How to Get Rid of Chiggers from Your Home

There’s one thing to be bit by mosquitoes when you are sat in your garden, and then there’s another thing to be bit by chiggers. These small red-colored parasites dig into your skin superficially and can leave you with a very bad itch for days that keep worsening the more you rub or scratch on it. Many people believe that they feed on human blood, which isn’t the case at all. 

Before you panic thinking that chigger bites are harmful and will eventually cause very bad impacts on your health, trust us, it won’t. Contrary to popular belief, chiggers don’t carry diseases with them. However, their bites are extremely irritating and will leave you itchy the whole time, and that is the absolute last thing you want to experience.

Wondering how to get rid of chiggers? Well, you are in luck because that is exactly what we are going to discuss in this article for you to look through.

Also read: How to Get Rid of Wasps? | Easy Guide

How Do Chiggers Attack?

Although, indeed, chiggers aren’t feeding off of your skin, it is also true that they come with their fair share of challenges. The chiggers, as small as they are, quickly attach themselves to the host’s skin to feed. And, no, they aren’t feeding on the blood but the skin cells, which is why your skin feels so itchy all the time. 

The chigger’s saliva contains a specialized form of the enzyme, which breaks down the cells, making it easier for them to digest it. Once they are done biting, your skin will be left inflamed with a bump that itches like there’s no tomorrow. 

If you can’t feel or dislodge them from your body, the chances are that the chigger will generally stay on the victim’s body for up to four days. The itching lasts for a fair few days until the enzyme has completely worn off the skin.

How to Avoid Chiggers?

Let us preface this by saying that chiggers aren’t going to be available in your home. They prefer staying hidden under deep vegetation like in forests or deeply rooted gardens. So, if you find your skin with a chigger bite, it is likely because of your fault, and you decided to sit down in the middle of a highly vegetative ground.

That said, the best way to avoid getting chiggers on your skin is by avoiding highly vegetative grounds. Even if you are walking through highly vegetative areas, either wear protective clothing or you can steer clear of taller grasses.

If the chiggers are invading your property, the best way to prevent that from infesting is by cutting down overgrown grass and highly vegetative spaces, especially the ones filled with weed. Trim your bushes and hedges now and then. Even if you can’t do it on your own, you can always seek professional help.

List of Ways to Get Rid of Chiggers

Now that you have a fair bit of idea about chiggers and how they affect your skin and life, the next thing that you need to know about is the ways to get rid of chiggers.

There are some constructive ways and some easy DIY home remedies that you can follow:

1. Start by Closing Your Trash Cans

Like any other garden pest that you come across, even the standard chiggers rely on areas with moisture and excess dampness. So, if you have a trash can in your backyard open, it is time you immediately close the lid before the infestation takes a turn for the worse. Unlike harvest mites that easily latch onto the skin and cause utter chaos, the same isn’t the case with chiggers. They will crawl onto your skin. However, given how small their size is, they can go around inconspicuously, so you wouldn’t even know of their presence until four days.

2. Identify the Bites

Sometimes, even before you consider implementing an elimination trick, you need to identify whether it’s a chigger or some other kind of pest. Knowing it for sure will ensure that you don’t have to worry about doing the wrong thing and aggravating the situation. Generally, the larvae are the ones that feed on human skin. For the remaining life cycle, the chiggers tend to attack the animals and take shelter under the furry coat of the animals, which means that you wouldn’t have to worry about much. If the bite is extremely itching, scrub the area with some soapy water.

3. Chop Down the Bush & Shrubs

Having greenery around the house looks nice, but if you don’t want a repeat of what just happened with you a few days back, you might have to consider chopping down the bush and shrubs for good. Cut them down into smaller sections and make sure there is no outgrowth of the excess weeds around the areas because that causes chaos too. Also, while cleaning out the yard, you need to ensure that you are following the right methods, especially when it comes to wearing the right clothes and wearing insect repellent.

4. Treat the Yard

If the rate of infestation of the chiggers is way out of control in your backyard, the best way to get rid of them for good is by treating the yard with some insecticides. The lawn care insecticides generally work the best on smaller lawns. If you have a large space, we’d recommend seeking professional help because only they have the tools and the means to make it happen. If you are doing it on your own, sulfur pellets work pretty well too. However, if you have pets in your home that can get into stuff around the garden, we’d suggest avoiding the sulfur pellets because they will end up ingesting them.

5. Take a Shower

If you have gone out someplace where there were heightened chances of chiggers, we’d recommend taking a shower immediately after coming home. This ensures to get rid of any chiggers that have managed to get onto your skin and made a complete mess of stuff. However, make sure that you take your time with the shower and use warm water with soap to get the maximum of the chiggers off your skin. If possible, use a skin scrubber to get the maximum of it out of your skin for good.

6. Wash Your Clothes

Like your body, you can also put your clothes into the washer the moment you step into your home. However, do this only if you have been to an area that could potentially have a lot of chiggers around. If you just went to your workplace, you don’t need to wash your clothes because you think they might have chiggers. After all, these pests are only found in areas with high vegetation.

7. Get Professional Help

If nothing seems to be working for you, your last bet is to call a pest control professional. This is especially important if you have a larger lawn or backyard that you can’t treat on your own. Professionals know what works and what doesn’t and generally start with pulling out the weeds and then trimming the hedges. Once that is done, they will treat the backyard with insecticides and wait until the results pop in. The process is just that simple.

How to Treat Chigger Bites?

Sometimes, even when you do everything in your power to get rid of the chiggers, you will realize that you can’t do the needful all the time. In such cases, your safest bet would be to treat the chigger bites with a smile and call it a day. The process is pretty simple, and there are some constructive ways that you can follow to get rid of these bites and itching fairly quickly than you expect or imagine.

Here’s what you can do:

• Start by icing the area of the bite for a few minutes.
• Try out some form of soothing calamine lotion on the bite till the swelling and redness subside.
• If the bite is deep and very widespread, try out oral antihistamine medications like diphenhydramine. However, make sure you consult your family medicine doctor to get a proper prescription for the same.
• Let it stay like that and heal on its own.

Rubbing and healing do take a few days. However, sometimes, all you have to do is wait it out. That is often your safest bet, so you don’t have to worry about the same at all.

If you are tired of the chiggers around your home, we hope this article gives you all the details on how to get rid of chiggers for good. However, sometimes, getting rid of them is easier said than done. We’d recommend that you find the source of the infestation and check the extent. If it’s manageable, try yourself first. If the same isn’t manageable anymore, we recommend that you switch to a professional who can further help you with all the complications.

Also read: How to Get Rid of Squirrels from Home & Backyard?

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)