WEBVTT - Chiggers: The Phantom Menace 0:00:01.160 --> 0:00:11.240 Welcome to stuff you should know Fronhouse stuff Works dot Com. Hey, 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:14.159 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:18.680 Chuck Bryant. Jerry's over there, so you should know Jerry's 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:23.560 head chiggers. Yeah, me too, I have not. I'm really glad. 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:27.400 I was like sigger. It seems like Tracy is making 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:29.800 a pretty big deal out of this in this article. Yeah, 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:32.800 Tracy Wilson of Stuffy Mission History class wrote this, who 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:37.680 recently got married? Congratulations Tracy. Yeah, and she wrote if 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:39.440 you've ever heard her say the word mouth parts in 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:42.159 the show, Tracy wrote it, chances heart she wrote it. 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:48.000 She wrote ticks and mosquitoes. H did she write bees? 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:51.159 She did a whole insect sweet. She spent a lot 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:53.640 of time knee deep in insects. Yeah, and this is well, 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:57.040 this isn't even an insect spoiler. Oh, well, you just 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:00.480 removed the fact of the podcast. You think I think so, 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:03.920 I don't think you did. I'm just teasing. Okay, I'll 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:05.600 bet I know what you think it is because I 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:08.760 think the same thing. All right, Well we'll see, Okay, 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:13.319 I challenge you, I challenge you back. We throw down 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:16.720 the Gauntlet, which is glove. So Tracy did make a 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:18.839 big deal out of checkers, but apparently it's a big deal, 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:22.319 right Well, sure like if you ever had them, they're 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:25.720 no fun. No. The deeper I got into the um article, 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:27.440 the more I was like, oh, yeah, this does sound 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:30.960 really kind of awful. Yeah, and it's this is just 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:35.399 one everyone, there's another itch inducing episode. And speaking of 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:41.160 I got my first little bow to poison ivy. Congratulations. Yeah. 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:43.720 I was clearing out stuff over the weekend and I 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:46.200 was in poison ivy and I knew it. I was like, 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:48.400 you know, I've never had it before. This sounds very 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:52.560 familiar and um. But I was still I'm no dummy. 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:56.440 I know how Murphy's law works. So I said, I 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:58.720 just said that out loud. Well you just said that 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:00.760 out loud or you just said I I'm not allergic 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:03.280 to I thought you were saying like that. I'm no dummy. 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:06.400 I said that too, um, And I said, so you 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:09.639 know what I'm gonna I'm gonna be careful and I'm 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:12.760 gonna go take a shower pretty soon afterwards. Um. And 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:16.720 so it's not bad, but there are probably five or 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:21.440 six little, tiny little sets of bumps on each leg pustules. Yeah, 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:23.560 they're not bad though. And I looked at him and said, 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:26.679 you know what, that's freaking poison ivy after all these 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:30.720 years finally got you. Yep, but not too bad. Like 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:34.800 my dad always said, poison Ivyll gets everybody one day, 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:39.720 said his big saying, uh so, anyway, speaking of itching, 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:42.760 that's my itch story of the day. And this will 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:45.560 make you itch because it made me itch while reading it. 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:49.000 I think you're right, so um, it's actually that's funny. 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:51.919 It didn't make me itch, maybe because I've never had it. 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:55.320 You're scratching yourself from pointing to myself, no weird place. 0:02:56.000 --> 0:02:58.640 I'm pointing my finger to my skin and moving it around, 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:03.440 but I'm not scratting your so um. Everybody knows that 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:07.240 chiggers are insects that burrow into your skin and suck 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:13.120 your blood. Um. And I'm sorry you're being coy, my friend, 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:18.679 because you just lied three times. Burrow Oh, insects that 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:20.960 burrowind skin, that suck your blood. That's right, those are 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:23.800 there's three lies in there. This is like a highlights 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:26.640 We have to go pick out what's wrong with this picture. 0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:31.240 Chiggers are not insects. They are erectnans. They are the 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:34.399 larvae of the harvest mite. They do not burrow into 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:38.520 your skin and suck your blood. But then are the bumps. 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:41.640 Well you're being coy again. But what they are actually 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:45.120 doing is maybe even grosser than sucking your blood. They 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:49.360 are liquefying your cells into a slurry that they can 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:55.120 drink from a straw made of your body. It's pretty 0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:58.400 Is that the fact for you? Yeah? Alright, but we'll 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:02.640 get there the same one first one. First of all, 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:05.080 the first time we've ever high fives in an episode? 