Dark red purple bug bite: How to Know When It’s a Chigger Bite
How to Know When It’s a Chigger Bite
Sometimes called “berry bugs” or “red bugs,” chiggers populate large sections of the United States — including all of the South, the Great Plains, and the Mid-Atlantic. Though they’re often bright red in color, chiggers are only about the size of a grain of salt — making them almost impossible to spot either in the wild or on a person’s skin.
“Chiggers are a type of immature mite that spend time feeding on small mammals, and also on humans,” says Lee Townsend, PhD, a professor emeritus of entomology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. Dr. Townsend says that there are many different species of mites, but only a few types that bite during their larval stage. It’s these that are referred to as chiggers. “Not all mites are chiggers, but all chiggers are mites,” he adds.
Unlike mosquitoes, ticks, and other biting bugs, chiggers don’t attach themselves to mammals in order to suck blood. Instead, chiggers feast on skin cells and tissue, Townsend explains.
But much like mosquitoes and ticks, chiggers can induce a nasty skin reaction. That reaction, he says, comes from the chigger’s saliva, which they use to break down and digest the cells and tissues they devour.
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Chigger Bites Look a Lot Like Other Bug Bites, So Here’s How to Correctly ID Them
As with all bug bites, there’s some person-to-person variation when it comes to chigger bites.
“Different people react differently to bites, so it can be really difficult to tell the difference between bites of things like mosquitoes from chiggers,” Townsend says. Especially if you’re bitten by a lone chigger, the red welt that forms may look more or less identical to a mosquito bite.
But there are bite characteristics that can show up that can help differentiate chiggers from other bugs. For one thing, chigger bites tend to take itchiness to a whole new level. “I don’t know of many things as intensely itchy as a chigger bite,” says Michael Merchant, PhD, a professor of entomology at Texas A&M University in Dallas.
Also, chiggers tend to latch onto a person’s skin in groups. You won’t be able to see them without the aid of a magnifying glass. But you may feel some irritation when they first start feeding. And the resulting bites often appear as clusters of red welts — as opposed to a single itchy lump or a red rash. (1) If you have a swath of itchy skin lumps that looks like many mosquito bites or welts, it’s a good bet you’re dealing with chiggers. (2)
Another characteristic of these bites: chiggers like to gather in areas that are hot and sweaty — like the insides of socks, at waistlines, inside armpits, or behind the knees, Dr. Merchant says. “If you see a pattern of bites only where your sock was, that’s probably chiggers,” he adds.
What Can I Do to Treat Chigger Bites and Relieve the Itching?
While itchy and uncomfortable — not to mention unsightly — chigger bites tend to resolve on their own within a week — and often within a few days. (3) “Once they’re done feeding, [chiggers] drop off on their own,” Townsend says.
He recommends taking a hot shower and soaping the area thoroughly. (This can remove chiggers before they’ve had the chance to cause welts and irritation, he says.) Applying topical calamine cream can also help reduce the itch, he adds. So can cold compresses, oral antihistamines like diphenhydramine (Benadryl) or cetirizine (Zyrtec), and rubbing alcohol. (4)
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Do you need to see a doctor? In most cases, no. “Chiggers can transmit diseases in some other parts of the world, but not here,” Townsend says of domestic chiggers.
That said, chigger bites can put a person at risk for a secondary infection. That could happen if you scratch the bite (or bites) and break open the skin, allowing in bacteria, Merchant says.
If the swelling or redness around a bite is getting worse several days after it first appeared, or if you notice a fever or other flu-like symptoms, those may be signs of an infection.
The same is true if the bite is leaking fluid, has developed a yellow, golden crust, or has become painful, or if you’re experiencing hives, vomiting, or nausea — see a doctor. (5)
Doctors can prescribe prescription topical steroids or even inject dilute steroids into intensely itchy bites if you don’t experience relief from over-the-counter options.
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Yes, You Can Avoid Getting Chigger Bites and Still Enjoy the Outdoors
Chiggers usually live in shaded or overgrown areas like forests and wild fields, Townsend says. “They need shelter from the sun and they like high humidity, so they tend to like tall grasses and places where there are mice and small mammals around,” he says. “You’re not going to run into many of them out in mowed or landscaped areas.”
For that reason, keeping yards or outdoor areas well-tended and free of overgrowth and brush are effective ways to keep chigger populations to a minimum.
