Do You Have Chiggers Crawling in Your Grass? Here’s What To Do

In Ohio, chiggers can be a real problem, especially for property owners who are dealing with a chigger infestation. Also referred to as berry bugs and harvest mites, chiggers are similar to ticks in the sense that they are quite small and can bite people and pets. If you think chiggers are overtaking your property, there are three things you need to know: what exactly is a chigger and how you can identify them, how you can get rid of chiggers on your property, and how you can keep chiggers from coming back.

What are chiggers?

Chiggers are a close relative of ticks and are nearly microscopic. Because they are so small, they can be difficult to spot, but their distinctive bright reddish-orange color sets them apart from other mites. Chiggers bite both people and animals as a source of food. Even though they are tiny, their bites can pack a punch by causing severe itching and/or a skin rash. Chigger bites are itchy, red bumps that can look like pimples, blisters, or small hives and are typically found around the waist or ankles. Chiggers are attracted to people for the same reason that mosquitoes and ticks are attracted to us; because we produce carbon dioxide when we breathe, which attracts bugs like chiggers to want to bite us. Chiggers usually favor conditions such as moist, bushy areas to live and nest, which is why they can often be found in yards.

How do you get rid of chiggers?

The best way to get rid of chiggers from your property is to hire your local lawn care professionals to treat your lawn. They have the knowledge and the highest quality chemical treatments to safely and efficiently eliminate chiggers from your property. When a lawn care company comes out to your property, they will first do an inspection to make sure that you are dealing with a chigger infestation. Next, they will spray your lawn with a high-quality insecticide that is designed to kill them off. Once they are finished, you should be able to use your lawn without having to worry about these pests biting you, your loved ones, or your pets.

Chiggers can lay one to five eggs per day, so if you don’t act fast, they can quickly take over your lawn!

How can you prevent chiggers?

The best way to prevent chiggers in the first place is to enroll in an ongoing chigger control program that continuously offers treatments. Treating for chiggers regularly is the only way to keep them away for good. When enrolling in a chigger control program, you’ll want to make sure that the company you are working with will offer multiple treatments throughout the entirety of the chigger season. You will also want to make sure that each treatment will last until the next one is applied to ensure that there is no lapse in coverage.

There are also a few things that homeowners can do to supplement these treatments. For example, mowing your grass and trimming back shrubs and brush frequently will limit the shady, bushy areas that chiggers thrive in. Also be sure to regularly clear leaf litter from your yard as moist, dark piles of leaves are conducive to chigger activity.

Give us a call to schedule our chigger control service!

Nobody likes unwanted visitors, especially when those visitors bite! If you suspect that chiggers are overrunning your property, turn to the professionals at Free Spray Lawn Care. Our lawn care professionals will quickly and safely end the infestation so you and your loved ones can get back to enjoying your yard. We offer our chigger control service to property owners in Mansfield, Wooster, Strongsville, OH and throughout the surrounding areas. Give us a call at 419-529-5296 to schedule our chigger control service today.

Share this Article

Chigger Bites (for Parents) – Humana

Parents

Search KidsHealth library

What Are Chiggers?

Chiggers (also called harvest mites or red bugs) are tiny red, biting mites. Their bites aren’t painful, but do cause intense itching.

Chiggers are members of the arachnid family (the same family that includes spiders and ticks). They are smaller than a period at the end of a sentence. Most can only be seen with a magnifying glass.

Chiggers are found all over the outdoors, including in grassy fields, along lakes and streams, and in forests. It’s the baby chiggers that bite people and animals.

How Do Chigger Bites Happen?

After hatching, baby chiggers wait on plants for people or animals to pass by. When they do, the chigger attaches to them using tiny claws. Once attached, it pierces their skin and injects its saliva (spit). The spit contains digestive juices that dissolve skin cells. The chigger then eats the dissolved cells, which provide the protein it needs to grow into an adult. After a couple of days the chigger falls off, leaving a red bump on the skin.

What Are the Signs of Chigger Bites?

Chigger bites are itchy red bumps that can look like pimples, blisters, or small hives. They are usually found around the waist, ankles, or in warm skin folds. They get bigger and itchier over several days, and often appear in groups.

Chigger bites start to itch within hours of the chigger attaching to the skin. The itch stops after a few days, and the red bumps heal over 1–2 weeks.

If chigger bites happen on the penis, they can cause swelling, itching, and painful peeing. This is known as “summer penile syndrome.”

How Are Chigger Bites Diagnosed?

Doctors can diagnose chigger bites by looking at them and asking about a person’s recent outdoor activities.

How Are Chigger Bites Treated?

Unlike mosquitoes and ticks, chiggers don’t carry disease. So they are not harmful, only annoying. You can usually treat chigger bites at home:

• Scrub chigger bites well with soap and water to help remove any chiggers that are still attached to the skin.
• Holding a cool washcloth over the bites can be soothing.
• Calamine lotion or anti-itch creams can help with the itching.
• Antihistamines (allergy medicine) taken by mouth can sometimes help with itching, especially if your child has trouble sleeping at night.