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:08.400 Is that? Right? Sure? I I would have imagined that 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:10.720 you could make like a video montage of us like 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:15.080 high fiving during episodes. I guess not. No, So you 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:19.080 said that, um, these things are the larva of harvest mites, right, 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:23.040 and harvest harvest mites are arachnets. They're related to spiders, 0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:26.200 so they're not insects. But you can understand why people 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:31.200 would think that um, siggers are or are insects, because 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:35.160 chiggers have chiggers. The larva of the harvest might have 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:38.360 six legs, so you'd be like, well, it's an insect. No, 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:41.760 this haven't grown their adult legs yet apparently, Yeah, I 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:44.280 guess to get those two more legs at some point. Um, 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:48.000 they the adults are red and the little um larvae 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:53.000 are red. But um, you're not gonna see. That's one 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:54.880 of the problems with chiggers is you're not gonna see 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:57.880 like a mosquito landing on you or a flea, even 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:00.680 like you think a flea is small, a chigger is 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:03.520 like a tiny little dot that you will would never 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:05.719 notice and you may not even be able to see 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:08.479 it all with your eyeballs, all right, but sometimes you 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:12.479 can see several of them together basically forming a clump. Yeah, 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:16.640 like the party together. Yeah, one of them has kid 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:20.920 from Kid and Plays haircut or Aman Schumpert's more contemporaneously. 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:23.680 Oh yeah, that is a total kid and play haircut. 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:26.800 Did you know that Amman Schumpert delivered his own child 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:31.200 in his apartment on purpose? Accidentally. The kids just came 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:34.000 very quickly and like he the U nine one one 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:35.760 dispetchd to talk him through how to do it. But 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:38.800 he delivered his own child and his wife or girlfriend 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:42.240 right there and there and everything was good, totally great. Wow, 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:44.679 that's great news. He's a basketball player. By the way, people, 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:47.599 oh yeah, people like who's amun schumper? He plays for 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:53.479 the boo, for the calves boo. So if you're an 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:56.480 adult harvest mite and you've grown up from a chigger 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:59.400 into an adult, you're gonna eat It's actually a beneficial 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:01.720 little are rac need to have around because they're gonna 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:05.960 eat the eggs of other pests like mosquitoes. Right, so 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:08.839 you want the adults around as an adult or um 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:12.640 as the second step the nymphs right after the larva. 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:17.039 It's the larva that suck. They don't suck. Well, yeah, 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:19.240 but the larva, you know, you gotta have them, but 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:22.400 you know, hopefully they just stay in the yard. Although 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:25.640 these things are holy terrors to see if you are 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:29.400 on their scale, Like if that thing's coming after you 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:34.720 and your eggs, I'll bet it's just really terrifying. They 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:38.920 are parasitic though, um, they don't. The larva are. Yeah, 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:42.760 they don't eat the blood though, like we pointed out, 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:45.120 like the fleas and the ticks and the mosquitoes know 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:48.400 they eat your skin cells. Right, So here's what happens. 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:54.040 Larva hatch um. Apparently, an adult female harvest might will 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:57.159 go into the dirt and be like, there's a bunch 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:02.599 of eggs, iman chumpert is there to around for them 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:05.120 to hatch, so we can hasten their birth. Um, And 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:09.720 then the eggs do hatch and the harvest mite female 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:13.320 tends to layer eggs all in one place. So if 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:15.760 you are familiar with chiggers, if you've ever had them 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:18.400 in your yard, like one little patch of grass can 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:21.560 be totally overrun with chiggers, but then you just turn 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:24.120 a few degrees to your left, there's another patch of 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:26.560 grass that is totally devoid of them. Yeah, I get 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:28.800 the feeling. They don't get around too quickly either. You know, no, 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:31.400 they know. They're pretty stupid low level animals if you 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:36.120 ask me. So, the eggs are laid in one place, 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:38.600 they hatch, and the little larva come out, and they're 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:41.200 like blood meal, Give me a blood meal that's not 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:49.480 actually made of blood. That's basically what they say. Okay, Uh. 0:07:49.520 --> 0:07:51.600 They hatch pretty much any time during the year except 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:55.000 for the hard winters, and um, like you said, they 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:57.480 want that first meal. And the reason they want that 0:07:57.560 --> 0:08:02.240 first meal is not just because they're ravenous little jerks. Um. 