Thursday, June 27, 2019

We Bought a Farm: An Introduction to Chiggers

I'll be honest. Maybe it's the country-way the word rolls off the tongue. But for some reason I sort of always believed that chiggers were sort of a made up thing. 

I mean, I never formally thought about it. But I'd never had them. You couldn't see the bugs. I'd never seen the product of what the bug did either. So maybe I figured, it's just one of these words country-folks say that really isn't a word at all. 

(Like when they use "whelp" to indicate a red mark on their leg when they mean "welt" or when they call a bedroom "suite" a "suit." Those are my two top-level frustrations.)

But I was wrong. About the chiggers at least. They are real. VERY REAL.

Isaac got a nasty case of them after blackberry picking with his cousin Ana. She got a nasty case too. Frustrates me so much because Isaac, by nature, doesn't always embrace the outdoors. And yet the things he loves (like picking berries) always seem to conspire against him. Why can't the darned bugs just leave us all alone and let us enjoy God's beautiful Earth!?!?

These little invisible creatures climb under your clothes. In Isaac's case, they bit him all over where boxer shorts would cover. Poor little guy. Ana, too, got hammered!

Chiggers. Real word. Nasty bug. Them and ticks. In heaven, I'm gonna ask God why he made them. And roaches. Those too,


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've never heard of chiggers being out of the water. Here in MN, especially lake country (so, NW of the Cities) we were either being told by adults or being frightened by kids to not swim in a certain lake because it was full of chiggers. But I just read about them and it's a myth. They're not in the water but in the grass and leaves around the lake. Well, we both learned something new.

Bethany

Anonymous said...

Ah, Wendi! I hear you! I got them too often in Northern Indiana, so they don't all have Southern accents!
Best thing I ever found to calm the itch is a Benadryl pump spray. May not work for everyone but it's my best solution.