Discourage kids from scratching at the bites because this can lead to:

• impetigo, a bacterial infection of the skin, with pus and crusts around the bites
• a larger area of increasing redness, swelling, pain, and warmth, called cellulitis

Keeping fingernails short can help prevent skin damage from scratching. Antibiotics may be needed if a skin infection does happen.

When Should I Call the Doctor?

Call your doctor’s office if:

• Over-the-counter creams or lotions don’t help the itching.
• A bite looks infected (watch for warmth, redness, swelling, tenderness, or pus).
• Your child has symptoms of “summer penile syndrome.”

Can Chigger Bites Be Prevented?

To help prevent chigger bites when enjoying the great outdoors:

• Apply an insect repellent with 10%–30% DEET.
• Clothes also can be treated with a specific insecticide (like permethrin) to help prevent bites.
• Wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants tucked into shoes, especially during hiking. This also can help protect kids from other biting critters like ticks and mosquitoes.
• Wash kids’ skin with soap and water when they come back inside. Wash all clothes in hot water and tumble dry on high heat before they’re worn again.

Chigger bites aren’t contagious, so kids can’t catch them from someone or give them to somebody else. They can still play sports and do all normal activities unless the itching makes them too uncomfortable.

Reviewed by: Yamini Durani, MD

Date reviewed: June 2023

Humana Healthy Horizons in Ohio

• Humana Healthy Horizons

• Humana Healthy Horizons Extras

• Member Support

• Care management

• Caregiver resources

• Child well-being

• Disease management

• Documents and forms

• Enrollment

• Grievances and appeals

• Health and wellness

• KidsHealth

• Member Handbook

• New Member Resources

• News and alerts

• OhioRISE Plan

• Pregnancy outcomes

• Tobacco cessation

• Why Humana

• Your primary care provider

• For Providers

• Contact us

• Accessibility

Find a doctor

Find a doctor, hospital or pharmacy.

Search

Value-added benefits

Learn about the extra benefits and services available to Humana Healthy Horizons in Ohio members.

Find value-added benefits

Documents and forms

Find the documents and forms you need, including your Member Handbook

Find documents and forms

News at 20:00 last full issue watch online

February 16, 2023
21:38

Denis Davydov

While Europe, within the framework of the tenth package of anti-Russian sanctions, calls to seriously consider providing Ukraine with missile systems, fighter jets and helicopters, the helicopter of the American National Guard falls on a busy highway in Alabama. Everyone who was inside the collapsed Black Hawk died, and the fire was extinguished for more than 5 hours. Where and why the helicopter was flying, the aviation services do not report, but they are afraid in social networks: what if they mistook it for a Chinese one and shot it down?!

Two large-scale chemical emergencies are shrouded not only in smoke from the fire, but also in mystery. But if a warehouse with plastic is just burning in Florida, then Ohio is already on the verge of an environmental disaster, which the White House does not comment on.

The explosion was filmed from different angles, because the explosion is controlled. Dozens of cameras followed a black poisonous cloud covering for many kilometers many towns in Ohio and neighboring Pennsylvania. The authorities did not come up with anything better – they decided to set fire to tanks with chemicals that had derailed near the town of Eastern Palestine. Residents were carefully evacuated, but on the second day, as soon as the smoke cleared, the care ended – everyone was offered to return home.

“We smelled chemicals when we were driving towards the city. I have a chemical burn on my face, a rash. Fish died in the streams, there are multi-colored oil stains on the water, a constant smell of burnt plastic. Our dog is lethargic, he constantly vomits. Terrible things are happening here “, says one of the locals.

The train that brought so many troubles to these parts was carrying a whole periodic table: ethylene glycol ether, isobutylene, butyl acrylate, but most importantly – vinyl chloride. A colorless gas that decomposes into hydrogen chloride and phosgene when burned. Phosgene poisoned people in the First World War. Of the 150 tanks in the train, 50 derailed.

Those who decided to set it on fire have their own truth – they were afraid of an uncontrolled explosion. Tanks could break, and pieces of metal, like shrapnel, would mutilate everything around for several kilometers. Now they cheerfully report that there are no casualties and destruction.

“If I were there right now, I would drink water there. Yesterday, when our chief physician advised drinking only bottled water, he simply did not know the results of water tests. Today we have them,” said Mike Devine , Governor of Ohio.

Governor giving advice from the state capital, hundreds of miles away from the crash site. For two weeks, he never appeared at the overturned tanks. The authorities pretended that nothing terrible had happened.

“They are happy when they collect our taxes. The authorities are happy to spend trillions of dollars around the world on their military operations, just leaving ordinary people. People like these unfortunate East Palestine in Ohio,” said American politician Tulsi Gabbard.

Residents heard the first official messages that it is better to drink bottled water only on the 10th day after the accident. “The EPA didn’t seem to be doing any water tests, and the railroad company that made it happen hired some office to do all the tests. It’s the same type of office that BP hired. Remember, 12 years ago they told us that the water in the Gulf of Mexico is in perfect order after BP’s towers with trillions of tons of oil flew into the air?!” says one of the locals.

