3/25/2009 9:09:42 PM

ntlb

3/26/2009 12:27:32 AM

Yeah... chiggers.



You know what to do.

3/26/2009 12:44:43 AM

That woman's feet are way too big for those sandals.

I've also never had chigger bites do that. Then again, when I used to get chiggers all over my legs (doing bridge inspections), I would come up and immediately take the hottest shower I could stand and wash any spot or itch with soap (god knows those bastards will get anywhere).

Now that I'm done being way too serious in this thread, this is a proper parody.

7.9/10

3/26/2009 12:56:19 AM

my girllfriends sister took a piss leaning up against a tree in high school and got chiggers in her ass

3/26/2009 1:13:53 AM

lol, thats hilarious and disgusting

3/26/2009 1:14:45 AM

3/26/2009 9:32:09 AM

Quote :

"Then again, when I used to get chiggers all over my legs (doing bridge inspections), I would come up and immediately take the hottest shower I could stand and wash any spot or itch with soap (god knows those bastards will get anywhere)."

By the time it itches the chigger has already fed from you and dropped off. That's not to say that you weren't getting rid of some chiggers that had yet to do their damage.

That person in that picture scratched the hell out of those bites to make them look like that. I know because I've done the same thing...using a credit card, lol.

3/26/2009 10:12:04 AM

liquid skin ftw

3/26/2009 10:19:23 AM

i thought they got in your skin?

3/26/2009 10:47:00 AM

Chigger mites are unique among the many mite families in that only the larval stage feeds on vertebrate animals; chiggers dine on us only in their childhood, and later become vegetarians that live on the soil.

One of the greatest misconceptions about chiggers is that they burrow into our skin and eventually die within the tissues, thus causing the persistent itch. This widespread myth has its origin in the southern states where pests with similar names such as jigger flea or the chigoe do attack by burrowing under skin. Chiggers are not equipped to burrow, and they are much too large to enter through the pores.

Chiggers attach by inserting minute specialized mouth parts into skin depressions, usually at skin pores or hair follicles.

The chigger's piercing mouth parts are short and delicate, and can penetrate only thin skin or where the skin wrinkles and folds.

The reason the bite itches so intensely and for such a long time is because the chigger injects saliva into its victim after attaching to the skin. This saliva contains a powerful digestive enzyme that literally dissolves the skin cells it contacts. It is this liquefied tissue, never blood, that the chigger ingests and uses for food.

A chigger usually goes unnoticed for one to three hours after it starts feeding. During this period the chigger quietly injects its digestive saliva. After a few hours your skin reacts by hardening the cells on all sides of the saliva path, eventually forming a hard tube-like structure called a stylostome.

The stylostome walls off the corrosive saliva, but it also functions like a feeding tube for the hungry chigger. The chigger sits with its mouthparts attached to the stylostome, and like a person drinking a milk shake through a straw, it sucks up your liquefied tissue. Left undisturbed, the chigger continues alternately injecting saliva into the bite and sucking up liquid tissue.

It is the stylostome that irritates and inflames the surrounding tissue and causes the characteristic red welt and intense itch. The longer the chigger feeds, the deeper the stylostome grows, and the larger the welt will eventually become. The idea that the welt swells and eventually engulfs the feeding chiggers is also a myth. Many people have seen a small red dot inside a welt (usually under a water blister), but this is the stylostome tube and not a chigger body.

The time required for a chigger to complete its meal varies with the location of the bite, the host and the species. If undisturbed, chiggers commonly take three or four days, and sometimes longer, to eat their dinner. This is not surprising when you consider that this is the first and last meal of the young chigger's life.

On human hosts, however, chiggers seldom get the chance to finish a meal. The unlucky chigger that depends on a human for its once-in-a-lifetime dinner is almost sure to be accidentally brushed away or scratched off by the victim long before the meal is complete.

It may give you some consolation to know that when a chigger is removed before it has fully engorged, it cannot bite again and will eventually die. Seems only just, doesn't it?

Itching usually peaks a day or two after the bite occurs. This happens because the stylostome remains imbedded in your skin tissue long after the chigger is gone. Your skin continues the itch, allergic reaction to stylostome for many days. The stylostome is eventually absorbed by your body, a slow process that takes a week to 10 days, or longer.

It is of little comfort to learn that North American chiggers only bite humans by accident. Although our chiggers can feed on most animals, they are really looking for reptiles and birds, their preferred hosts. The itching reaction human skin has to chigger bites occurs because we are not their correct hosts. Chiggers that specifically prey on humans in Asia and Pacific Islands cause no itching!

http://mdc.mo.gov/nathis/arthopo/chiggers/

3/26/2009 10:55:31 AM

^ good to know.

3/26/2009 1:04:47 PM