What To Know About Chiggers Bites, Symptoms And Treatment

Dr. Stephanie Lareau whizzed through the trees on her mountain bike in Roanoke, Va., one day in 2018. When she wanted to stop for water and a snack, she didn't think much of plunking down in a pile of leaves near a reservoir to rest.

The next day, Dr. Lareau found a cluster of red bumps along the waistband of her shorts. Her back started to itch intensely.

Chiggers are common in humid regions, like Southern and Midwestern states. Chiggers inhabit grasses, decaying leaf matter and low shrubs near bodies of water. Historically, chigger season in the United States has been from late spring to early fall. But this period is likely to expand as temperatures rise across the country, said Loganathan Ponnusamy, a principal research scholar in the department of entomology and plant pathology at North Carolina State University. He said that scientists in North Carolina were finding chiggers earlier compared with previous years.

After chiggers hatch, the larvae can cling to clothing or skin. Once on the skin, they secrete an enzyme to digest skin cells, said Dr. Avinash Patil, an associate professor of emergency medicine at Stanford University who is trained in wilderness medicine. The enzyme causes an immune response that can lead to skin irritation, itchiness and red bumps.

Hot spots for bites include folds of skin near tight clothing such as waistbands, the top of sock lines and the area behind the knees. (If you see red bites clustered around your waistband, you can assume they're from chiggers rather than mosquitoes or other bugs, Dr. Lareau said.)

The larvae feed on human skin cells for a few days before falling off, Dr. Patil said. People may not realize they've been bitten until their bodies mount an inflammatory reaction. "By the time you're itching, presumably, the chiggers are off," he said. Peak itchiness often occurs 24 to 48 hours after a bite.

If you do get bitten, you can expect to be itchy for up to three weeks. Cold compresses can help with inflammation. Experts warned against excessive scratching to reduce chances of bleeding, scarring or secondary infection.

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