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Selects: Chiggers: The Phantom Menace · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: How d everybody, it's may or at least that's the
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: date of this Selects episode. I picked this one out
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Chiggers colon the Phantom Menace because boy, Chiggers are terrible
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: and they make you itch. And I would say that
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: listening to this episode will make you itch. So that's
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: my goal on this Saturday, to make everybody itch. I'm
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: really sorry, but here we go with Jiggers Hold the
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Phantom Menace. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles w Chuck Bryant. Jerry's over there,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: so you should know Jerry's head Chiggers. Yeah, me too,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: I have not. I'm really glad I was like Chigger.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: It seems like Tracy is making a pretty big deal
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: out of the in this article. Yeah. Tracy Wilson of
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Stuff You Miss in History Class wrote this, who recently
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: got married? Congratulations Tracy? Yeah. And she wrote if you've
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: ever heard her say the word mouth parts in the show,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Tracy wrote it, chances heart she wrote it. She wrote
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: ticks and mosquitoes. H did you write bees? She did
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: a whole insect? Sweet? She spent a lot of time
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: knee deep in insects. Yeah, and this, well, this isn't
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: even an insect spoiler. Oh, you just removed the fact
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: of the podcast. You think I think. So, I don't
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: think you did. I'm just teasing. Okay, I'll bet I
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: know what you think it is because I think the
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: same thing. All right, Well we'll see. Okay, I challenge you.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: I challenge you back. We throw down the gauntlet, which
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: is glove. So Tracy did make a big deal out
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: of checkers, but apparently it's a big deal, right well,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: sure like if you ever had them, they're no fun.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: No the deeper I got into the article the where
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, yeah, this does sound really kind
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: of off. Yeah, and it's uh, this is just one everyone,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: there's another itch inducing episode. And speaking of I got
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: my first little bow to poison ivy. Congratulations. Yeah. I
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: was clearing out stuff over the weekend and I was
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: in poison ivy and I knew it. I was like,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: you know, I've never had it before. This sounds very
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: familiar and um, but I was still I'm no dummy.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: I know how Murphy's law works. So I said, I
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: just said that out loud. Well, you just said that
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: out loud, or you just said I said, I'm not
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: allergic to I thought you were saying like that. I'm
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: no dummy. I said that too. Um, And I said,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: so you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna be careful
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: and I'm gonna go take a shower pretty soon afterwards. Um.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: And so it's not bad. But there are probably five
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: or six little, tiny little sets of bumps on each
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: leg pustules. Yeah, they're not bad though. And I looked
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: at him and said, you know what, that's freaking poison
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: ivy after all these years, finally got you. Yep, but
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: not too bad. Like my dad always said, poison I
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: will gets everybody one day. That his big saying. Uh So, anyway,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: speaking of itching, that's my itch story of the day.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: And this will make you itch because it made me
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: itch while reading it. I think you're right. So um,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: it's actually it's funny. It didn't make me itch, maybe
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: because I've never had it. You're scratching yourself, right, I'm
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: pointing to myself in a weird place. I'm pointing my
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: finger to my skin and moving it around. But I'm
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: not scratching curiously. So, Um, everybody knows that chiggers are
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: insects that burrow into your skin and suck your blood. Um,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: And I'm sorry you're being coy, my friend, I am
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: because you just lied three times. Burrow and oh, insects
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: that burrow in your skin, that suck your blood. That's right,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: those are there's three lies in there. This is like
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: a highlights We have to go pick out what's wrong
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: with this picture. Chiggers are not insects. They are arachnets.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: They are the larvae of the harvest mite. They do
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: not burrow into your skin and suck your blood. But
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: they're still what are the bumps? Well, you're being coy again,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: but what they are actually doing is maybe even grosser
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: than sucking your blood. They are liquefying your cells into
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: a slurry that they can drink from a straw made
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: of your body. It's pretty Is that the fact for you? Yeah? Alright,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: but we'll get there. Were the same one first one,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: first of one. The first time we've ever high fives
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: in an episode? Is that right? Sure? I I would
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: have imagined that you could make like a video montage