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:06.320 They actually cannot progress to that nip stage, which and 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:08.920 then grow up to be adults. Unless they have a 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:12.560 complete first meal. They can have they can have half 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:15.640 a first meal, they have three quarters seven eight and 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:18.480 get and get scratched off the body or brushed off 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:21.680 the body, and that's pretty much it. They generally will 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:25.360 not go back and finish that meal, so there's no 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:28.680 starting over. They're just like, well, that's it, that's the 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:32.120 end of millhouse. Had one chance and um. So it's 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:35.240 like a complete lose lose situation when a chigger bites 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:38.720 a person, because once you start itching as a person, 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:41.840 you go to scratch the area and there goes the chigger. 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:45.040 They don't latch onto your skin, they don't burrow into 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:47.360 your skin. To the moment your your finger makes contact 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:51.160 with them, they're gone. Um. The well they leave behind 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:54.120 is there and persists for a while, but they didn't 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:59.280 finish their their meal and they die. But you still 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:03.120 get the scratch or the horrible itch. It's lose loose. 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:05.280 They need to stay away from humans. Well they do 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:07.520 because there are a lot of animals that don't mind 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:10.280 the chigger on their body. So they can get their 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:13.360 full meal deal there and go on to live. A 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:16.920 great and healthy life without getting scratched off. So, um, 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:18.720 they don't. They don't want to be on a human 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:21.880 And I mean you would think, like how long does 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:27.080 could their meal possibly last? We're talking like but they 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:33.720 level length of time four days, I think about it. 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:36.720 That's time for us, Like how long is four days 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:41.600 to a harvest? Might larva? You could probably do the math. 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:44.959 It's like seven eight days. Figure out chigger years or 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:49.560 probably it's probably most of their life. Yeah, you know. So, Um, 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:54.599 there's a bunch of different kinds of chiggers around the world. Um, 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:58.120 and they're actually I mean they are pests, they are parasites. 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:02.040 But um, there's only like at least one as far 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:05.280 as this article says, that is really problematic for humans, 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:12.319 the Lepo Trobidium delience might. It's common to Asia, and 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:15.520 it can carry typhus, a form of typhus which can 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:19.040 kill you if it's untreated. Yeah, it's cured with antibotics 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:20.880 pretty easily. But um, if you're out in the middle 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:24.400 of nowhere, it can kill you. But don't worry unless 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:27.679 you um or in certain parts of Asia, not a problem. 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:31.480 Chiggers will just annoy you. Yeah, that's it. They're basically 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:35.240 just a total annoyance, and by annoying humans, they die. 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:38.440 It's stupid. All right, Well, let's take a little break 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:40.240 here and we will come back and talk about some 0:10:40.320 --> 0:11:05.880 of the wonders of the chigger. All right, we've covered 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:10.200 Do we cover fleas? Yeah? I want to say, yes, 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:16.200 they definitely need a blood meal. We've covered fleas, ticks, mosquitoes, spiders, scabies, 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:20.760 did we Oh? Yeah? Man, I just it's really getting 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:23.880 a little too much to try and remember now. Yeah, 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:26.880 you know, I mean there's like lost episodes just because 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:30.360 we forgot them. It's officially especially getting out of hand. 