Welcome to brain Stuff from house stuff marks dot com where smart happens. H I am Marshall Brain with today's question, what are chiggers and how do they bite you? If you've ever been out in the woods or an open field in the spring, summer, or fall, you may have gotten chiggers around your waistband or on your ankles. They leave red, itchy bumps on your skin. Chiggers are the larva of mites called harvest mites or scrub mtes. Like ticks and spiders, might go through several biological stages in
their life cycle. They begin as eggs, hatches larva, developing the nymphs, and finally become adults. Nymph and adult harvest mites feed mostly on plant life, and they don't bother people or animals, but in the larval stage they go parasitic. After a parasitic chigger hatches, it finds a good position on tall grass or other vegetation so it can spring onto a passing animal. When it finds an animal, it attaches to the animal to gather the protein it needs
to grow into the nymph stage. Chiggers don't burrow under your skin as many people believe, nor do they feed on animal blood. They actually feed on the fluids in skin cells. To get to those fluids, they attach themselves to a skin pour or a hair follicle, and they inject this digestive engine that ruptures the cells. The enzyme also hardens the surrounding skin tissue, forming a sort of straw for sucking the skin cell fluids. The whole process irritates the skin, and it causes an itchy red bump
that can last for several days. Chiggers are only about half a millimeter long, and so they're too small to see with the naked eye. This invisibility is the reason so many people believe chiggers burrow under your skin. You usually find chiggers in the woods or in tall grass, and they're especially common in damp areas with a lot
of vegetation. They're attracted to concealed moist conditions on hosts, too, so they tend to attach to skin under tight clothing such as socks and underwear, or in concealed areas of the body like the groin and the armpits. One way to decrease the chance of chiger bites is to wear loose clothing when you're in the woods or other infested areas.
You should also take a shower as soon as you get home from an outdoor expedition to remove any chickers before they have a chance to attach to your skin. In North America, chiggers don't spread any diseases to humans, but chicker bites can get infected. You should keep the irritated area clean and refrain as much as possible from scratching, although that's sometimes nearly impossible. In other parts of the world,
chiggers may pose a more serious threat. One commonly known remor for chigger bites is to put nail polish on it to reduce the itchiness. This doesn't kill the chigger or treat the bite in any way. It simply seals off the air, which keeps the sore from itching so badly. If you want to apply something to relieve the itching, it's probably better to use a salve or a cream that contains antihistamines, or something like cala drill or hydrocordizone ointment.
If the welts continue to irritate you for more than a couple of weeks, they might be infected, and you should probably go see a doctor. Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow the house Stuff Works. I Find app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes