Tick and Chigger bite treatment

[Mosby]

I got my first tick bite of the year a couple of days ago and pulled several more off my dog. A lot of ticks and chiggers in NW Arkansas this time of year and I thought I would see what people have found to be the most effective treatment. I have pre-treated work clothes, socks and boots that I wear when working around the house and use repellant, as well but every now and then I get a little lax and have paid the price.

For tick and chigger bites I use Sarna and Chiggerex creme. I get both at Walmart. I have tried several other treatments including nail polish but found these to be the most effective cream to this point. I have also found that when you get into a chigger nest and get multiple bites, the treatment is a bit different. Extremely hot water in the shower on the affected area seems to really help. Seems to draw out what makes it itch and provides a few of hours of relief. With a large number of bites, I have also found that a tub of diluted Clorox really stings but also speeds up getting rid of the itch, with cream only providing temporary relief.

 

[Mattt]

Permethrin in my clothes if I think about it. Other than that nothing. Have a couple bites right now. Scratch em and move on no big deal.

 

[Mosby]

Permethrin in my clothes if I think about it. Other than that nothing. Have a couple bites right now. Scratch em and move on no big deal.

I used to think like that until I moved to Arkansas. When you have bites going from your ankles to your armpits, it changes your perspective.

 

[Backpack Hunter]

I don't know about relieving the itch, but permethrin on everything to keep them off. In really bad areas in addition to the permethrin I tuck my pants into my socks and tape them up, the same with my sleeves into my gloves, then spray any and all openings with repellent.

 

[*zap*]

Gold Bond xtra strength body powder helps quite a bit but prevention is where it is at.

 

[Sleeperls]

Growing up in southern Arkansas in the summers. My grandmother always had skin so soft everywhere. Worked great on the bites.

Not sure if they even still make it anymore but late 80s early 90s it was the jazz down there.

I just embrase the suck now. I did pick up one of those thermacell few years back. Worth every penny. If sitting still. Never used it moving but in a open tree stand. Sept till a freeze it's with me

 

[JPD350]

This is what I use on chigger or other noseeum bites, when you have 20 or 30 bites on you it makes it bearable.

 

[Mattt]

Arkansas doesn't have anything on an East Tennessee hayfield. I was working in Connecticut one time and got into them so bad when the safety man saw my legs he tried to take me to the hospital. Like the guy earlier said, embrace the suck. Have heard the skin so soft works well

 

[dirtclod Az.]

When we were kids Mom and Dad used to wet the spot and apply
Meat Tenderiser to the bites,sucks the poison right out.I imagine table
salt would do he same thing.I think the Meat Tenderiser was more
of a mental trick to make us think we were being cured.
Mental...my family/ Yep' definitely Mental !

 

[*zap*]

I embrace prevention......ticks suck and I do not embrace them at all, chiggers are worse. Have to pick up permethrin and repel 40% deet today as a matter of fact.

 

[LostArra]

Ultrathon lotion from 3M works better for me than any Repel product and it lasts much longer. I have military friends who told me they were issued this.

It's a pretty sticky lotion and I put it on with a nitrile glove to keep it off my hands.

 

[*zap*]

Just my experience, but its tick infested here if you go into the woods and field and 40% deet repel has really done the trick for me. Comes in aerosol spray, pump spray and a lotion.

 

[Drenalin]

I got chigger bites from my ankles to my belly button...including all points in between...on a training op once. A hot shower and scrubbing everything with fistfuls of salt did the trick for me, along with a little bleach on the less sensitive parts. I've heard soaking in salt water helps, but never tried it. The creams I've tried haven't done squat for me, other than make me stink like a corpse.

 

[Gumbo]

I've only had to deal with chiggers a couple times so I can't comment. But I've dealt with ticks my whole life and don't even think twice about them and MIGHT tuck my pants into my socks if they are particularly bad. I'd choose ticks over mosquitoes any day.

 

[*zap*]

Walk thru the tall grass and brush here and you can have 50 ticks on you in an hour. Chiggers can happen anytime, anywhere....even in town walking thru a back yard.

 

[Smallie]

For chigger bites I use tea tree oil. The only thing that worked for me.

 

[ohoopee]

Anti itch cream, antihistamine and/or calamine. Stopping the itch is basically all you can do. Permethrin treatment on clothes is a must in places where chiggers find habitat. I do a Cumberland Island GA bow hunt every year. You will find out what clothing wasn't treated by day four and the itching starts.

Thirteen years ago I found out moss is not a substitute for TP. I still have the same hunting partners and every year it comes up how one of them had to look and see what happened to my bottom that had so incapacitated me. lmao

 

[Antarctica]

Chigger relief. You might call me stupid, but I have found nothing that works better than the following.

1) Find a tub or a shower with a wand.
2) Turn the water warm and start flooding the affected area/bites. You can even rub them with the wand.
3) Gradually increase the temperature over a few minutes until you can't take it anymore. It should be damn ed near scalding.
4) Flip the water to ice cold and chill the affected area/bites for another minute or so.
5) Get out of the shower/tub. Don't get dressed yet.
6) Your cold skin will contract and it will squeeze the dead funk (which is what is actually making it itch) out of the bite. You'll see a small bubble of goo appear on top of each bite.
7) After a few minutes, dad off the dead funk bubble with some TP and get dressed.

This will give about 8-10 hours of relief, after which you'll need to do it again. It will also greatly speed up the overall recovery time.

 

[Mosby]

Chigger relief. You might call me stupid, but I have found nothing that works better than the following.

1) Find a tub or a shower with a wand.
2) Turn the water warm and start flooding the affected area/bites. You can even rub them with the wand.
3) Gradually increase the temperature over a few minutes until you can't take it anymore. It should be damn ed near scalding.
4) Flip the water to ice cold and chill the affected area/bites for another minute or so.
5) Get out of the shower/tub. Don't get dressed yet.
6) Your cold skin will contract and it will squeeze the dead funk (which is what is actually making it itch) out of the bite. You'll see a small bubble of goo appear on top of each bite.
7) After a few minutes, dad off the dead funk bubble with some TP and get dressed.

This will give about 8-10 hours of relief, after which you'll need to do it again. It will also greatly speed up the overall recovery time.

I have also found really hot showers to be the most effective treatment when you have a large number of bites. As hot as you can stand. That coupled with some Benadryl tablets can get you some sleep the first night or two. Creme's and lotions also help when at work and you need some temp relief.

 

[LASTINLINE]

for chigger bites my grandfather use to wipe with witch hazel. musta burned like a hell fire. i usually would scratch til it hurt then use gold bond lotion or that blue ice muscle rub. dont now if its the right thing but it took the itch out. prevention is much better. permetherin,rubber boots and a reverse ball of duct tape to pull and pat them off my skin.