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:35.640 I guess we should stop. No, we keep going, my friend, um, 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:38.400 brain hurt so bad, chuck. All right, So what I 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:41.560 was talking about was the wonders of the chigger. They 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:43.520 have a lot of little things that they have about 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:46.440 them that make it um and make them able to 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:52.280 perform this, uh surgery on your skin. It is kind 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:56.000 of like surgery. It is um, but again, they aren't 0:11:56.600 --> 0:11:59.240 latching on. They're just kind of hanging around. And when 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:02.520 you get a chigger on your skin, it actually will 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:05.559 spend usually hours looking for a good place to go 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:09.200 try to get a meal because um, they have these 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:12.360 little tiny mouth parts. There's the word that makes the appearance, 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:16.440 which lets you know it's a Tracy Wilson joint. Right. Um, 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:18.880 But they don't peer skin very easily, at least not 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:22.040 human skin. Uh, tough skin that you would find most 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:25.480 on most places of your body. Chugger can't bite through. 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:28.240 But which is why you will get chigger bites in 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:31.200 places like the back of your knee, like in your armpit, 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:35.920 places where the chigger can can get its mouth parts. 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:43.120 What are they called celisera celiserai clisserai clisserai clisser I 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:47.200 explains it all, Um, that's why you'll get those bites 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:48.720 in those areas, because that's where they can get their 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:53.120 clissera into. That's right. They're light sensitive, which means they're 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:55.559 gonna hang out in the shade mostly if it was 0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:59.000 up to them at least. Um it's uh, the sun 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:00.920 is gonna dry out their boddie. So that's why they 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:02.960 head towards the shade. I mean he can like kill 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:06.880 them basically. Uh. And so also when a host um 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:11.199 comes near, there's like your dog casting a shadow. The 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:14.319 chiggers go, we'll over there. I think it's pretty clever. 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:17.720 There's a shadow, Let's that means something is alive with skin. 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:21.680 That means that, in some weird way, chiggers are aware 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:26.319 of shadows. That's right. I mean like some dogs aren't 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:29.160 aware of shadows or don't understand them. I think probably 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:31.800 most dogs. Have you ever seen that? Like baby two 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:36.080 three year old toddler um who sees her shadow for 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:38.800 the first time just starts for freaking out, trying to 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:41.280 get away from it. It's really cute. So it was 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:45.560 a possessed baby kind of that's sad, it's cute. I 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:48.800 saw that movie that was The Exorcist, so I'm talking 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:52.880 about Uh. They are very temperature sensitive as well. So 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:56.960 when they coming to contact with a host and the 0:13:56.960 --> 0:14:00.880 host is the thing that it's gonna feed on, it's 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:03.680 gonna detect that it has like you know, it's not infrared, 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:06.600 but it's gonna detect that body heat, right and say, 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:08.800 all right, there's something I can try and latch onto. 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:12.200 So it's like predator in that respect. Yeah, a little 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:16.480 bit kind of. No dreadlocks, No, those are those are 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:20.600 a nice edition. If you ask me what else, um, 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:24.320 I think it's hilarious. Tracy called it upward mobility. They 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:26.440 like to climb to the tops of stuff. And I 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:29.480 remember this one from Ticks. Yeah, remember that the ticks 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:32.880 were just like grasp things, like little tiny lobsters just 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:35.040 stand there and wait for something to pass by, and 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:38.040 as it does, they grab it. Um, they don't stand 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:39.960 there with their arms out stretched the whole time. Now 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:44.440 that's a stress position. Um. There's something called the questing response, 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:48.720 which is another hilarious term. They're questing. Yeah, they get 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:51.040 up on their tippy toes. They're they're standing up with 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:56.200 their their arms raised up towards the heavens for a 0:14:56.360 --> 0:14:59.760 meal of human cell. Imagine John Cusack can say anything 0:14:59.800 --> 0:15:03.640 but take away the boom box. Right, that's a questing position. Yeah. 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:06.480 The chickers are there in their little overcoat and their 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:11.680 spiky hair and their bad attitudes. Um, I just saw, 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:14.600 you know John Roderick, a friend of the show, John Roderick, Yeah, 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:18.960 great Seattle musician. He tweeted the other day about silverfish, 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:21.400 you know, the little insects. He said, why don't we 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:23.720 call silverfish what they were clearly meant to be called? 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:28.960 Sink lobsters. It really struck me as funny Yeah, they 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:32.560 don't look fishy at all. Silver sure sink lobster. That's 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:36.120 a great one. Yeah. Right, And finally, they are touch sensitive. 