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: of us like high fiving during episodes. I guess not. No,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: so you said that, Um, these things are the larva
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: of harvest mites, right, and harvest harvest mites are arachnids.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: They're related to spiders, so they're not insects. But you
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: can understand why people would think that um chiggers are
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: or our insects because chiggers have chiggers. The larva of
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: the harvest might have six legs, so you'd be like, well,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: it's an insect. No, they haven't grown their adult legs yet. Apparently, Yeah,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: I guess they get those two more legs at some point. Um,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: they the adults are red and the little um larvae
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: are red. But um, you're not gonna see. That's one
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: of the problems with chiggers is you're not gonna see
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: like a mosquito landing on you or a flea, even
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: like you think a flea is small, a chigger is
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: like a tiny little dot that you will would never
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: notice and you may not even be able to see
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: at all with your eyeballs. All right, but sometimes you
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: can see several of them together basically forming a clump.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah party together, yeah with one of them has Kid
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: from Kid and plays haircut or Aman Schumpert's more contemporaneously.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that is a total kid and play haircut.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Did you know that Amman Schumpert delivered his own child
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: in his apartment purpose accidentally. The kid just came very
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: quickly and like he the nine one one dispatch had
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: to talk him through how to do it. But he
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: delivered his own child and his wife or girlfriend right
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: there and there and everything was good, totally great. Wow,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: that's great news. He's a basketball player, by the way, people,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, people are, who's amunch Shopper. He plays for
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: the boom, for the calves Boom. So if you're an
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: adult harvest mite and you've grown up from a sugar
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: into an adult, you're gonna eat. It's actually a beneficial
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: little arachneed to have around because they're gonna eat the
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: eggs of other pests like mosquitoes, right, so you want
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: the adults around as an adult or um as the
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: second step the nymphs right after the larva. It's the
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: larva that suck. They don't suck, well, yeah, but the larva.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: You know, you gotta have them, but you know, hopefully
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: they just stay in the yard. Although these things are
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: holy terrors to see if you are on their scale, Like,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: if that thing's coming after you and your eggs, I'll
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: bet it's just really terrifying. They are parasitic though, Um,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: they don't. The larva are. Yeah, they don't eat the
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: blood though, like we pointed out, like the fleas and
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: the ticks and the mosquitoes. No, they eat your skin cells. Right,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: So here's what happens. Larva hatch um. Apparently an adult
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: female harvest might will go into the dirt and be like,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: there's a bunch of eggs, champert is there to an
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: for them to hatch, so we can hasten their birth um,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: And then the eggs do hatch and the harvest might
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: female tends to layer eggs all in one place. So,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: if you are familiar with chiggers, if you've ever had
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: them in your yard, like one little patch of grass
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: can be totally overrun with chiggers, but then you just
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: turn a few degrees to your left, there's another patch
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: of grass that is totally devoid of them. Yeah. I
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: get the feeling. They don't get around too quickly either.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: You know, they know they're pretty stupid low level animals
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: if you ask me. So, the eggs are laid in
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: one place, they hatch and the little larva come out
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: and they're like, blood meal, Give me a blood meal
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: that's not actually made of blood. That's basically what they say. Okay, Uh.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: They hatch pretty much anytime during the year except for
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: the hard winters, and um, like you said, they want
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: that first meal. And the reason they want that first
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: meal is not just because they're ravenous little jerks. Um.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: They actually cannot progress to that nimph stage, which and
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: then grow up to be adults unless they have a
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: complete first meal. They can have, they can have half
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: a first meal, they have three quarters and get and
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: get scratched off the body or brushed off the body,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: and that's pretty much it. They generally will not go
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: back and finish that meal, so there's no starting over.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: They're just like, well that's it. That's the end of millhouse,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: my one chance and um. So it's like a complete
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: lose lose situation when a chigger bites a person, because
