Myths about chiggers are widespread. Many believe chiggers are some type of bug. Folklore tells us they burrow under our skin and die, that they drink our blood and that they can best be killed by suffocation with nail polish or bathing with bleach, alcohol, turpentine or salt water. Surprisingly, all these popular facts are just plain wrong. Chiggers are not bugs or any other type of insect.
Mites are arachnids, like spider and scorpions, and are closely related to ticks.
More than a thousand of them could line up across this page and still leave room for two or three hundred more. At this size, chiggers are almost invisible to the unaided eye. However, when several chiggers cluster together near an elastic waistband or wrist watch they can be seen because of their bright red color. An engorged, well-fed chigger changes to a yellow color. Although adult chigger mites have eight legs, the troublesome young chiggers has only six.