Staying on walking paths — as opposed to making your way through tall grass or wilder areas — is another way to avoid picking up chiggers. (6)
If you’re going to be tramping through woods or picking fruit in a field, those are times when you’ll want to take extra precautions to guard yourself against chiggers. Townsend recommends wearing long pants and tucking them into your socks. “Repellents also help,” he says, mentioning common types like DEET, which is also used to repel mosquitoes and ticks. Be sure to use those repellents on your shoes and lower legs — places chiggers tend to latch on.
And again, taking a hot, soapy shower after you’ve been in chigger-infested areas can help remove them before they cause skin irritation, Townsend says.
Chiggers are a nuisance — and their bites can be incredibly itchy. But if you can resist scratching those bites, they don’t cause any long-term issues or health complications.
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While some spider bites cause only redness and itching, others are more dangerous.
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Medically Reviewed
There are more than 50,000 types of spiders in the world. All spiders have eight legs, no wings, and only two body parts: a thorax and an abdomen. They also all have fangs and enough venom to kill the insects that make up their diet. But only a handful of spiders have fangs and venom that can penetrate human skin — including the brown recluse spider, hobo spider, camel spider, wolf spider, black widow spider, and banana spider. Most spiders are harmless and will bite only if they feel threatened. But depending on the spider and its victim, spider bites can cause anything from mild itching and redness to a reaction that becomes a medical emergency. Here’s detailed info on some common spiders and their bites.
The Brown Recluse Spider
The brown recluse spider gets its name from its habit of living in dark corners inside or outside homes, such as in woodpiles, closets, attics, and basements.
This spider is more common in areas that have warm and dry climates, like the south and central areas of the United States. The brown recluse is about a half-inch to an inch long, is light brown in color, and has a violin-shaped mark on its back. The distinctive mark gives the spider these other nicknames: the violin spider or fiddleback spider.
The Brown Recluse Spider Bite
The brown recluse spider’s venom may cause burning pain and itching within several hours after a bite. The actual bite may cause a stinging sensation or not be felt at all. The bite has the appearance of a bull’s-eye, with a central blister that scabs and falls off, leaving a small ulcer. Possible symptoms include body aches and fever. Children may be at risk for an allergic reaction to the venom. To treat a brown recluse spider bite, immediately wash it and apply an ice pack. You can also use an antibiotic ointment to prevent infection. In most cases, symptoms resolve within 48 hours, but the central ulcer may take weeks to heal.
The Black Widow Spider
The black widow spider is about the same size as the brown recluse spider (a half-inch to an inch long) and also likes dark places. This spider is usually found outside in sheds, barns, or woodpiles. The black widow can be identified by her shiny black color and a red or orange hourglass marking on the underside of her abdomen. Only the bite of the female spider is dangerous. Black widows can be found throughout the United States but are most common in warmer and drier areas.
The Black Widow Spider Bite
The victim of a black widow spider’s bite usually feels it right away, and there may be fang marks and swelling. If you are bitten, you should clean and ice the bite. If the spider has injected venom, you may experience muscle aches and cramps that spread from the bite area to the rest of the body. Possible symptoms include nausea, difficulty breathing, and weakness. If someone bitten by a black widow spider experiences muscle cramps, emergency medical care may include blood pressure medication, muscle relaxants, and, in rare cases, antivenin — a biologic product created to counteract the effects of a spider’s venom.
Serious reactions are rare, but are most common in children or very elderly people.
The Hobo Spider
The hobo spider is not native to the United States. It arrived in the northwest from Europe and is now common in California, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. The spider is about one-half inch long and has long legs that allow it to move quickly on the ground. Its upper body is brown and its abdomen is grayish with yellow markings. The hobo likes to live in cracks or holes both inside and outside.
The Hobo Spider Bite
The hobo bite resembles the brown recluse bite, with a central blister that scabs and ulcerates, surrounded by a ring of swollen discoloration. Within an hour after the bite, the hobo spider’s venom can cause a numbing sensation and muscle or joint aches. After about three days, a black scab falls off, leaving an open, slow-healing type of wound.
The Wolf Spider
The wolf spider is common all over the United States. It doesn’t weave webs, and it gets its name from its habit of stalking prey like a wolf.
The wolf spider is brown or gray in color and can be 3 to 4 inches across. Because some wolf spiders are large and hairy, they are sometimes mistaken for tarantulas. The female may be identified by a white egg sac that she carries with her. This spider prefers to live outdoors on the ground in loose sand or gravel, but it may wander indoors and be spotted running across the floor.
The Wolf Spider Bite
The wolf spider’s bite can cause pain, redness, and swelling. Its large fangs may tear the skin, which can become infected and cause lymph nodes to swell. Treatment of a wolf spider bite includes cleansing and icing. Swelling and pain can last up to 10 days, but medical attention is usually not necessary unless the victim is a small child or someone who is sick or elderly.
The Camel Spider
Camel spiders are sometimes called wind scorpions or sun spiders, but in reality, they are neither scorpions nor spiders. They belong to a group of desert creatures called solpugids, and they have elongated bodies that make them look more like scorpions than spiders.
The name, derived from Latin, means “escape from the sun.” In the United States, camel spiders can be found in the deserts of the southwest. They are light brown in color, can be up to 5 inches long, and can run at about 10 miles per hour — often making a screaming sound while doing so.
The Camel Spider Bite
During the Iraq war, soldiers described huge camel spiders that seemed to run at them in a screaming attack mode. In reality these creatures, though scary in appearance, are not dangerous to humans, and if they run at someone, they are probably just seeking shade in the person’s shadow. They do not have any venom and do not bite except in self-defense. A bite is very unlikely and would not be dangerous to a person if it did happen.
The Banana Spider
The banana spider is found in warm regions of the United States from North Carolina through the Gulf states. It lives in woodlands and forests and produces large, intricate orb webs that glow golden in the sun.
The female has a long shape that resembles a banana. She can be about three inches long and has yellow spots on her tan cylindrical body and brown and orange tufts on her legs. The male banana spider is an inconspicuous dark brown and less than an inch long.
The Banana Spider Bite
The banana spider is often confused with the Brazilian wandering spider, which is found among bananas shipped to the United States from South America; neither spider is native to North America. Although the Brazilian spider bite can be dangerous, the banana spider bite is not. Banana spiders will bite only if held or pinched. The bite produces mild stinging and redness (similar to a bee sting) that quickly goes away.
Insect bite prevention
No summer is complete without insect bites. This is not only unpleasant, but sometimes dangerous to health.
The immune system of each person reacts to bites in different ways: from swelling, itching and pain to anaphylaxis.
An anaphylactic reaction can develop after a bite from any insect. Fortunately, this is rare, but people who have experienced any kind of allergic reaction before should be especially vigilant.
An anaphylactic reaction occurs at lightning speed. A person feels weak, then symptoms quickly increase: difficulty breathing, increased heart rate, loss of consciousness.
If an anaphylactic reaction occurs, emergency medical attention is needed, as this condition is life-threatening.
A milder allergic reaction to insect bites manifests itself in the form of itching, inflammation of the bite site. When there are many such bites, it causes great discomfort. Often there are complications – the addition of a secondary infection.
5 common insect bites in summer
Mosquito bites are accompanied by severe unbearable itching – this is a reaction to the proteins contained in the saliva of the insect.
In some tropical countries, mosquito bites can transmit diseases such as malaria, Zika fever, Dengue fever, yellow fever.
Wasps, bees and hornets have stingers for self-defense. The sting contains a poisonous substance that enters the bite site, causing severe pain and burning. At the site of the bite, swelling, inflammation, redness and itching may appear. The most dangerous complication of such bites is anaphylaxis. The stings of bees, wasps, bumblebees and hornets are very dangerous for children.
Horseflies attack in hot stuffy weather. Their bite is quite painful, it can cause a sharp burning sensation. Often there is a feeling of itching, inflammation and swelling in the bite area. There may even be a bruise.
There are about 4,000 species of biting midges . The smallest of the flies that attack humans can range in size from 1 to 3 mm. Despite their tiny size, midge bites can be irritating and even cause local pain.
Flea bites leave small sores on the skin, usually several, next to each other, often on the ankles and legs.
First Aid
- apply cold
- remove tip
- clean with antiseptic solution
- do not scratch
- if necessary, drink an antihistamine (recommended by a doctor, observing the age dosage)
Seek medical attention immediately, if you have had a severe allergic reaction to an insect sting in the past, or if you experience one or more of the following symptoms:
- sudden urticaria
- swelling of the face
- labored breathing
- dizziness
- fainting
Basic precautions for preventing insect bites
Remain calm and walk away slowly if there are wasps, hornets or bees nearby – do not wave your arms and do not try to drive them away.
Wear closed clothing, do not walk barefoot on the grass.
Apply insect repellant to exposed skin or clothing as directed – repellants containing 50% DEET (diethyltoluamide) are most effective.
Avoid using strong perfumes, they can attract insects.
Be careful of flowering plants, trash, standing water, and open areas where food is served.
Avoid camping near bodies of water, do not keep containers filled with water in summer cottages – mosquitoes and horseflies are usually found near water.
