrocortisone cream - both with and without aloe, I did solarcaine, I did calamine lotion, and calamine spray....:(

Finally, in an emotional fit, I squeezed 'em all flat (hence the counting part) while in the shower. Scrubbed up good and hit every spot with first-aid cream.

Now I'm bleeding in 100 different spots...:(

But at least, the itching is gone.



....for now




dang chiggers...!!!!
 
Dan,
Bummer on the chigger bites...

IIRC my mom scrubbed me down with warm salt water when I was much younger...I got to playing in the pond behind the house and got covered with them:confused:

Good luck and remember

This to shall pass!.;)
 
We used to wear panty hose to stop them...honest.

You might try straight ammonia...it often helps with the itch.
 
The thought of Nasty in panty hose......:eek:


That must scare the chiggers away!

--Mike L.
 
I've never SEEN a chigger let alone been bitten by one! Where do you live, some godfersaken place like Arkansas? :D

The mosquitos out here are bad enough; I'll hold off on their meaner cousins.

Norm
 
Dan,

Get back in the shower and turn the water on as hot as you can stand. It will cause your skin to release chemicals to stop the itch and pain. It's a trick I learned from a burn patient(yeah, sounds weird). It really works for me anytime I get bit or get a rash. Don't burn yourself, but it does need to be pretty hot. You'll feel the itch get more intense and then vanish. Really!!!
 
Nasty said:
We used to wear panty hose to stop them...honest.

You might try straight ammonia...it often helps with the itch.
Click to expand...

Sure, Nasty.

But only on Saturday night.
 
Plantain, common or narrowleaf, (plantago major / plantago lanceolata) works great on many kinds of insect bites and stings -- including spider, bee, and hornet -- and rashes. We don't have chiggers in Taiwan or Oregon, but I have experience with many other kinds of bites. Chances are you have it growing as a weed in your yard. Pick some leaves, mash them into a poultice, and apply. What have you got to lose? Below is a link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantago

James
 
Dan, get a torch and a cannister of MAPP gas. Propane isn't hot enough. Then play it over the bite until it kinda frizzes up, and then scrape it smooth with the flat edge of a sharp knife. (You probably have a couple of those laying around.) That eliminates the bite and itch in 100% of all cases. :D

Seriously, what Ted said about the hot shower really works. I don't know why but it sure helps.

Norm
 
Prayers headed your way Dan, seriously, sounds like you've tried everything else, and I know first hand redbugs ain't no joke. If it makes you feel any better, I once had poison oak so bad, in a spot so tender, that my brothers, God bless 'em, tied my hands to the headboard of my bed so I wouldn't scratch myself bloody in my sleep.
That hot water stuff that Ted was talking about is definitely for real. It causes your body to produce endorphins and antihistamines that'll help ease the itching. Get yourself well, just reading this thread has got me itching.

Sarge
 
Nasty in pantyhose !!! Chiggers might be the lesser of two evils ...

Dan, give that very hot shower a try. I used to do that every time I came back from poison-ivy infested woods, and it killed the incipient itch (and cleared oft the remaining toxins).

I think I'm going to stay on another planet from chiggers and ticks and fire ants and whatever else you country boys like to play with when you get in a masochistic mood!
 
My grandpa, now deceased, once wiped his ass with poison oak.
That is much worse!. :D

I have never seen a chigger, nor been bitten- I guess I have just not spent enough time in the south.

I once got swimmers itch really bad on my legs, over a hundred itchy parasites easily- It was hellish. I imagine the chiggers feel similar to that.

Maybe booze could help. . . if you pour it on the bites.

Then again, you can always strut around wearing pantyhose :D
 
Rat Finkenstein said:
My grandpa, now deceased, once wiped his ass with poison oak.
That is much worse!. :D

I have never seen a chigger, nor been bitten- I guess I have just not spent enough time in the south.

I once got swimmers itch really bad on my legs, over a hundred itchy parasites easily- It was hellish. I imagine the chiggers feel similar to that.

Maybe booze could help. . . if you pour it on the bites.

Then again, you can always strut around wearing pantyhose :D
Click to expand...

My Dad was stationed at Camp Roberts down here by Paso Robles in '54, and some guys were piling up poison oak and burning it and he drove through the smoke in a jeep and breathed it in. He had it all over his face and everywhere else. His beard grew into it, and everyday they had to try and get it off his face. He said it made a complete mask all over his face and he was about ready to do himself in, it got so bad. What a beyotch.

One time a buddy and I bedded down in some tall grass to do some shooting out over a high point up in Healdsburg at a target on the next hillside. Little did we know that under the grass was a whole bunch of poison oak. We saw it when we got up 2 hours later. I had it so bad from that I had to get shots, missed a week of work, and they gave me powerful antihistamines so I just slept all the time, thank God. I had welts a foot long on the underside of my arms. Thank goodness for this Tecnu stuff now.

Dan, now that we've cheered you up, I hope you get better soon. Or as we say out here in our part of America: "¡Ojalá que se mejore pronto!" That can't be fun at all.

Regards,

Norm
 
that hot water trick works with the poison ivy/sumac/oak too...

depending on how badly you're feeling from all the histimines in your system, ORAL anti-histimine might not be out of order - benadryl or your favorite tablet form - i like "dayhist" or the CVS drugstore clones (clemastine fumarate)...

cuz well, even though you popped them, your body is working mighty hard to fight that stuff off anyway.

perhaps a soothing anti-itch bath as well.

oh, and SPEAKING of itching, my favorite skin product, is "clearly calagel" - it rocks - 3 way medicated goodness for most itchy things. just don't put it on broken skin. way better than calamine lotion.

and ah, the soothing relief of other manly (and sometimes womanly) stuff is: gold bond medicated powder - oh yeah. apparently popular with the guys in iraq.

bladite
 
beleieve it or not clorox bleach works for poison ivy-
years ago a roommate jason had poison ivy real bad on his arms,nothing worked-one day he walks up and says-pour this bleach on my arms,a hitchhiker said it will help,so i did(man i was gross)next day he said he was fine,and within a day or so his arms cleaned right up
 
rosconey2 said:
beleieve it or not clorox bleach works for poison ivy-
years ago a roommate jason had poison ivy real bad on his arms,nothing worked-one day he walks up and says-pour this bleach on my arms,a hitchhiker said it will help,so i did(man i was gross)next day he said he was fine,and within a day or so his arms cleaned right up
Click to expand...

Yep, we did the same thing with pool shock which is a little more powerful. Also, the hotwater thing works really well. Growing up in this part of the country means chiggers, gnats, skeeters, ticks, horsefly (B-52's), and my very least favorite...the deerfly. Dayum, if they don't leave knots on me when they bite:( I hate the horsefly a lot. They used to dive bomb us when we went swimming. It felt like a bird was perching on you when they landed:eek: HOWEVER, you couldn't feel the evil little deerfly land on you..and they were quick to bite. Land and bite, land and bite. I got tagged by a couple of them out at my mom's house a couple weeks ago. twice on the inner thigh, once on the back and once on the crook of my elbow. Took a full week to stop itching...bastids:mad:

Jake
 
Chiggers, Flys, Skeeters.......they all suck. I went to Qubec for a week long fishing trip in sept-illes and we bathed in 100% deet all day everyday and i still came home swollen red and itchy.

Napalm anyone?
 
thanks for the, uh...suggestions. :D :p :eek:


I'll do the hot shower thing this morning....


Though, the itch is now gone. In its place, however, is the sensation of having been dragged across a giant cheese grater...:(


An no, I ain't gonna take any pics...with or without the pantyhose. :D :D
 
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