Red Bug Bites and Treatment

Identifying Red Bug “Bites”

People and pets both get chigger bites. They are miserable, but chiggers in the United States are not known to spread disease to people. A chigger does not tunnel under the skin, and it does not drink blood. It grips the surface with tiny hooked mouthparts, injects saliva that softens and breaks down skin cells, and then feeds on the dissolved tissue. Once on a warm-blooded host, chiggers move toward places where hair is sparse and the skin is thin.

So the “bite” is really a small feeding wound. The skin reacts to the saliva with intense itching, swelling and red bumps, which can run together into a rash where many chiggers fed at once. The bites tend to show up on skin that was left bare or pressed under snug clothing, often after time in grass, brush or woods on a warm day.

Chigger Bite Timing, Myths and Relief

Chigger bites rarely hurt at first. Itching usually starts a few hours after exposure, often that evening or overnight, and tends to be worst over the next day or two. The red bumps can stay itchy for a week or more.

Where bites show up: around the ankles, behind the knees, along the waistband, in the groin and under the arms. Chiggers keep climbing until something stops them, so tight clothing edges are where they settle in to feed.

A common myth: chiggers do not stay buried in the skin, so coating bites with nail polish, bleach or alcohol to smother them does nothing useful. The red dot in the center of a bite is not the chigger. By the time the itching starts, most chiggers have already been scratched or washed off.

First aid:

• Shower soon after being outdoors and scrub with soap to remove chiggers that have not attached yet.
• Wash the clothes you wore in hot water before wearing them again.
• Use cool compresses, an over-the-counter anti-itch cream or an oral antihistamine for the itch, following the label.

See a doctor if bites become hot, swollen or start draining, if you develop a fever. Dogs and cats can pick up chiggers too, usually on the ears, belly and between the toes, so check with your vet if a pet keeps scratching after time outdoors. Ways to avoid future bites are in how to get rid of red bugs.