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: once you start itching as a person, you go to
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: scratch the area and there goes the chigger. They don't
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: latch onto your skin, they don't burrow into your skin,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: so the moment your your finger makes contact with them,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: they're gone. Um the well they leave behind is there
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: and persists for a while, but they didn't finish their
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: their meal and they die. But you still get the
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: scratch or the horrible itch. It's lose loose. They need
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: to stay away from humans. Well they do because there
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: are a lot of animals that don't mind the chigger
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: on their body, so they can get their full meal
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: deal there and go on to live a great and
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: healthy life without getting scratched off. So, um, they don't.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: They don't want to be on a human And I
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: mean you would think like how long does could their
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: meal possibly last? We're talking like buffet level length of time? Uh,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: four days, four days to four days, I think about it.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: That's time for us. Like how long is four days
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: to a harvest? Might larva? You could probably do the math.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: It's like seven eight days. Figure out chigger years or
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: probably it's probably most of their life. Yeah, you know. So, Um,
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: there's a bunch of different kinds of chiggers around the world. Um,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: and they're actually I mean they are pests, they are parasites.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: But um, there's only like at least one as far
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: as this article says that is really problematic for humans.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: The lepo Trobidium deliens nice might. It's common to Asian
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: and it can carry typhus, a form of typhus which
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: can kill you if it's untreated. Yeah, it's cured with
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: antibotics pretty easily. But um, if you're out in the
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: middle of nowhere, it can kill you. But don't worry
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: unless you um or in certain parts of Asia. Not
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: a problem, right, chigger, We'll just annoy you. Yeah, that's it.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: They're basically just a total annoyance. And by annoying humans,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: they die. It's stupid. All right, Well, let's take a
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: little break here and we will come back and talk
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: about some of the wonders of the jigger. All right,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: we've covered Do we cover fleas? Yeah? I want to
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: say yes, they definitely need a blood meal. We've covered fleas, ticks, mosquitoes, spiders, scabies.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Did we Oh? Yeah? Man, I just it's really getting
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: a little too much to try and remember now. Yeah,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: you know, I mean there's like lost episodes just because
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: we forgot them. It's officially especially getting out of hand.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: I guess we should stop. No, we keep going, my friend,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: um brain heart, so bad chuck. Alright, So what I
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: was talking about was the wonders of the chigger. They
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: have a lot of little things that they have about
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: them that make it um and make them able to
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: perform this uh surgery on your skin. Well put, it
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: is kind of like surgery. It is um. But again
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: they aren't latching on. They're just kind of hanging around.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: And when you get a chigger on your skin, it
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: actually will spend usually hours looking for a good place
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: to go try to get a meal because, um, they
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: have these little tiny mouth parts. There's the word that
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: makes the appearance which lets you know it's a Tracy
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Wilson joint. Right. Um, but they don't pure skin very easily,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: at least not human skin. Uh, tough skin that you
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: would find most on most places of your body. Chigger
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: can't bite through. But which is why you will get
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: chigger bites in play. Is like the back of your knee,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: like in your armpit, places where the chigger can can
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: get its mouth parts. What are they called celisera celiserai
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: clisserai clissari clisser I explains it all, Um, that's why
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: you'll get those bites in those areas because that's where
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: they can get their clisser I into. That's right. They're
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: light sensitive, which means they're gonna hang out in the
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: shade mostly if it was up to them at least
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: um it's uh, the sun is gonna dry out their body,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: so that's why they head towards the shade. I mean
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: you can like kill them basically. Uh. And so also
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: when a host um comes near, there's like your dog
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: casting a shadow, the chiggers go, we'll over there. I
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: think that's pretty clever. There's a shadow. Let's that means
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: something is alive with skin. That means that, in some
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: weird way, chiggers are aware of shadows. That's right. I mean,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: like some dogs aren't aware of shadows or don't understand them.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: I think probably most dogs. Have you ever seen that?
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Like baby two three year old toddler um who sees
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: her shadow for the first time. He just starts f
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: freaking out trying to get away from it. It's really
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: really cute. So it was a possessed baby kind of.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: That's sad, it's cute. I saw that movie that was
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: The Exorcist. That's what I'm talking about. Uh. They are
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: very temperature sensitive. As well. So when they coming to
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: contact with a host, and the host is the thing
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: that it's gonna feed on. Um, it's gonna detect that
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: has like you know, it's not infra red, but it's
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: gonna detect that body heat, right and say, all right,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: there's something I can try and latch onto. So it's
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: like predator in that respect. Yeah, a little bit kind
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: of No dreadlocks, No, those are those are a nice edition.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: If you ask me what else, Um, I think it's hilarious.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Tracy called it upward mobility. They like to climb to
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: the tops of stuff. And I remember this one from Ticks.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Remember that the ticks were just like grasp things, like
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: little tiny lobsters, just stand there and wait for something
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: to pass by, and as it does, they grab it. Um.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: They don't stand there with their arms outstretched the whole time.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Now that's a stress position. Um. There's something called the
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: questing response, which is another hilarious term. They're questing. Yeah,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: they get up on their tippy toes. They're they're standing
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: up with their their arms raised up towards the heavens. Yeah,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: imagine for a meal of human cell imagine John Cusack
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: can say anything but take away the boombox, right, that's
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: a questing position. Yeah, the chickers are there in their
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: little overcoat and their spiky hair and their bad attitudes. Um,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: I just saw you know John Roderick, a friend of
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: the show, John Roderick, Yeah, great Seattle musician. He tweeted
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: the other day about silverfish, you know, the little insects.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: He said, why don't we call silverfish what they were
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: clearly meant to be called? Sink lobsters. It really struck
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: me as funny. They don't look fishy at all. Still,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: ver sure, sink clapster. That's a great one. Right. And finally,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: they are touch sensitive. They have these little hair like
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: sensory organs on their body to help basically to help
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: them find everything from hosts to each other. There. Yeah,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: you know they're like, let's get together and really do
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: some damage on this guy's arn't pit. Yeah, or you
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: see that waist band. It's a great place to hide
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Underpant's band. Yeah, Underpant's band. Yeah what is said in here? No,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: that's what I said. Uh, but that is a great
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: place to hide because, like we said a few times,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: you'll easily scratch them off. So they want to go
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: somewhere where you may not be thinking about scratching. Yeah,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: I was surprised that they go. I could see kind
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: of the outside of the armpit, back of the knee,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: the waist band, underpant's band. Um, they're protected there, they are,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: but at the same time, it's warm there and their
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: temperature sensitive. So you sure who think since they're seeking shade,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: they would go to a cooler spot. But there's probably
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: not too many cool spots on the human body that
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: are protected. Not really, I just said a bunch of
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: contradictory stuff. So all these things help the chiggers find
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: their host. But as Tracy points out, that's that's half
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: the battle. Yeah, and when you find a chigger on you,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: it's probably sorry that it chose you as it's one
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: four day meal. Because they don't like humans, they'll they'll
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: climb onto anything just about any vertebrate animal, snakes, turtles, birds,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: for little birds, chipmunks. They don't like us because we
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: take hot showers every day, that's right, And a lot
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: of these animals don't have any kind of response to
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: being bitten by a chigger, So the likelihood of the
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: chigger being undisturbed for four days while it's having its meal.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: Fourth meal is what we're gonna call it, Like taco bell.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Do you remember that they try to invent another meal. Um,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: they're they're so they're not gonna get brushed off on
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: these things. Humans almost invariably brush chiggers off because right
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: when we start scratching again, it removes the chigger. Um,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: So they're there. They don't seek us out as prey.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: It's just it's just total happenstance. Yeah. And like you said,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: since they need that thin skin, um, little kids are
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: more likely to get bitten by a chigger than an old,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: leathery old sea captain. Let's say. Yeah, and little kids
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: who can't take being teased really are vulnerable to chigger
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: buttons because they're thin skin, very nice. You know, the
