WEBVTT - Selects: Chiggers: The Phantom Menace 0:00:00.760 --> 0:00:07.120 How d everybody, it's may or at least that's the 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:10.119 date of this Selects episode. I picked this one out 0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:15.960 Chiggers colon the Phantom Menace because boy, Chiggers are terrible 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:18.479 and they make you itch. And I would say that 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:21.400 listening to this episode will make you itch. So that's 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:24.040 my goal on this Saturday, to make everybody itch. I'm 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:27.960 really sorry, but here we go with Jiggers Hold the 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:35.400 Phantom Menace. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:43.960 of I Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:47.360 I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles w Chuck Bryant. Jerry's over there, 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:52.360 so you should know Jerry's head Chiggers. Yeah, me too, 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:57.480 I have not. I'm really glad I was like Chigger. 0:00:57.520 --> 0:00:59.560 It seems like Tracy is making a pretty big deal 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:02.000 out of the in this article. Yeah. Tracy Wilson of 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:04.560 Stuff You Miss in History Class wrote this, who recently 0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:09.240 got married? Congratulations Tracy? Yeah. And she wrote if you've 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:11.240 ever heard her say the word mouth parts in the show, 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:13.960 Tracy wrote it, chances heart she wrote it. She wrote 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:20.280 ticks and mosquitoes. H did you write bees? She did 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:22.760 a whole insect? Sweet? She spent a lot of time 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:25.440 knee deep in insects. Yeah, and this, well, this isn't 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:29.600 even an insect spoiler. Oh, you just removed the fact 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:33.400 of the podcast. You think I think. So, I don't 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:35.560 think you did. I'm just teasing. Okay, I'll bet I 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:37.240 know what you think it is because I think the 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:42.039 same thing. All right, Well we'll see. Okay, I challenge you. 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:45.480 I challenge you back. We throw down the gauntlet, which 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:48.600 is glove. So Tracy did make a big deal out 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:51.560 of checkers, but apparently it's a big deal, right well, 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:54.040 sure like if you ever had them, they're no fun. 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:57.400 No the deeper I got into the article the where 0:01:57.440 --> 0:01:59.600 I was like, oh, yeah, this does sound really kind 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:02.880 of off. Yeah, and it's uh, this is just one everyone, 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:07.400 there's another itch inducing episode. And speaking of I got 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:12.640 my first little bow to poison ivy. Congratulations. Yeah. I 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:15.200 was clearing out stuff over the weekend and I was 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:17.560 in poison ivy and I knew it. I was like, 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:19.760 you know, I've never had it before. This sounds very 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:24.320 familiar and um, but I was still I'm no dummy. 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:27.760 I know how Murphy's law works. So I said, I 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:30.080 just said that out loud. Well, you just said that 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:31.640 out loud, or you just said I said, I'm not 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:34.160 allergic to I thought you were saying like that. I'm 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:37.520 no dummy. I said that too. Um, And I said, 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:40.639 so you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna be careful 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:44.000 and I'm gonna go take a shower pretty soon afterwards. Um. 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:47.880 And so it's not bad. But there are probably five 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:51.040 or six little, tiny little sets of bumps on each 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:54.359 leg pustules. Yeah, they're not bad though. And I looked 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:56.359 at him and said, you know what, that's freaking poison 0:02:56.400 --> 0:03:00.240 ivy after all these years, finally got you. Yep, but 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:03.880 not too bad. Like my dad always said, poison I 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:10.240 will gets everybody one day. That his big saying. Uh So, anyway, 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:13.560 speaking of itching, that's my itch story of the day. 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:15.920 And this will make you itch because it made me 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:19.040 itch while reading it. I think you're right. So um, 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:22.360 it's actually it's funny. It didn't make me itch, maybe 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:24.480 because I've never had it. You're scratching yourself, right, I'm 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:28.320 pointing to myself in a weird place. I'm pointing my 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:30.639 finger to my skin and moving it around. But I'm 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:35.800 not scratching curiously. So, Um, everybody knows that chiggers are 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:40.080 insects that burrow into your skin and suck your blood. Um, 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:45.320 And I'm sorry you're being coy, my friend, I am 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:50.000 because you just lied three times. Burrow and oh, insects 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:51.960 that burrow in your skin, that suck your blood. That's right, 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:54.400 those are there's three lies in there. This is like 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:57.240 a highlights We have to go pick out what's wrong 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:02.160 with this picture. Chiggers are not insects. They are arachnets. 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:04.720 They are the larvae of the harvest mite. They do 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:08.680 not burrow into your skin and suck your blood. But 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:11.920 they're still what are the bumps? Well, you're being coy again, 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:14.760 but what they are actually doing is maybe even grosser 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:19.119 than sucking your blood. They are liquefying your cells into 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:23.400 a slurry that they can drink from a straw made 0:04:23.400 --> 0:04:29.160 of your body. It's pretty Is that the fact for you? Yeah? Alright, 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:31.960 but we'll get there. Were the same one first one, 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:35.599 first of one. The first time we've ever high fives 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:39.000 in an episode? Is that right? Sure? I I would 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:41.720 have imagined that you could make like a video montage 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:45.640 of us like high fiving during episodes. I guess not. No, 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:49.240 so you said that, Um, these things are the larva 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:52.960 of harvest mites, right, and harvest harvest mites are arachnids. 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:56.359 They're related to spiders, so they're not insects. But you 0:04:56.360 --> 0:05:01.400 can understand why people would think that um chiggers are 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:05.039 or our insects because chiggers have chiggers. The larva of 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:08.720 the harvest might have six legs, so you'd be like, well, 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:13.040 it's an insect. No, they haven't grown their adult legs yet. Apparently, Yeah, 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:15.640 I guess they get those two more legs at some point. Um, 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:19.360 they the adults are red and the little um larvae 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:24.359 are red. But um, you're not gonna see. That's one 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:26.240 of the problems with chiggers is you're not gonna see 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:29.240 like a mosquito landing on you or a flea, even 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:32.000 like you think a flea is small, a chigger is 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:34.880 like a tiny little dot that you will would never 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:37.080 notice and you may not even be able to see 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:39.839 at all with your eyeballs. All right, but sometimes you 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:43.240 can see several of them together basically forming a clump. 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:48.000 Yeah party together, yeah with one of them has Kid 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:52.239 from Kid and plays haircut or Aman Schumpert's more contemporaneously. 0:05:53.120 --> 0:05:55.000 Oh yeah, that is a total kid and play haircut. 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:58.160 Did you know that Amman Schumpert delivered his own child 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:02.800 in his apartment purpose accidentally. The kid just came very 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:05.880 quickly and like he the nine one one dispatch had 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:07.240 to talk him through how to do it. But he 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:10.320 delivered his own child and his wife or girlfriend right 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:13.600 there and there and everything was good, totally great. Wow, 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:16.039 that's great news. He's a basketball player, by the way, people, 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:18.960 Oh yeah, people are, who's amunch Shopper. He plays for 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:24.839 the boom, for the calves Boom. So if you're an 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:27.800 adult harvest mite and you've grown up from a sugar 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:30.760 into an adult, you're gonna eat. It's actually a beneficial 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:33.440 little arachneed to have around because they're gonna eat the 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:37.600 eggs of other pests like mosquitoes, right, so you want 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:40.640 the adults around as an adult or um as the 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:44.520 second step the nymphs right after the larva. It's the 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:49.440 larva that suck. They don't suck, well, yeah, but the larva. 0:06:49.600 --> 0:06:52.359 You know, you gotta have them, but you know, hopefully 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:54.400 they just stay in the yard. Although these things are 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:59.279 holy terrors to see if you are on their scale, Like, 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:01.920 if that thing's coming after you and your eggs, I'll 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:07.640 bet it's just really terrifying. They are parasitic though, Um, 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:12.360 they don't. The larva are. Yeah, they don't eat the 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:15.000 blood though, like we pointed out, like the fleas and 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:18.000 the ticks and the mosquitoes. No, they eat your skin cells. Right, 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:23.240 So here's what happens. Larva hatch um. Apparently an adult 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:27.240 female harvest might will go into the dirt and be like, 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:32.080 there's a bunch of eggs, champert is there to an 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:36.320 for them to hatch, so we can hasten their birth um, 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:40.560 And then the eggs do hatch and the harvest might 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:44.200 female tends to layer eggs all in one place. So, 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:46.920 if you are familiar with chiggers, if you've ever had 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:49.480 them in your yard, like one little patch of grass 0:07:49.560 --> 0:07:52.480 can be totally overrun with chiggers, but then you just 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:55.400 turn a few degrees to your left, there's another patch 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:57.720 of grass that is totally devoid of them. Yeah. I 0:07:57.760 --> 0:07:59.760 get the feeling. They don't get around too quickly either. 0:07:59.840 --> 0:08:02.520 You know, they know they're pretty stupid low level animals 0:08:02.520 --> 0:08:06.880 if you ask me. So, the eggs are laid in 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:09.600 one place, they hatch and the little larva come out 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:12.160 and they're like, blood meal, Give me a blood meal 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:20.840 that's not actually made of blood. That's basically what they say. Okay, Uh. 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:23.120 They hatch pretty much anytime during the year except for 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:26.640 the hard winters, and um, like you said, they want 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:29.200 that first meal. And the reason they want that first 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:33.600 meal is not just because they're ravenous little jerks. Um. 0:08:33.679 --> 0:08:37.680 They actually cannot progress to that nimph stage, which and 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:40.280 then grow up to be adults unless they have a 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:43.920 complete first meal. They can have, they can have half 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:47.520 a first meal, they have three quarters and get and 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:50.240 get scratched off the body or brushed off the body, 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:53.320 and that's pretty much it. They generally will not go 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:57.520 back and finish that meal, so there's no starting over. 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:00.800 They're just like, well that's it. That's the end of millhouse, 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:04.240 my one chance and um. So it's like a complete 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:07.959 lose lose situation when a chigger bites a person, because 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:10.800 once you start itching as a person, you go to 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:14.040 scratch the area and there goes the chigger. They don't 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:16.720 latch onto your skin, they don't burrow into your skin, 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:19.000 so the moment your your finger makes contact with them, 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:23.120 they're gone. Um the well they leave behind is there 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:26.040 and persists for a while, but they didn't finish their 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:30.960 their meal and they die. But you still get the 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:34.760 scratch or the horrible itch. It's lose loose. They need 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.080 to stay away from humans. Well they do because there 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:39.440 are a lot of animals that don't mind the chigger 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:42.120 on their body, so they can get their full meal 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:45.160 deal there and go on to live a great and 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:48.800 healthy life without getting scratched off. So, um, they don't. 