Chiggers Notwithstanding
My son, dog and I spend a lot of time out hiking, and one of our favorite places to go is Carolina Beach State Park. My son loves the visitor center so most of our hikes begin there. The center has some very cool kid-friendly, interactive displays, such as a Venus Fly-trap puppet that swallows a fly when a certain lever is pulled. There’s also an area set up to resemble the stage of a game-show, with giant buttons to press when the park ranger on the monitor asks the contestants questions about biodiversity, our local eco-system and watershed. It’s not all for kids, though; every time I walk through I pick up new information about our wetland habitats, types of soils and rocks that can be found in the area, as well as different types of birds and animals.
Today, however, we bypassed the visitor center because we had the dog with us and headed straight to the trails just beyond the marina. We were about 15 steps in when Sampson (the dog) began spinning around and lowering his haunches in the familiar must-find-perfect-spot-for-poop way of his… Shoot! I did not want to carry a steaming, smelling plastic bag of dog poop for the entire hike, so I told my son to wait while I ran out and tossed the bag in the trash. When I got back, Eli had found a “nature-house” to lie down in and take a nap. The so-called house was a giant cluster of half-dead ivy, spider webs, pine needles and who knows what else hanging over a definitely dead small tree. Well, he’s getting in touch with nature, I thought, and continued on along the trail. We soon came through the trees to a little sandy beach next to the Cape Fear river. Both dog and child pleaded with me to let them jump in. I could not resist. The water was warm while the air had just a hint of coolness to it—perhaps the last river swim of the year. After swimming we made our way back to the car, my son in wet underwear and sloshing sneakers, and headed home.
As we sat in the kitchen eating lunch and reflecting on the day, I noticed my son continuously batting at the back of his head. Hmm, suspicious. I decided to take a look. Yep. Chiggers! And lots of them. I was wielding tweezers in half a second. Plucking one after another off his body, out of his hair, out from behind his ear—oh God! It creeped me out. He must have picked them up during his nap in the “nature house”. They were really gross , but I wouldn’t change anything about our beautiful day together with the exception of maybe putting on a bit of bug spray before the hike.
Check out all the great events happening at Carolina Beach State Park
Sounds like a fun family day, Rachel. I was wondering if you could give us an update on E’s chigger bites. I don’t have much experience with the critters, and the following (from Wikipedia) says they don’t actually burrow into the skin, which is what I thought.
“Chiggers attach to the host, inject digestive enzymes into the bite wound, and then suck up the digested tissue. They do not burrow into the skin or suck blood, as is commonly assumed. Itching from a chigger bite may not develop until 24-48 hours after the bite, so the victim may not associate the specific exposure with the bite itself. The red welt/bump on the skin is not where a chigger laid eggs, as is sometimes believed.”
Fortunately, Eli’s reaction to the chigger bites was mild. He had some itchy red blisters around his hairline and behind his ears, but they faded significantly after a couple of days.
There’s a song The Penguin plays occasionally that suggests certain remedies when you live in the south — tobacco juice is good for bee stings, for example. I can’t seem to find the song lyrics using Google because I don’t know the title or the artist, but it mentions “clear nail polish” for chigger bites.
To quote another song: For what it’s worth…
[…] family went for a bike ride this Saturday morning, our purpose to follow the Island Greenway out of Carolina Beach State Park as far south as it would go — and on advice from a Christmas-gift outdoor NC adventure book […]