Subj : Re: Chiggers
To   : alt.tv.farscape
From : John Iwaniszek
Date : Thu Sep 08 2005 01:15:46

From Newsgroup: alt.tv.farscape

Nick wrote:

> John Iwaniszek wrote:
> 
>> Excuse me.  "Chigras".
>> 
>> 
>> I am chigger-bit up one side and down the other.  I have never
>> been this afflicted in my life.  
>> 
>> The weird thing about chiggers is that they are not evolved to
>> feed off of humans.  Their natural prey are birds and reptiles, and
>> thier saliva developed to anesthetize the animal's skin against the
>> irritation of being disolved and sipped by a micron sized arthropod. 
>> Being able to irritate the living hell out of humans is just gravy. 
> 
> 
> I hate those little buggers.
> 

I was recently stung by some fire ants for the first time.  I was at a 
Lucinda William concert and I thought that I would take advantage of the 
excellent view by a tree that no one in the crowd seemed to be taking 
advantage of.

The way fire ants sting is by latching on with their mandibles then 
stinging with the stinger in their abdomen.  The twist and can sting in a 
circle.

The sting "produces an immediate wheal and flare reaction, followed 
within a few hours by the development of a papule and, later, a vesicle. 
Within 24 hours, a characteristic pustule on an erythematous base 
develops. In the absence of secondary infection, this pustule resolves in 
three to ten days, leaving a superficial scar."

You get a white thick-walled blister surrounded by a red spot that is 
less than a centimeter across.  The sore eventually turns black and scabs 
over. 

I have chigger bites on the fire ant scars.


The only satisfaction (except the obvious scientific one) I got out of 
the episode is that the two middle aged love birds standing immediately 
behind me and speaking sweet-innanities to to each other that blotted out 
the music all night, also decided that the fire ant hill wa a better 
place to watch the music.  Not only did I get to enjoy a few songs 
uninterrupted by their juvenile first-date blather, but I got to see them 
shimmy and shake to the fire ants' crazy beat.

.