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:50.600 They don't want to be on a human And I 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:53.679 mean you would think like how long does could their 0:09:53.760 --> 0:10:01.679 meal possibly last? We're talking like buffet level length of time? Uh, 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:05.080 four days, four days to four days, I think about it. 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:08.079 That's time for us. Like how long is four days 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:13.000 to a harvest? Might larva? You could probably do the math. 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:16.319 It's like seven eight days. Figure out chigger years or 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:20.920 probably it's probably most of their life. Yeah, you know. So, Um, 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:25.880 there's a bunch of different kinds of chiggers around the world. Um, 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:29.400 and they're actually I mean they are pests, they are parasites. 0:10:29.880 --> 0:10:33.400 But um, there's only like at least one as far 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:36.640 as this article says that is really problematic for humans. 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:43.640 The lepo Trobidium deliens nice might. It's common to Asian 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:46.680 and it can carry typhus, a form of typhus which 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:49.800 can kill you if it's untreated. Yeah, it's cured with 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:52.000 antibotics pretty easily. But um, if you're out in the 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:55.320 middle of nowhere, it can kill you. But don't worry 0:10:55.400 --> 0:10:58.480 unless you um or in certain parts of Asia. Not 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:02.080 a problem, right, chigger, We'll just annoy you. Yeah, that's it. 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:06.040 They're basically just a total annoyance. And by annoying humans, 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:09.319 they die. It's stupid. All right, Well, let's take a 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:11.120 little break here and we will come back and talk 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:35.960 about some of the wonders of the jigger. All right, 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:41.199 we've covered Do we cover fleas? Yeah? I want to 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:47.760 say yes, they definitely need a blood meal. We've covered fleas, ticks, mosquitoes, spiders, scabies. 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:52.319 Did we Oh? Yeah? Man, I just it's really getting 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:55.400 a little too much to try and remember now. Yeah, 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:58.400 you know, I mean there's like lost episodes just because 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:01.880 we forgot them. It's officially especially getting out of hand. 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:06.240 I guess we should stop. No, we keep going, my friend, 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:09.960 um brain heart, so bad chuck. Alright, So what I 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:13.080 was talking about was the wonders of the chigger. They 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:15.080 have a lot of little things that they have about 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:18.120 them that make it um and make them able to 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:23.520 perform this uh surgery on your skin. Well put, it 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:26.320 is kind of like surgery. It is um. But again 0:12:26.360 --> 0:12:30.400 they aren't latching on. They're just kind of hanging around. 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:32.640 And when you get a chigger on your skin, it 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:36.760 actually will spend usually hours looking for a good place 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:40.280 to go try to get a meal because, um, they 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:43.160 have these little tiny mouth parts. There's the word that 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:45.480 makes the appearance which lets you know it's a Tracy 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:49.960 Wilson joint. Right. Um, but they don't pure skin very easily, 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:52.880 at least not human skin. Uh, tough skin that you 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:55.720 would find most on most places of your body. Chigger 0:12:55.840 --> 0:12:59.120 can't bite through. But which is why you will get 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:01.320 chigger bites in play. Is like the back of your knee, 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:05.720 like in your armpit, places where the chigger can can 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:11.160 get its mouth parts. What are they called celisera celiserai 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:17.360 clisserai clissari clisser I explains it all, Um, that's why 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:19.840 you'll get those bites in those areas because that's where 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:22.720 they can get their clisser I into. That's right. They're 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:25.599 light sensitive, which means they're gonna hang out in the 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:27.960 shade mostly if it was up to them at least 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:31.760 um it's uh, the sun is gonna dry out their body, 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:33.720 so that's why they head towards the shade. I mean 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:37.200 you can like kill them basically. Uh. And so also 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:40.280 when a host um comes near, there's like your dog 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:44.800 casting a shadow, the chiggers go, we'll over there. I 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:47.280 think that's pretty clever. There's a shadow. Let's that means 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:51.319 something is alive with skin. That means that, in some 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:55.960 weird way, chiggers are aware of shadows. That's right. I mean, 0:13:56.040 --> 0:13:59.880 like some dogs aren't aware of shadows or don't understand them. 