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Chiggers are microscopic creatures that tend to appear quite commonly in the southern parts of the US in late spring, summer, and early fall. They also exist in many other parts of the world, usually appearing during the same seasons. Chiggers are basically larvae of mites that are known as harvest mites, which are closely related to ticks.
The larvae are very common outdoors in areas with tall grass or dense shrubbery, and only they bite - adult harvest mites are harmless, and feed only on plants.
Unlike most insect and mites that bite, chiggers do not feed on blood, as is sometimes wrongly thought - instead they feed on human skin. However, in practical terms this does not make much difference to us, as the bites can be just as irritating and uncomfortable as any others.
The fact that they do not suck blood also does not mean that they cannot transmit disease - in some parts of Asia and Australia, chiggers are known to carry and transmit scrub typhus, which causes skin rashes and fever. In the US and most other parts of the world however, the only problem posed by chigger bites is the irritation and swelling, which is temporary.
This of course doesn't mean that chigger bites can just be ignored - they can certainly be quite uncomfortable and even traumatic, especially for a toddler. The first thing you should do if you have received chigger bites is bathe - chiggers usually do not stay attached to the skin for very long, but this is sometimes a possibility, and a bath will ensure that this doesn't happen. Apart from this, the only thing to do for chigger bites is apply a cream or ointment to control the itching. You can use whatever you normally use for insect bites - calamine lotion, hydrocortisone, or benzyl benzoate. Do not apply nail polish on the bites - this is unlikely to make things worse, but it will certainly not do any good. The idea behind applying nail polish is supposedly to suffocate the mites that have burrowed into the skin, but chiggers in fact do not burrow into the skin. As mentioned before, they usually do not stay on your skin, and even if they do, a bath is all that is needed to get rid of them.
You should make it a habit for your toddler to bathe after coming home from areas where chiggers may be present - as mentioned, the larvae are microscopic and therefore unnoticeable, and the reaction to the bites sets in considerably later.
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