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:39.360 They have these little hair like sensory organs on their 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:42.880 body to help basically to help them find everything from 0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:46.280 hosts to each other. There. Yeah, you know, they're like, 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:49.200 let's get together and really do some damage on this 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:52.960 guy's armpit. Yeah, or you see that waist band. It's 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:58.800 a great place to hide underpant's band. Yeah, underpant's band. Yeah, 0:15:59.000 --> 0:16:03.240 so what is said in here? No, that's uh, but 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:04.920 that is a great place to hide because, like we 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:07.520 said a few times, you'll easily scratch them off. So 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:09.840 they want to go somewhere where you may not be 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:13.160 thinking about scratching. Yeah. I was surprised that they go. 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:15.680 I could see kind of the outside of the armpit, 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:19.520 back of the knee, the waist band, underpant's band. Um, 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:21.720 they're protected there, they are, But at the same time, 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:24.840 it's warm there and their temperature sensitive. So sure, who 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:26.920 think since they're seeking shade, they would go to a 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:30.560 cooler spot, But there's probably not too many cool spots 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:36.280 on the human body that are protected. Not really, I 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:38.880 just said a bunch of contradictory stuff. So all these 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:42.680 things help the chiggers find their hosts. But as Tracy 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:45.600 points out, that's that's half the battle. Yeah, and when 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:48.760 you find a chigger on you, it's probably sorry that 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:53.880 it chose you as it's one four day meal. Because 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:56.920 they don't like humans. They'll they'll climb onto anything, just 0:16:57.000 --> 0:17:04.639 about any vertebrate animal. Snakes, yeah, turtles, birds, poor little birds, chipmunks. 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:07.040 They don't like us because we take hot showers every day, 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:10.000 that's right. And a lot of these animals don't have 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:12.960 any kind of response to being bitten by a chigger. 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:15.960 So the likelihood of the chigger being undisturbed for four 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:20.119 days while it's having its meal fourth meal is what 0:17:20.160 --> 0:17:23.919 we're gonna call it. Like taco bell. Do you remember 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:29.040 that they try to invent another meal. Um, they're they're 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:31.040 so they're not gonna get brushed off on these things. 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:35.159 Humans almost invariably brush chiggers off because right when we 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:39.800 start scratching again, it removes the chigger. Um, So they're there. 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:42.240 They don't seek us out as prey. It's just it's 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:45.560 just total happenstance. Yeah, And like you said, since they 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:48.960 need that thin skin. Um, little kids are more likely 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:52.000 to get bitten by a chigger than an old, leathery, 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:56.040 old sea captain, let's say. Yeah, and little kids who 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:59.880 can't take being teased really are vulnerable to chigger button 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:04.080 because they're thin skin, very nice. You know, the ones 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:06.200 who were like shorts with knee socks pull all the 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:09.280 way up. You're those kids. Yeah, and their their knows 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:12.240 are always running because they're crying. They just stopped crying, 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:15.800 those kind of kids. Uh So, like I said, a 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:19.320 hot shower, uh is a is a great way to 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:21.720 kill It's it's great for a lot of reasons. A 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:23.639 great way to kill chiggers. It's a great way to 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:26.159 keep your body clean. It's a great way to unwind 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:28.520 at the end of a long day working in the yard, 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:33.120 because that's where you're gonna get your chigger bites most likely. Yeah, 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:36.960 in the yard. Yeah, especially if you are the type 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:39.720 of gets like letters from the neighborhood association saying mow 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:43.960 your lawn you might have chickers. I will never live 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:49.240 where there is a neighborhood association. No way, no way. Yeah, 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:52.920 you know, in some place, because it's not my thing. 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:58.640 In some places, a neighborhood covenant supersedes local law. Yeah, unbelievable. 