Whats with all these "C" bugs?????
So now that the cicadas are gone except for a few strays that must have hatches late in the cycle, the heat is picking up & oh my, the chiggars have eaten me alive.

I learned last year.....never go outside your door without drenching yourself in OFF or any other bug spray to keep them away.......but wouldn't you know it......if I forget even one little time......wham......almost 75 stupid bites. For some reason, chiggars don't just itch......they itch beyond an itch.....& it's an itch that you can't just put out of your mind as it's an itch that words can't describe.

I had been doing so good.....everytime I would step out my door to walk my doggies, I would spray down my legs & arms & cloths......but this one day. I had just come back to the house from a buffet lunch I gone to with a friend & was dressed rather nicely. I needed to return something I had purchased & had forgotten to take it when I left for the lunch. All I needed to do was run into the house & pick up the package & run back to my truck & off to run the errands.

But in my normal way of getting distracted, the weeds that were overgrowing my gravel called to me to just pull a few weeds for just a few minutes while I had left my doggies out of the truck for a quick potty walk. I always figure that every few minutes I can spend cleaning up weeds, makes a dent in the mess & pretty soon with a few minutes here & there, I have the whole place looking good & all the weeds gone.

Just a few minutes of weeding & then run into the house, pick up the item to return & jump into the truck & off to do the errands. That was ok, but the few minutes turned into a few more & my small dent in the weeds turned into a good sized cleaned up area. It was a warm day.....not hot, but the humidity definitely caused me to sweat. I finally ran into the house, picked up the package & was off to do the errands.

I got the item returned & then stopped by the nursery & picked up some pretty bright plants to plant in the planter I am working at clearing the weeds out of also & while there, we had a quick thunderstorm that drenched me. I finally got myself home & got the doggies inside & decided to take a nice shower to feel better after being drenched in the rain.

After the shower, I had a few itchy spots, but nothing to really bother me. By the next morning, I was covered in red spots. I must have been weeding in a nest of chiggars that were hiding my the gravel driveway. The parent chiggars look like little red mites which is exactly what they are.....but it's the invisible younger form of the chiggar that bites. Mind you, chiggars aren't just bumps that itch. They become hard spots that itch so bad, you want to just take your fingernails & gouge them out of your body.....& while they are itching, then they end up with little blisters at the center of the hard bite.......there is nothing like a chiggar bite anywhere. By the time & quit counting.....there were over 75 bites all over my legs, & mostly where the elastic band go around your hips & waist & anywhere clothing is tight against the skin. This year, I tried some cortisone 10 cream. It seems to be better than the chiggarrid which has nail poilsh like stuff to paint over the bite as in the past, they thought that the chiggar actually burried itself in the bite & stayed until it died......they have since found out that isn't true.

I got the bites on Friday after noon & it takes about 24 hours for them to show up......I was so eaten up by the bites that I ended up feeling sick for about 5 days after that......& even with the itch cream....sitting still without scratching through church was impossible. I remember my first experience with chiggers at the age of 5 when I visited my grandparents in Kansas.......I had ended up with over 100 bites & a 5 year old trying to sit through church with 100 chiggar bites was worse than now.....but this was a reminder of that time for sure.

There is always a challenge and learning process in order to survive in a completely new place.

The bug that doesn't isn't a "C" bug.....the "tic" is another challenge here. When my littlest eskie came into my bedroom the other morning with a tic crawling on the outside of her fur on her head.....really grossed me out.....as I had found one deeper in her fur only a few weeks ago. I use the revolution stuff on them that kills all the little bugs & any flees. She hadn't even been outside since the night before.....so where that icky bug came from is beyond me???? I have a bug spray mixed up to spray the outside of my house.....but have to do it at a time when it can dry before the dogs go outside. Always a challenge.

I have met many wonderful people....one invites me to ride with her every week.....helps exercise her horses that way.....everytime we go out.....trail riding, the horses come back with at least a dozen tics all over their legs that we get off before they can bite......I am glad I have been riding with her as these are things I wouldn't have even thought of had I not learned about it this way.......the naive California city person that I am

War on bugs!!!!!!!
Debbie