Scrupuli
blunt essays with sharp points
Not too late to hunt chiggers!
by ScrvpvlvsOct 13, 2008 10:14 AM–A million itchy bites on my ankles testify that it is NOT too late to hunt the elusive wild chigger in the tall grass of north Texas.
Okay, twenty.
According to HowStuffWorks.com, Wikipedia, and the Ohio State University Extension, it’s a myth that chiggers burrow under your skin and lay eggs there.
In the wild, the chigger feeds on scaled and feathered critters. A young chigger crawls around on you for hours looking for a feather or scale to crawl under. It will stop on you to feed when it finds a tight place under your socks, belt, underwear, or bra straps trick it, and anywhere you have skin against skin, such as the groin and inside your elbows and knees.
The young chigger dissolves skin with its saliva and drinks it up. The nearby skin hardens around the liquid. As the saliva goes deeper into the skin, a tube of this hardened skin forms. In other words, the chigger makes a straw out of your own skin from which it sucks its meal.
When full, it drops off, develops into an adult, and lays eggs on the ground.
The sooner you wash your skin and your clothes, the better. Chiggers wash off easily before or during feeding. Chigger saliva and the tubes of hardened skin both cause intense itching.
Especially millions of them.
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by 
13moons
October 15, 2008 3:48 PM–Millions, huh?
Okay, I just caught myself scratching my ankle!
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