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: ones who were like shorts with knee socks pull all
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: the way up here. Those kids, Yeah, and their all
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: their nose are always running because they're crying. They just
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: stopped crying, those kind of kids. Uh. So, like I said,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: a hot shower, uh is a is a great way
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: to kill. It's it's great for a lot of reasons.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: A great way to kill chiggers. It's a great way
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: to keep your body clean. It's a great way to
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: unwind at the end of a long day working in
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: the yard, because that's where you're gonna get your chicker
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: bites most likely. Yeah, and the yard, Yeah, especially if
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: you are the type of gets like letters from the
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: neighborhood association saying mow your lawn you might have chickers.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: I will never live where there is a neighborhood association.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: No way, no way. Now, you know, in some place,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: because it's not my thing. In some places, a neighborhood
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: covenant supersedes local law. Yeah, unbelievable. Like your mailbox has
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: got to be like this. You can't paint your house
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: that color, not not for me, and you gotta pay
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: us a certain amount of money to boss you around
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: every month. Nope, yep, that's why I have a stack
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: of car batteries aside my house with like old wood
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: that I haven't used still in it's like Sandford and
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: sun out there, and then like and paint with a brush.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: It says, welcome children on beside your Alright, So, uh,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: should we take another break and talk a little bit
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: more about the weird fact of the day. Yes, all right, buddy,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: we talked about the mouth parts. So what they do
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: is they get that calissar i and they make a
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: hole in your skin normal enough, They inject saliva, which
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: contains digestive enzymes that make a slurry of your skin cells.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: We talked about other insects that do similar things like this,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: so it's still pretty like, all right, no big deal.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: Then it gets weird. It does. And I don't know
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: if it's because they have specific enzymes or something, but
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: I didn't see this happening with anything else, did you know?
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: But no, you drop it on him, you refuse, all right.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: So what happens is they have in these secretions. What
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: happens is they break your They break your skin cells down,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: which makes that slurry, which is good, slurp it up.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: But then the surrounding tissue hardens and it actually creates
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: a tube, a little hard straw in your skin in
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: the wound. Yeah, called a style of stme. What do
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: they do with that? They drink out of it. They
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: use a straw to slurp up your wrecked cells. Yeah,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: And the longer they're in there, the longer the straw
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: is the style of dome the style of dome. Yeah.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: I saw a paper from two thousand four and in
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: the abstract that said it's something like it seems that
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: style iss domes form as a reaction to chiggers. So
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: I don't know if they thought like maybe this was
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: part of a chigger or something like that, but I
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: guess it's a recent finding that that stylist domes form
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: and that's how chiggers actually eat because they don't have
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: any probiscus or anything like that. They're pretty much really
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: weak proboscis one of those. Um, they're just not great
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: insects or arachnets at all. Yeah, they're not. They can't
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: bite very easily, they can't suck anything out. They um,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: they're just they're useless. But your body just happens to
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: help them out. Well, they have that that magic juice,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: I guess, so that's pretty cool, you know. Yeah, uh
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: so with that magic juice, that's gonna be one of
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: the two reasons you're gonna be itching a lot. Some
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: people react quite adversely to that juice. Other people it's
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: not that bad, um, but it's still going to itch
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: no matter what. And it's not just the juice. You're
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: reacting to. I think that's probably what first gets your attention.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: But the thing that causes the persistent itch is that
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: stylist dome your body's own reaction, which seems to be
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: forming basically a hollow tube of temporary scar tissue in
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: this wound area, and then that actually causes some sort
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: of itch reaction as your skin heels, and that can
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: take a very long time to heal. This is the
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: point where I was like, oh, having chiggers actually does
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: suck terribly. Yeah. I think if you had a chigger
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: that was able to complete its full four day meal,
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: your toast means you haven't showered for four days. Yeah. Uh,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: that's when your style of stomb is going to be
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: at its peak of hardness and length, right, and it's
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: gonna have the worst reaction, right, So what can you do? Uh?
