insect bites? please help! (Stillwater: house, live, yard)

[relocated yankee]

Hello. We recently got down here from Wisconsin to Stillwater and we bought a house out in the country which is completely overgrown with weeds and brush, it hasn't been lived in since at least last year. We started doing some yard work a few days ago clearing off the brush and weeds and cutting the grass, both me and my husband started getting litlle bites/itches around our sock line which has now spread over our legs etc....we have been wearing long pants, and it is definitely not a rash, these are bites that are extremely itchy red bumps. When we visited relatives in Texas a few years ago we got some lone star ticks on us and they welted up exactly the same as these....we have found a few of those ticks on us here, but these bites are not correlating to the few ticks that we found.

Any help would be so greatly appreciated!!! These are driving us nuts!

What all could this be and what can ya put on it to stop the itch? It has to be something small as we have not been able to find any bugs on us at all other than the coupla ticks.

And we are staying with friends who are city people while we get the property under control, and our kid is sleeping in bed with us at the moment and she has only had two bites, she has not been going to the property with us, one on her leg and one on her shoulder, and we have 4 or 5 dozen on each of us, so this is definitely not a rash or poison ivy or something like that.

Thank you so much for your help...these are driving us nuts....lol, I guess on the brightside, after this being our intro to Oklahoma summer, it should be better from here!!

[debzkidz]

Sounds like chiggers to me. If you look really closely at the bite, do you notice a tiny red dot in the center?
There's been a discussion about them on the city-data nature forum just this week. Here's a link: city-data.com/forum/nature/1615386-chiggers.html

[Hazel Eyes]

Yep, Chiggers....We moved here from Calif. and my hubby met them while doing our yard...

[knrstz]

Chiggers. Once you get your grass cut, as long as you don't roll around in it, you should be fine.

[debzkidz]

You can dust your pant legs and shoes in sulfur and that will help keep them off. Really though, a good hot shower, with lots of soap and scrubbing should get rid of them too.

[okie1962]

After being in the weeds take a hot bleach bath. About a half a cup in a tub. That kills them before they start itching. But once you got them you are stuck with them for a few weeks. theres not much you can do now.

[_redbird_]

The chiggers are Oklahoma's welcome wagon. We use chiggarid. If you can find it, get two bottles. We always do.

Some people get more of a reaction to chiggers than others. I know a landscaper who uses talc on his socks. (I don't.) I was just thinking to myself as I was outside a minute ago, here in rural Oklahoma, we don't just walk around looking at the pretty flowers. We have to watch out for wasp nests, and our lawns are not perfect looking green grass, it is so hot it becomes almost unbearable, but those things keep us unpopulated. So I love them.

Heat for the next four months. Just accept it and enjoy the AC!

[debzkidz]

Originally Posted by okie1962

After being in the weeds take a hot bleach bath. About a half a cup in a tub. That kills them before they start itching. But once you got them you are stuck with them for a few weeks. theres not much you can do now.

My MIL would make us take Lysol baths. I think I would rather have chiggers. You just can't get that smell off your skin.

Chiggarid works pretty good, but if you've scratched it and the skin is irritated it burns like fire. Clear nail polish works well too. That's what my mom always did.

[relocated yankee]

thank you all so much!

chiggers is what the lady at walgreens said too and we got some chiggeraid which has helped immensely

ok, so what about vehicle seats, furniture, and clothing....does anything need to be done in those departments?

thanks again!!!