Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

254 CAMPING AND WOODCRAFTwith salty bacon-rind before going outdoors, andclaim that this is a preventive; also that kerosenewill do as well.If one keeps an old suit of clothesexpressly for chigger-time, puts the suit in a closet,and fumigates it thoroughly with the smoke of burningtobacco stems, no chigger will touch him. Alas!that the preventives should all be so disagreeable.When chiggers have burrowed underneath theskin, neither salt, nor oil, nor turpentine, nor carbolizedointment, nor anything else that I have triedwill kill them, save mercurial ointment or the tinctureof stavesacre seed, both of which are dangerousif incautiously used. After much experiment, Ifound that chloroform, dropped or rubbed on eachseparate welt, will stop the itching for several hours.It is quite harmless, and pleasant enough to apply.Moderately strong ammonia, or a saturated solutionof baking soda, will suffice if applied as soon asthe itching is felt, but they are useless if treatmentis delayed. In the latter case, I would use tinctureof iodine. It is said that collodion brushed oveieach welt will act as a specific, but I have had nochance to try it.The chigger seems particularly fond of the butterfly-weedor pleurisy-root. It is seldom much ofa nuisance until the middle of June, and generallydisappears in the latter part of September.Tropical Chigoes.—The chigoe or sand-flea ofMexico, Central America, and South America, is alarger and more formidable pest than our little redbug.It attacks, preferably, the feet, especially underthe nail of the great toe, and between the toes.The insect burrows there, becomes encysted, swellsenormously from the development of her young, andthus sets up an intolerable itching in the victim'sskin. If the female is crushed or ruptured in thetumor she has formed, the result is likely to be amputationof the toe, if nothing worse. She shouldbe removed entire by careful manipulation with aneedle. This chigoe is a native of tropical America,but seems to be gradually spreading northward.