Best way to kill chiggers (lawn, fertilizer, insect, vegetable)

[NC211]

We keep getting chiggers in our mulch. I’ve used the TalstarP but it only seems to last a few weeks. I want to wipe these things out and make sure they don’t come back for awhile. Anyone have any luck with anything that works?

[Zoisite]

If nothing else works you could try horticultural petroleum oils or vegetable oils on chiggers. But it's important to read these first though so you know which kinds of oils to NOT use and what kinds need an emulsifier - the first article is old (1988) but still relevant to today - no date is shown on the second article but it also is relevant to today's methods:

http://ccenassau.org/resources/-hort...%20to%20plants

https://extension.colostate.edu/docs...sect/05569.pdf

https://m.espacepourlavie.ca/en/mine...ticultural-oil

If I was spraying horticultural oils on chiggers that are in mulch I'd AVOID insecticidal oils and use emulsified vegetable oil (my first choice) or else go for either the emulsified superior (narrow-range) mineral oil or white mineral oil instead. Spray it only on the mulch, avoiding any plant stems and leaves as much as possible. It won't actually harm any plants but it's kinder to the plants to avoid spraying it directly on plants.

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[ellie]

Weird. What kind of mulch? Maybe you can have it removed in the areas where you walk and get mulch from a different supplier.

[turf3]

Sulfur seemed to work pretty well back in the day. Fortunately as our city has aged, the decades of lawn insecticides have largely wiped out chiggers in city lawns.


Anyway, I'd get a big bag of powdered sulfur and spread it with a fertilizer spreader (maybe mix it in with your fertilizer the next time you fertilize) and see if that helps.

[ManApplet]

Sulfur is a trace nutrient and poundage per acre amounts are low. It can also affect pH and he other nutrient uptake. I'd d some math on that first.