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:01.959 I think probably most dogs. Have you ever seen that? 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:06.760 Like baby two three year old toddler um who sees 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:08.880 her shadow for the first time. He just starts f 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:11.560 freaking out trying to get away from it. It's really 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:14.199 really cute. So it was a possessed baby kind of. 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:18.079 That's sad, it's cute. I saw that movie that was 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:21.560 The Exorcist. That's what I'm talking about. Uh. They are 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:26.360 very temperature sensitive. As well. So when they coming to 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:29.240 contact with a host, and the host is the thing 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:33.200 that it's gonna feed on. Um, it's gonna detect that 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:35.880 has like you know, it's not infra red, but it's 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:38.520 gonna detect that body heat, right and say, all right, 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:40.840 there's something I can try and latch onto. So it's 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:44.840 like predator in that respect. Yeah, a little bit kind 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:48.720 of No dreadlocks, No, those are those are a nice edition. 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:53.160 If you ask me what else, Um, I think it's hilarious. 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:56.640 Tracy called it upward mobility. They like to climb to 0:14:56.720 --> 0:14:59.280 the tops of stuff. And I remember this one from Ticks. 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:02.600 Remember that the ticks were just like grasp things, like 0:15:02.680 --> 0:15:05.800 little tiny lobsters, just stand there and wait for something 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:08.600 to pass by, and as it does, they grab it. Um. 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:11.280 They don't stand there with their arms outstretched the whole time. 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:14.800 Now that's a stress position. Um. There's something called the 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:20.000 questing response, which is another hilarious term. They're questing. Yeah, 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:22.240 they get up on their tippy toes. They're they're standing 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:26.520 up with their their arms raised up towards the heavens. Yeah, 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:30.480 imagine for a meal of human cell imagine John Cusack 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:33.720 can say anything but take away the boombox, right, that's 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:36.240 a questing position. Yeah, the chickers are there in their 0:15:36.280 --> 0:15:41.560 little overcoat and their spiky hair and their bad attitudes. Um, 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:44.960 I just saw you know John Roderick, a friend of 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:48.480 the show, John Roderick, Yeah, great Seattle musician. He tweeted 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:51.920 the other day about silverfish, you know, the little insects. 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:54.280 He said, why don't we call silverfish what they were 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:59.320 clearly meant to be called? Sink lobsters. It really struck 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:02.000 me as funny. They don't look fishy at all. Still, 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:06.320 ver sure, sink clapster. That's a great one. Right. And finally, 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:09.560 they are touch sensitive. They have these little hair like 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:13.160 sensory organs on their body to help basically to help 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:16.600 them find everything from hosts to each other. There. Yeah, 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:19.760 you know they're like, let's get together and really do 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:22.560 some damage on this guy's arn't pit. Yeah, or you 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:25.520 see that waist band. It's a great place to hide 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:31.560 Underpant's band. Yeah, Underpant's band. Yeah what is said in here? No, 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:35.440 that's what I said. Uh, but that is a great 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:37.320 place to hide because, like we said a few times, 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:39.520 you'll easily scratch them off. So they want to go 