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:02.359 Like your mailbox has got to be like this. You 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:05.359 can't paint your house that color, not not for me, 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:07.320 and you gotta pay us a certain amount of money 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:12.480 to boss you around every month. Nope, yep, that's why 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:16.359 I have a stack of car batteries aside my house 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:19.199 with like old wood that I haven't used still in 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:23.639 it's like Sanford and sun out and then like and 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:26.920 paint with a brush. It says, welcome children on the 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:32.879 side of your Alright, So, uh, should we take another 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:35.080 break and talk a little bit more about the weird 0:19:35.400 --> 0:20:01.440 fact of the day. Yes, all right, buddy. We talked 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:04.480 about the mouth parts. So what they do is they 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:08.000 get that calissari and they make a hole in your skin. 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:14.639 Normal enough, they inject saliva, which contains digestive enzymes that 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:17.600 make a slurry of your skin cells. Talked about other 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:20.800 insects that do similar things like this, so it's still 0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:24.480 pretty like, all right, no big deal. Then it gets weird. 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:27.560 It does. And I don't know if it's because they 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:30.600 have like specific enzymes or something, but I didn't see 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:33.960 this happening with anything else. Did you know? But no, 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:37.840 you drop it on them. You you refuse, all right, 0:20:37.880 --> 0:20:41.600 So what happens is they have in these secretions. What 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:44.520 happens is they break your they break your skin cells down, 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:47.639 which makes that slurry, which is good, slurp it up. 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:52.240 But then the surrounding tissue hardens and it actually creates 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:56.520 a tube, a little hard straw in your skin in 0:20:56.560 --> 0:21:00.919 the wound. Yeah, called a styla stone. What do they 0:21:00.920 --> 0:21:03.239 do with that? They drink out of it. They use 0:21:04.640 --> 0:21:08.800 to slurp up your wrecked cells. Yeah, and the longer 0:21:08.800 --> 0:21:11.560 they're in there, the longer the straw is the style 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:13.679 of dome. The style of dome. Yeah, I saw a 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:17.000 paper from two thousand four and in the abstract that 0:21:17.200 --> 0:21:21.359 said it's something like it seems that style of domes 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:24.199 form as a reaction to chiggers. So I don't know 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:26.960 if they thought, like, maybe this was part of a 0:21:27.040 --> 0:21:28.800 chigger or something like that, but I guess it's a 0:21:28.840 --> 0:21:32.560 recent finding that that style iss domes form, and that's 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:35.240 how chiggers actually eat because they don't have any probiscus 0:21:35.359 --> 0:21:39.880 or anything like that. They're pretty much really weak proboscis 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:45.600 one of those um they're just not great insects or 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:50.000 aracnus at all. Yeah, they're not. They can't bite very easily, 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:54.560 they can't suck anything out. They um, they're just they're useless. 0:21:55.640 --> 0:21:58.960 But your body just happens to help them out. Well, 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:02.480 they have that that magic juice. I guess that's pretty cool, 0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:05.760 you know. Yeah, uh so with that magic juice, that's 0:22:05.760 --> 0:22:07.320 gonna be one of the two reasons you're gonna be 0:22:07.320 --> 0:22:12.440 itching a lot. Some people react quite adversely to that juice. 0:22:12.960 --> 0:22:15.440 Other people it's not that bad. Um, But it's still 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:17.280 gonna itch no matter what. And it's not just the 0:22:17.359 --> 0:22:19.960 juice you're reacting to. I think that's probably what first 0:22:20.000 --> 0:22:22.440 gets your attention. But the thing that causes the persistent 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:26.240 itch is that stylist dome, your body's own reaction, which 0:22:26.280 --> 0:22:30.640 seems to be forming basically a hollow tube of temporary 0:22:30.720 --> 0:22:35.000 scar tissue in this wound area, and then that actually 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:38.160 causes some sort of itch reaction as your skin heals, 0:22:38.480 --> 0:22:40.960 and that can take a very long time to heal. 0:22:41.200 --> 0:22:43.480 This is the point where I was like, oh, having 0:22:43.520 --> 0:22:46.480 chiggers actually does suck terribly. Yeah. I think if you 0:22:46.520 --> 0:22:49.680 had a chigger that was able to complete its full 0:22:49.760 --> 0:22:53.280 four day meal. Your toast means you haven't showered for 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:58.440 four days. Yeah. Uh, that's when your style of dome 0:22:58.680 --> 0:23:02.400 is gonna be at its peak of hardness and length, right, 0:23:02.560 --> 0:23:06.480 and it's gonna have the worst reaction, right, So what 0:23:06.560 --> 0:23:09.720 can you do? Uh? There are home remedies you've heard, 0:23:09.760 --> 0:23:15.360 maybe like painting over chigger bites with a clear nail polish, right, 0:23:16.240 --> 0:23:18.880 or any kind of nail polish. Really, I think, well, yeah, sure, 0:23:18.880 --> 0:23:23.639 if you got flair, I'll get to put some dots 0:23:23.680 --> 0:23:25.720 on my armpit, and then why not, I'll put them 0:23:25.720 --> 0:23:28.320 around my eye as well. So what's the deal there? 0:23:28.359 --> 0:23:30.720 You're just choking it out. Um. A lot of people 0:23:31.320 --> 0:23:35.359 would say, yes, you're covering up this the chigger that's 0:23:35.480 --> 0:23:38.840 burrowed into your skin and it is now suffocating to death. 0:23:39.080 --> 0:23:42.440 It's like choke on choke on your meal. But that's 0:23:42.440 --> 0:23:46.360 wrong because again, chiggers don't burrow into your skin, right, 0:23:46.440 --> 0:23:48.760 and Tracy points out very acutely, by the time you 0:23:48.760 --> 0:23:51.520 even notice it, it's very likely the chigger is not 0:23:51.560 --> 0:23:54.000 there any longer. Right, So if you're painting something over 0:23:54.080 --> 0:23:57.560 your skin, um, really, what you're doing is protecting the wound. 0:23:57.600 --> 0:24:01.240 Area from um the air contact with the air, which 0:24:01.320 --> 0:24:04.040 can aggravate it. So it does help. But Tracy says, 0:24:04.440 --> 0:24:07.240 just use anti itch cream. It's way better. Yeah, like 0:24:07.440 --> 0:24:12.280 cortisone or something, so what it is. Yeah, yeah, Um, 0:24:12.560 --> 0:24:14.879