CURSE OF THE CHIGGER
Rex Burress
A conversation was occurring in the Feather River Nature Center about tiny insects and things that bite. That's the first question asked about practically any animal by the uninformed! “Can it bite?” Well, if its got a mouth, it can bite!
Most wild animals aren't out to bite you, though. In fact, a little gentleness will incline them to be friendly, or at least acceptive of your presence, unless it's an unusually hungry leopard! There are exceptions, and the animals more inclined to bite or sting are small species.
I had retold the story about smashing tiny spiders on the desktop in the Nature Center, and being bitten by the defending mother, and docent Carol told of a brilliant scarlet 'spider' the size of a pinhead on a friend's face that made a red stain when smashed! “Might be a mite,” I said and dove into my books.
The creatures of the grass root jungles are more exotic and quaint than life on earth that we can see standing up, because to crawl around on the ground with a magnifying glass is to see minute creatures of the invertebrate world that normally we don't know exist. Ninety-eight percent of living animals are invertebrates! It's a good thing they are small: there just isn't enough room for anymore dinosaurs!
That 'spider' of Carol's story, was a Red Clover Mite [Baryobia practiosa] larvae, that is bright red, becoming brownish as it matures. There are about 32,000 mite and tick species that are invertebrates of the Arthropod phylum, Class of Arachnids, Order of Acarina. The bulk of mites are free-living in the soil and populations may number several million per acre. They are generally good for the soil. Hence, herbicides are not good for the soil.
There is a species of mite in Southern California, although barely visible with eight small legs, that is the fastest organism on earth! Speed is measured with electronics capturing body lengths per second [bl/s], and the mite registered 322, faster than the Cheetah that has 16 bl/s! That's good enough for fastest mammal, but an Australian Tiger Beetle [Cicindela] is faster, in fact, it is the fastest running insect on earth, at about 170 bl/s. Humans register: 6 bl/s! Due to size, though, man can catch a beetle, but barely outrun a Mamba snake.
There are other Acarinas not so good for man. One is the Chigger, [Trombicula] most prominent in the humid Southeast and Midwest. The miniscule misery maker of itch, is practically invisible; in fact, my country grade school went on a project to give a program to the Central School up town in Trenton, Missouri—up on their big stage and all, and one of the performances was Rex Burress reciting the poem, “The Chigger is Invisible,” without a script, too! Centenarian Frank Scaggs heard it and pinned me as a future famed speaker! How embarrassing!
There was no doubt chiggers were the bane of my life; the two-week itch is severe. Imagine my joy when I got to California and found out there were no chiggers in the summer-dry grass! I plunged into the fields in joy in what must have been reminiscent of John Muir's sudden realization of plant families being related by sexual anatomy—a discovery that sent him running berserk into the fields examining plant parts!
However, California had plenty other creatures to avoid—ticks, mosquitoes, hornets, and a full palette of various biters and botanical baddies to keep you alert. Watch!
“One thing worse than self-hatred is chiggers.”--Edward Abbey