Homestead mailing list

[bobf <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

We didn't have 'chiggers'.  We had 'red bugs'.  According to what Rob (VA) 
wrote, they might be the same thing.  I remmber as a small child that 
children get them from playing in fallen pines limbs and pine straw.  But, I 
don't remeber them being a problem past small childhood -- maybe I was immune 
?  My brother (eleven months younger) and I could go hunting or hiking 
together.  He would come out covered with poison Ivy , poison Oak , and bug 
bites.  I suffered basically none of these.  gnats bothered me, and of course 
I have experienced mosquito bites, but not to the degree of which most people 
complain.  I also rarely had ticks on my body, though I do have one 
embaressing anecdote.

I had been deer hunting all am, and came home and went to the bathroom to 
pee.  As I stood to do what men do when they pee, I noticed a large tick 
slowly crawling on a very inappropriate appendage.  Fortunately, he had not 
attached.  I was beyond the age to call Mama to help :-)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------


--- On Fri, 1/16/09, Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com> wrote:

> From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
> Subject: [Homestead] Chiggers
> To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Friday, January 16, 2009, 6:13 AM
> On Jan 15, 2009, at 8:05 PM, Robert Walton wrote:
> 
> > Before I even get to the point of trying nail polish,
> I end up digging
> > them out with my nails.
> 
> A touch of bleach and they are dead and the bite is
> disinfected.
> 
> I once had such a batch of bites that I was itching all
> over. I ran a  
> tub of cool water, poured in a cup of bleach and bathed in
> it. Did the  
> job.
> 
> The best thing is to keep grass and weeds mowed very short
> wherever  
> you walk.
> >
> > I wonder what pioneers did. What were their reactions
> to all these new
> > and inescapable bugs?
> 
> Mosquitoes, ticks, chiggers, no-see-ums, they had them all.
> They  
> suffered. I've seen old photos where the people had
> slathered mud all  
> over their bodies in an effort for relief.
> 
> I wonder if they thought to do mud wrestling.
> _______________________________________________
> Homestead list and subscription:
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead
> Change your homestead list member options:
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/options/homestead/bobford79%40yahoo.com
> View the archives at:
> https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead