Tag Archives: DEET
Chigger season
If my phone calls are any indication, this appears to be a whopping chigger season. Don’t know what I’m talking about? You should count your blessings. Chiggers are my personal worst nightmare. They are tiny mites, barely visible to the eye, that live on the soil surface and, in their larval stage, are parasites on humans and other vertebrate animals. Chigger bites itch terribly for 1-2 days, then slowly shrink to mildly itchy red marks that take 1 or 2 weeks to disappear. The only good thing I… Read More →
Late chigger season
It’s October, I’m still scratching chigger bites. Two weeks ago I gave a talk for Master Naturalists at the Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge headquarters, and we took a 15 minute “field trip” to the flower garden around the building. The next day I counted 30 plus bites. Last weekend I swear I never left a sidewalk, and still felt the tell-tale itch of chigger bites. It could be just me but I’ve been getting calls from others, too, about chiggers over the past month. Chiggers are my personal least… Read More →