Gunks: What's biting you?

I thought it was the ants. Then someone said it was Chiggers (just the name grosses me out). Every time this season that I climb there, I spend the next few days putting anti-itch lotion on these big red bite marks on my legs and torso. I don't feel it when I'm climbing, but the next day and for days after.

What's biting me? What can I do to keep them away? And is there a favored treatment for the bites?

Inquiring climbers want to know.

Chiggers.  If you find a way to prevent them please share, I haven’t yet. Don’t buy into the myths of nail polish or other weird remedies, they don’t work. Over the counter cortisone creams usually do the trick.

Try to avoid sitting in the grass and brush on the second or third pitches if you can. 

Second what Adrienne said, I got the worst case of chiggers of my life on the last pitch grassy belay ledge of CCK a while ago. Be very prudent on the upper pitches.

DEET does help a little bit. 

https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/chiggers.page#:~:text=Chiggers%20are%20usually%20encountered%20in,that%20is%20damp%20and%20shaded.

Chiggers. Growing up in the South they were vicious and could ruin you. my grandpa put powdered suphur in our socks which seemed to work at the time. I spray deet on my belly and around my ankles. Some others do that and i think it works. The nail polish treatment is bogus. You just have to suffer the itchiness for a couple weeks. And I try to avoid sitting in the grassy ledges because that’s where they mostly get me.

Delousing shampoo.  Long time since I had chiggers but that seemed to work.  As I recall the chigger sort of dissolves skin cells and that causes the itching. YMMV

 Ticks are nasty this year too. 

DEET is the only thing I've found that works to stop them. If you want to take it another step you can always treat your clothing with permethrin.

Also: develop the mental strength not to scratch.

Deet. Especially the harness region. And you can get them just by sitting on bare rock, no grass required. Hell I've gotten them in my armpit just by leaning on a tree.

I use deet and seems to work. The heat is whats been biting me. Haha. Camelbacks and lots of ice in the cooler.

Deet on waist and ankles, which are the most common entry points.  Sitting, standing in one place for a long time, and leaning as Mike says is how they get on you.  Deet at their point of entry is the only way to dissuade them.

The only thing that has worked for me is called Elimitick. It has the repellant cooked into the fabric. If you drop a tick (or chigger) onto the fabric, it will either drop off or just up and die. The coating will last about 60 washings. The fabric itself isn't all that comfortable though, and I would have to be pretty motivated to avoid ticks/chiggers/insects to wear it. It is permethrin. 

I got wrapped up in the tree above where Modern Times turns right. 24 hours later my legs had so swollen from chigger bites that I went to the doctor and got the same treatment they give for bad poison ivy (pills and medicated lotion -- don't remember what). That was terrible, but deserved on acct of how poorly I acquitted myself on that pitch.

A soap/spray/salve made with “jewelweed” - or even directly rubbing the jewelweed flowers - is a very effective and natural remedy for poison ivy and stinging nettle rashes.  It might help for chigger bites too.

That said - there are bug sprays available that are 99-100% DEET.  Don’t waste your time with sprays that are only 25% DEET

Dales DeadBug wrote:

“...That said - there are bug sprays available that are 99-100% DEET.  Don’t waste your time with sprays that are only 25% DEET“

I seem to remember reading that concentrations higher than 35% DEET do not increase effectiveness. Of course, I found that out after buying a bottle of the REPEL 100% stuff...

...or maybe I’m thinking of sunscreen over SPF 50...

My big concern is not the itching and scratching, but how it looks. I mean, when I got into this sport I expected to have impressive scars--torn up back of hands from crack climbing, rock rash on my shoulders from chimneys, ripped up fingernails. When I'm at the pool with my family, they just say 'ick' and look away. V disappointing. 

Demetri V wrote:

I seem to remember reading that concentrations higher than 35% DEET do not increase effectiveness. Of course, I found that out after buying a bottle of the REPEL 100% stuff...

...or maybe I’m thinking of sunscreen over SPF 50...

That may be true, but in my experience, the 100% is much more effective at repelling Lyme disease-carrying ticks, and those are a much bigger concern for me than chiggers

Dales DeadBug wrote:

That may be true, but in my experience, the 100% is much more effective at repelling Lyme disease-carrying ticks, and those are a much bigger concern for me than chiggers

The question is, why not use 100%, right? DEET has been applied literally billions of times in the past 80 years or so. If it was bad for you, we would’ve found it out by now.

Lyme disease is no joke! Mosquitos carry some nasty stuff, too! 

gunks in the summer = don't sit down at belays.  If you just look at any of the rocks or grass piles at the top of climbs for long enough you'll notice hundreds of chiggers just waiting for you. 

Demetri V wrote:

The question is, why not use 100%, right? DEET has been applied literally billions of times in the past 80 years or so. If it was bad for you, we would’ve found it out by now.

Lyme disease is no joke! Mosquitos carry some nasty stuff, too! 

The only problem with 100% DEET is that it is harder to find than versions watered down to 25-35%.  I’ve had good luck finding the 100% at hardware stores.

Dales DeadBug wrote:

The only problem with 100% DEET is that it is harder to find than versions watered down to 25-35%.  I’ve had good luck finding the 100% at hardware stores.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=100%25+DEET