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:43.320 somewhere where you may not be thinking about scratching. Yeah, 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:46.000 I was surprised that they go. I could see kind 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:48.080 of the outside of the armpit, back of the knee, 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:52.480 the waist band, underpant's band. Um, they're protected there, they are, 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:54.920 but at the same time, it's warm there and their 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:57.800 temperature sensitive. So you sure who think since they're seeking shade, 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:00.240 they would go to a cooler spot. But there's probably 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:03.640 not too many cool spots on the human body that 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:08.639 are protected. Not really, I just said a bunch of 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:11.840 contradictory stuff. So all these things help the chiggers find 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:15.560 their host. But as Tracy points out, that's that's half 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:18.440 the battle. Yeah, and when you find a chigger on you, 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:22.920 it's probably sorry that it chose you as it's one 0:17:23.160 --> 0:17:27.240 four day meal. Because they don't like humans, they'll they'll 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:34.080 climb onto anything just about any vertebrate animal, snakes, turtles, birds, 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:37.159 for little birds, chipmunks. They don't like us because we 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:39.679 take hot showers every day, that's right, And a lot 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:43.159 of these animals don't have any kind of response to 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:45.680 being bitten by a chigger, So the likelihood of the 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:49.400 chigger being undisturbed for four days while it's having its meal. 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:53.840 Fourth meal is what we're gonna call it, Like taco bell. 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:59.560 Do you remember that they try to invent another meal. Um, 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:02.040 they're they're so they're not gonna get brushed off on 0:18:02.160 --> 0:18:06.359 these things. Humans almost invariably brush chiggers off because right 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:09.879 when we start scratching again, it removes the chigger. Um, 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:13.000 So they're there. They don't seek us out as prey. 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:16.600 It's just it's just total happenstance. Yeah. And like you said, 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:19.880 since they need that thin skin, um, little kids are 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:23.080 more likely to get bitten by a chigger than an old, 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:27.359 leathery old sea captain. Let's say. Yeah, and little kids 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:31.200 who can't take being teased really are vulnerable to chigger 0:18:31.240 --> 0:18:35.440 buttons because they're thin skin, very nice. You know, the 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:37.639 ones who were like shorts with knee socks pull all 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:40.359 the way up here. Those kids, Yeah, and their all 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:43.040 their nose are always running because they're crying. They just 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:47.240 stopped crying, those kind of kids. Uh. So, like I said, 0:18:47.280 --> 0:18:50.680 a hot shower, uh is a is a great way 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:53.200 to kill. It's it's great for a lot of reasons. 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:55.040 A great way to kill chiggers. It's a great way 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:57.280 to keep your body clean. It's a great way to 0:18:57.359 --> 0:18:59.600 unwind at the end of a long day working in 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:02.800 the yard, because that's where you're gonna get your chicker 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:06.280 bites most likely. Yeah, and the yard, Yeah, especially if 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:09.639 you are the type of gets like letters from the 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:13.359 neighborhood association saying mow your lawn you might have chickers. 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:17.159 I will never live where there is a neighborhood association. 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:22.840 No way, no way. Now, you know, in some place, 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:26.000 because it's not my thing. In some places, a neighborhood 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:32.840 covenant supersedes local law. Yeah, unbelievable. Like your mailbox has 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:34.680 got to be like this. You can't paint your house 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:37.760 that color, not not for me, and you gotta pay 0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:40.000 us a certain amount of money to boss you around 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:45.440 every month. Nope, yep, that's why I have a stack 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:49.600 of car batteries aside my house with like old wood 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:52.159 that I haven't used still in it's like Sandford and 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:56.919 sun out there, and then like and paint with a brush. 