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: There are home remedies you've heard, maybe like painting over
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: chigger bites with a clear nail polish, right, or any
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: kind of nail polish. Really, I think, well, yeah, sure,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: if you got flair, some sparkly gold, I'll get to
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: put some dots on my armpit, and then why not,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: I'll put them around my eye as well. So what's
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: the deal there. You're just choking it out. Um. A
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: lot of people would say, yes, you're covering up this
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: the chigger that's burrowed into your skin and it is
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: now suffocating to death. It's like choke on, choke on
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: your meal. But that's wrong because again, chiggers don't burrow
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: into your skin, right, and Tracy points out very acutely,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: by the time you even notice it, it's very likely
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: the chigger is not there any longer. Right, So if
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: you're painting something over your skin, um, really, what you're
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: doing is protecting the wound area from um, the air
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: contact with the air, which can aggravate it. So it
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: does help. But Tracy says, just use anti itch cream.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: It's way better. Yeah, like cortisone or something. So what
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: it is? Yeah, yeah, Um, don't try to I don't
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: know why she felt the need to put this in here,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: but we might as well say it. Don't try to
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: remove the style of dome. I can see people doing that,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: trying to dig it out. Yeah, no, you don't need
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: to know. I can definitely see people doing that. I
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: think that was worth it. Um. She also says, don't
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: use turpentine you, I've never heard that. Yeah, people do
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: all sorts of dumb stuff. Yeah, I mean, I guess
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: if you could soak in a tub of gasoline and
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: that would probably kill it. Lighted on fire problems. Yeah,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: most of these home remedies odd you should just shy
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: away from. I think, yes, only use remedies approved by
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: modern Western medicine. Modern Western medicine. It's the only treatment
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: you need. Um, the name chigger, they believe you ever
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: heard of sand fleas huh, like in Florida or anywhere? Yeah,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: these those are chico fleas c h I G O
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: e um. And another name for that is the jigger flee.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: And they think that chigger came from just sort of
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: mashing those two names together, even though it's not the
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: same thing. No, it's not. Those actually do burrow into
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: your skin and they lay eggs there, and then the
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: eggs like to feast on you. So not good. But
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: I guess there's just nothing but confusion surrounding chiggers. Yeah, nothing,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: so chuck. If you want to protect yourself against sugar
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: invasions in your armpits and your underpants bands, what do
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: you do well? If you're working? If you work in
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: your yard and your garden a lot. Um you wear
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: long sleeves, wear pants to you know, cover up as
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: much body as you can physically. Um, you can wear
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: deet if you want, or any other kind of insect repellent.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: This says you can also use sulfur. I've never heard
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: of that. I haven't either. I wonder if you, like,
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: you just burned incense near you or something. I don't know.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: It would smell like bathing egg water. Yeah, oh god,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: your bathe in like you know what? Just I will
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: never ever try because I hate pickled things anyway. But
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: pickled eggs they're they're not bad. They're usually a little
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: too sweet. Uh. There's see those things floating in a
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: jar and it's like I feel like I'm in a hospital,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: the like where you found the head. Yeah, the the
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: I think it's the Chinese, probably Japanese and Korean too.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: There's a type of pickled legs where they soak them
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: in a brine like and it's the saltiest thing you
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: will ever eat, and they're mucky and brown. Those are
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: those are not good. The other ones are fine. They're
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: just not they don't taste that great. I think I
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: don't want food soaked in liquid. I think pickled stuff
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: is really good for you. I mean, I hate pickled things,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: but just love pickled every period. Like soaking something in
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: a solution, I just don't want. I don't even like marinades.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: I'm a dry rub guy. Are you really? Yeah? You
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: know I didn't know that about you. Yeah? Yeah, you know,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: like sauces of any kind or is it the pre soaking,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: like pre cooking, soaking that well, pre marinating, I don't like.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: I mean, if you're if you have a quality French
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: saucier at your disposal, I'll take a little, alright, but
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: put it on the side in a plastic cup. But
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: I don't. I don't like. There was this place near
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: Emily Shop that was it's now closed. I kind of
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: feel bad for saying this, but I think I know why.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: Because they used too much sauce. Dude. They had this
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: delicious crispy, crispy fried chicken that they dumped this gravy
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: sauce on top. They never just put it on the side, No,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: and by the time it got to the table, it
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: wasn't crispy fried chicken anymore. I just don't get it, huh.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I'll I'll eat a sauce if it's yeah,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: what you're describing as smothered chicken, that's totally different. But
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: it was fried. Huh, fried and smother can't do that.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: Those two things are never supposed to come together. Um,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: if you want to see if you have chiggers on
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: your property, um, Tracy says, you can take a piece
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: of black paper, black construction paper, maybe from your child, right,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: give me that, stupid kid, and go out and lay
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: it on the ground, uh, near where you think there
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: might be chiggers, and you might see little tiny, tiny
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: red things. She doesn't just say that. She says to
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: take a piece of paper and defy physics by standing
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: it up on its edge. Is that what she says?
