Bugs and their bites
I cleaned out lots of weeds growing in a corner of the yard five days ago, but now I’m paying the price. I’ve got lots of chigger bites on one of my arms, and do the EVER itch!
While looking up recommended treatments–there’s not much you can do other than wait and use hydrocortisone cream–I decided to find a photo of a chigger. I found a terrific photo, and much more. If you want to see some excellent photos showing what the most common and most dangerous bugs look like, along with photos of what their bites look like, visit this slideshow by WebMD. You’ll see chiggers, mosquitos, brown recluse spiders, black widows, scabies, red ants and much more. It’s called the “Bad Bugs Slideshow,” which stirs in an unnecessary moral dimension to the topic! But, again, the photos are really well done. You might be interested even if you aren’t currently covered with bug bites.
There is an old home remedy for chigger bite that works, but I don’t believe anyone has actually researched why it works. Paint each bite with clear nail polish. It may sting for a few seconds then the itching goes away in minutes and the bites heal in a few days.
Since nail polish is laquer, I suspect the acetone solvent may be esterizing the venom stopping its chemical interaction with the skin, but then, since no one has studied this, I really don’t know.
This works miracles. (the one on the bottom)
http://www.blistex.com/ivarest.htm