0:19:57.000 --> 0:20:03.040 It says, welcome children on beside your Alright, So, uh, 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:05.399 should we take another break and talk a little bit 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:33.200 more about the weird fact of the day. Yes, all right, buddy, 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:35.399 we talked about the mouth parts. So what they do 0:20:35.600 --> 0:20:39.359 is they get that calissar i and they make a 0:20:39.440 --> 0:20:44.840 hole in your skin normal enough, They inject saliva, which 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:48.800 contains digestive enzymes that make a slurry of your skin cells. 0:20:48.960 --> 0:20:51.600 We talked about other insects that do similar things like this, 0:20:52.400 --> 0:20:54.720 so it's still pretty like, all right, no big deal. 0:20:55.760 --> 0:20:58.800 Then it gets weird. It does. And I don't know 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:01.800 if it's because they have specific enzymes or something, but 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:04.960 I didn't see this happening with anything else, did you know? 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:09.959 But no, you drop it on him, you refuse, all right. 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:13.680 So what happens is they have in these secretions. What 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:16.640 happens is they break your They break your skin cells down, 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:19.760 which makes that slurry, which is good, slurp it up. 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:23.920 But then the surrounding tissue hardens and it actually creates 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:28.600 a tube, a little hard straw in your skin in 0:21:28.680 --> 0:21:32.840 the wound. Yeah, called a style of stme. What do 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:35.119 they do with that? They drink out of it. They 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:40.440 use a straw to slurp up your wrecked cells. Yeah, 0:21:40.480 --> 0:21:42.720 And the longer they're in there, the longer the straw 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:45.360 is the style of dome the style of dome. Yeah. 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:47.920 I saw a paper from two thousand four and in 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:52.359 the abstract that said it's something like it seems that 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:55.680 style iss domes form as a reaction to chiggers. So 0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:58.440 I don't know if they thought like maybe this was 0:21:58.680 --> 0:22:00.440 part of a chigger or something like that, but I 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:03.960 guess it's a recent finding that that stylist domes form 0:22:04.440 --> 0:22:06.480 and that's how chiggers actually eat because they don't have 0:22:06.560 --> 0:22:10.200 any probiscus or anything like that. They're pretty much really 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:16.000 weak proboscis one of those. Um, they're just not great 0:22:17.200 --> 0:22:21.000 insects or arachnets at all. Yeah, they're not. They can't 0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:25.159 bite very easily, they can't suck anything out. They um, 0:22:25.359 --> 0:22:29.960 they're just they're useless. But your body just happens to 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:32.639 help them out. Well, they have that that magic juice, 0:22:33.480 --> 0:22:36.439 I guess, so that's pretty cool, you know. Yeah, uh 0:22:36.640 --> 0:22:38.359 so with that magic juice, that's gonna be one of 0:22:38.400 --> 0:22:40.320 the two reasons you're gonna be itching a lot. Some 0:22:40.440 --> 0:22:45.760 people react quite adversely to that juice. Other people it's 0:22:45.800 --> 0:22:48.000 not that bad, um, but it's still going to itch 0:22:48.040 --> 0:22:49.919 no matter what. And it's not just the juice. You're 0:22:49.960 --> 0:22:52.880 reacting to. I think that's probably what first gets your attention. 0:22:52.960 --> 0:22:55.440 But the thing that causes the persistent itch is that 0:22:55.640 --> 0:22:59.040 stylist dome your body's own reaction, which seems to be 0:22:59.440 --> 0:23:04.119 forming basically a hollow tube of temporary scar tissue in 0:23:04.240 --> 0:23:08.080 this wound area, and then that actually causes some sort 0:23:08.119 --> 0:23:11.199 of itch reaction as your skin heels, and that can 0:23:11.240 --> 0:23:13.720 take a very long time to heal. This is the 0:23:13.800 --> 0:23:16.680 point where I was like, oh, having chiggers actually does 0:23:16.920 --> 0:23:19.399 suck terribly. Yeah. I think if you had a chigger 0:23:19.840 --> 0:23:22.560 that was able to complete its full four day meal, 0:23:23.400 --> 0:23:27.760 your toast means you haven't showered for four days. Yeah. Uh, 0:23:29.320 --> 0:23:31.200 that's when your style of stomb is going to be 0:23:31.560 --> 0:23:35.000 at its peak of hardness and length, right, and it's 0:23:35.000 --> 0:23:39.720 gonna have the worst reaction, right, So what can you do? Uh? 0:23:40.400 --> 0:23:43.520 There are home remedies you've heard, maybe like painting over 0:23:43.720 --> 0:23:48.640 chigger bites with a clear nail polish, right, or any 0:23:48.720 --> 0:23:50.959 kind of nail polish. Really, I think, well, yeah, sure, 0:23:51.000 --> 0:23:54.840 if you got flair, some sparkly gold, I'll get to 0:23:55.000 --> 0:23:57.200 put some dots on my armpit, and then why not, 0:23:57.320 --> 0:23:59.840 I'll put them around my eye as well. So what's 0:23:59.880 --> 0:24:02.119 the deal there. You're just choking it out. Um. A 0:24:02.240 --> 0:24:06.240 lot of people would say, yes, you're covering up this 0:24:06.640 --> 0:24:09.480 the chigger that's burrowed into your skin and it is 0:24:09.640 --> 0:24:13.080 now suffocating to death. It's like choke on, choke on 0:24:13.240 --> 0:24:16.400