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: And then the chiggers will follow their natural urges and
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: climb to the top of the paper. Like what world
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: does Tracy living? Well? And I mean you're you know,
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: you're in the grass. You can stand a piece of
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: paper up in the grass. Maybe, yeah, not if you
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: take care of your grass. This isn't like that Twilight
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Zone episode where Darren from the Which like flips the
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: coin and it lands on its side. Oh man, you
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: know what happened in Pe in college. One time my
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: pe teacher basketball teacher threw a pen, remember the paper
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: mate pens that had the the cap with the just
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: sort of flat top. Yes, he just flipped it up
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: in the air, meant to catch it, didn't. It hit
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: the ground, bounce and landed completely straight up and down
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: on its cap. That's exactly like that Twilight Zone episode.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: He could hear everyone's thoughts after that point. Now, well
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: I dropped that class immediately. That's smart. Come out of here,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: very smart. Where you like which ran out the door
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: and you're doing Satan's work? Oh man, all right, well
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: that's chiggers. Oh we didn't say if you really want
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: to control chiggers in your yard, just take care of
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: your yard. They will go away. They won't want to
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: hang out there. Yeah, there won't be long stalks of
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: grass for them to climb up to. In quest from
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: that's right. Uh. If you want to know more about chiggers, horrible,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: horrible little things, you can type that word into the
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: search bar how stuff works dot com. And since I
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: said search bar, it's time for a listener. Hey guys,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: I'm a new fan. I must admit I'm getting addicted.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: Recently listened to the Anesthesia podcast, and I heard the
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: listener mail the Harvard student and needed five numbing injections
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: to the nasal cavity to breaking her nose. She thinks
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: she can win up it here. It's not bad. I know.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry. Uh. In one in college, one of my
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: molars became infected. I need a root canal. The day
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: of the procedure that Dennis gave me shots in the gum,
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: which Chuck said was the worst thing ever in life.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: After a few numbing shots, he got to work drilling
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: uh into the infected tooth. Unfortunately he didn't give me enough.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Once he got down to the root, I felt it
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: and it felt awful, so I said to the dentist, Hey,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: I learned the dentist. He then pulled out what must
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: have been the largest needle in existence and gave me
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: a shot directly into the infected root of my school.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: Oh man, I think that has the nose beat O. Uh.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: This made me. She said that she takes pain well,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: she said, but this made me sob uncontrollably. It was
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: ten years ago, and I can still vividly recall the
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: flash of blinding pain when the needle made contact. To
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: make matters worse. That evening, my gum swelled dislodged the
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: temporary crown. I had to go back the next day
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: to have it refitted. So that's my injection story. Like
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: I said, I'm not sure if it's worse than the
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: five in the nose. I'd say both were pretty terrible.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed the read Julie yeaste from Honno
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: Lulu Oaii. It's a lot for that, Julie. Man, I'm
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: making air quotes when I say thanks. That's like scarring,
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: you know, but she'll remember that for the rest of
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: her life. Well, way to go. Uh. If you want
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: to try to gross this out, it's gonna be tough
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: to top that one. But let's keep it going, shall we.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: You can send us an email send it off to
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: stuff podcast at iHeart radio dot com. Stuff you Should
• 32:17
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• 32:20
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• 32:23
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