What just happened in Ohio, how serious the damage is, whether there will be compensation – a queue for answers to these questions lined up at the school gym, where the townspeople gathered. But no one came to see them. The management of the railway company sent a letter – they are afraid for the safety of their employees, so somehow without them. The only representative of power was the local mayor, who is also a local resident. “I’m just the mayor of a town of 4,700 people. If you think I can fight the railroad giants and the federal government, then you’re out of your mind. I need help. I’m not ready for this,” he said.

The railroad company sent one check for $1,200,000 to the entire city.

“That’s not enough! Maybe this is just the beginning. Help is needed now from different places. Many are responsible for what happened. I was told that the bearings of the train overheated. Why did they overheat? Maybe because they were not properly maintained ?! All this needs to be investigated,” said Brad Venstrup, a member of the US House of Representatives from Ohio.

Just a month and a half ago, railroad workers complained about how companies cut staff, those who remain, lengthen shifts, and even lengthen trains, giving a damn about the safety of transportation. There were more accidents under the new Minister of Transport. Biden gave the job to Pete Buttigieg. The pride of the administration is the first openly gay minister. In his speeches, he does not even mention the disaster in Ohio. Other issues matter.

“From generation to generation, we’ve heard too many stories about infrastructure when a neighborhood of color finally gets a project, but everyone who works on this project, doing well-paid jobs, looks like they’re not from the area” said Pete Buttigieg.

Neither Secretary of Transportation Buttigieg nor President Biden came to Ohio and commented on the catastrophe extremely sparingly. Journalists suggested that if the tragedy with the train happened not in the United States, but in Ukraine, the American authorities would have shown greater sensitivity.

incidents
policy
explosion
USA/America
society
news
ecological catastrophy
Most read
events of the day

Chemical train crash in Ohio: why the American media belatedly noticed the environmental disaster 3

New number

Worldwide

15.02.2023 11:57

Share

Yuri Kogalov

On February 3, a train carrying dangerous substances derailed in Ohio, USA. However, the American media initially bypassed this topic. Only now, when the White House has already made a statement on this topic, they began to tell their readers about the environmental catastrophe. According to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, the US federal government is working “hand in hand” with the state of Ohio to clean up the consequences of the release of chemicals.

For example, the Axios portal reports that hundreds of people were evacuated from the city of Eastern Palestine after the collapse of a train that had at least five tank cars with vinyl chloride, a colorless but dangerous gas that is used to manufacture PVC, plastic and vinyl products. . Norfolk Southern, which owned the chemicals, was forced to burn the contents of the tanks, leaving a massive plume of black smoke over the city for several hours.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said he authorized such an operation, faced with the choice of letting these tanks explode or let the gas escape and burn it.

However, there were other hazardous substances in the tanks (ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate, isobutylene, butyl acrylate), but they receive less attention in the media, it is only noted that they can cause irritation of the eyes and nose, headache and vomiting.

According to The Washington Post, two days after the destruction of the vinyl chloride, the evacuees were allowed to return to their homes, but soon faced headaches, nausea and other ailments due to the smell that hung in the air. According to doctors, vinyl chloride in high concentrations affects the human central nervous system, and can even cause a rare form of liver cancer. And when burned, vinyl chloride decomposes into hydrogen chloride and phosgene, the latter substance was widely used during the First World War as an asphyxiant. Hydrogen chloride is also extremely dangerous. But the American media are only writing about this now, when the Environmental Protection Agency has already stated that the current state of the air is not a cause for concern.

However, experts continue to monitor the condition of the soil and water. According to the head of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Mary Mertz, about 3,500 fish have died as a result of pollution of water bodies. According to her, the death of fish, apparently, occurred in the first days after the accident.

By the way, only 11 days after the crash and the toxic spill, officials advised residents to use bottled water until tests confirmed whether the local water was safe to drink, The Washington Post notes.

The cause of the crash is believed to be a mechanical problem with the axle of one of the 150 wagons that were in the train (50 wagons overturned), although it has not yet been officially named. As The New York Times points out, in 2017, regulations requiring upgrades to the brake system on trains carrying hazardous materials were lifted.

Norfolk Southern said it has donated $1.2 million to approximately 1,000 families to help with evacuation costs. But locals are wondering if it’s even safe for them to return to their homes after a toxic train crash. According to David Mazur, executive director of the human rights group PennEnvironment, the chemicals made a “poisonous soup”. It’s a bit like a sci-fi movie when you’re told that one of the by-products released is an agent we used against our enemies in World War I,” he noted.

“I would not want to be exposed to any of these substances,” Natural Resources Defense Council member Eric D. Olson said for his part, stressing that all of the chemicals carried in that train were an inhalation hazard.

“Much is still unknown, we will have to face the consequences in 5, 10, 15 and 20 years, when clusters of oncological diseases may appear or well water may suddenly deteriorate,” says Chemical Waste Expert Silverado Caggiano of NewsNation.