In the evening, do not open the windows wide open if they are not equipped with a mosquito net.
It is also recommended that you take extra precautions if you are traveling to a part of the world where there is a risk of serious insect-borne diseases.
Let insects distract you from summer joys as little as possible this year!
Small bugs bite – skin beetle bites
Brown bugs in the apartment are not only a threat to things or products. Despite the fact that skin beetles are not parasites like fleas or bedbugs, they bite people, it is necessary to carry out pest control.
When a kozheed bites, it does not anesthetize the place of contact, as they do, for example, bedbugs, so this does not go unnoticed by a person. The bite of the kozheed beetle is felt very clearly and is very unpleasant for almost everyone. Some call it “burning”. It is as if the damaged area of the skin suddenly ignited with “skin-tearing” force. It’s pretty frustrating when something like this happens unexpectedly.
Adult skin beetles bite humans undetected due to their ability to fly. Often they can be confused with a harmless housefly. It is worth noting, though, that flying beetle bites are extremely rare, if ever confirmed. Another thing with the larvae, but more on that below.
Kozheed bites: far-fetched?
Nowhere in the specialized literature is it said that kozheed beetles bite people. Therefore, many people think that skin beetles cannot bite a person. Like, why would they bite if they can “chew” something, such as skin or the same fur.
Why doesn’t science study the behavior of kozheedov in apartments? Because these insects are only important as stock pests in the agricultural industry.
In recent years, we often receive complaints from customers about the bites of these particular insects.
“It would be a delusion to think that skin-eaters don’t bite. They bite and are quite noticeable. Just not as massively as parasites, but often selectively and singly.”
What do skin beetle bites look like? Like pink spots, more like flea bites. In some, they turn into bleeding wounds.
Do skin beetle larvae bite?
It should be remembered that only skin beetle larvae are active around the clock. The beetles themselves do not bite at night, since they are active only during the day (some types of skin beetles are accurate, but vice versa). Therefore, if bed bugs and linen lice are excluded, then skin beetle larvae bite.
In almost all confirmed cases, bites were caused by larvae and not by adults.
After all, they, unlike beetles, basically need food and substrate.
On this account, there is a version that the larvae do not bite at all, and what a person feels like a bite can be a kind of “prick”. It is known that “hairy larvae” have a full length of something like bristles that protect the surface of the body. There is an opinion that the larvae, as it were, stick by them to a person lying on a sofa. And he, perplexed about all this, itches in the morning and is lost in conjectures about what can irritate his skin so much.
Examples of complaints about the bites of beetle larvae from our practice are enough. Here is one of them:
“I wake up from the fact that my legs are itching to the point of impossibility. I mechanically sat down, rubbing my eyes to get up, and then I see something: some dark brown furry worms are squirming at the edge of the sofa” Mikhail, Novokuznetsk (client’s name has been changed).
The watchman of a warehouse where fumigation was carried out described his encounter with skin-eaters as follows: I saw them on my leg, as if he was trying to tear off a piece of my skin right through my socks.
At the same time, I didn’t feel anything particularly, maybe because I reflexively managed to pull my leg back”
It becomes clear that beetles and their larvae can still bite. Often they are found in the upholstery of sofas and really have a worm-like shape, they shed very often. The skins shed during molting are sometimes indistinguishable from the larvae themselves.
It should be noted that, in general, skin beetle attacks are rare, and in order to force them to such behavior, the population size must be initially high, but conditions must change dramatically for its development. For example, moisture has increased, the apartment has become empty due to the lack of furniture or things during the move, or something else. It is worth noting that sometimes such an aggressive reaction is provoked by an unsuitable substrate for pupation of the larva. In general, those same larvae will not just come out on open surfaces, they love dark, hidden and dusty places.
If they come out to bite people, something is wrong.
Why does the kozheed beetle bite?
What makes them do this remains a mystery to many. Perhaps the epidermis – the outer layer of human skin – is of no less interest to beetles than all products of animal origin?
Are kozheeds really dangerous for humans?
In addition to the excruciating bite, there is a real risk of suffering a disease after it. At the stage of growing up, the larvae feed on everything, including decomposed organic matter. Therefore, adults are often infected with helminths (worm eggs). Quite often, the symptoms are: general discomfort, high fever and weakness of the body, mild nausea, diarrhea, etc. Nothing fatal and passes as quickly as a mild poisoning episode with appropriate treatment. However, it is still quite unpleasant that an insect bite can be the cause.
Bitten by a beetle: what to do after
If a skin beetle bites a person, it is necessary to treat the bite in the same way as a bite from any other insect.