Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-08-27
ALL ABOUT THE "oHIGeER."

As YOU appear to be an adept at telling
your patrons all they ask to be told with
reference TO bugs and other creeping
things, I, as one OF your patrons, would
like to have you let out a little concerning
that excruciating natural product of Texas
known as the chigger. 1t is not large
creature, but it is red-hot, what there is OF
it. 1t has no wings, but as you lately
stated in practical quotation, referring to
another but larger wingless bug, sit gets
there all the same" don't know that the
subject suggested by me could be strictly
classed as an agricultural subject. and yet
l am by no means sure it could not, as we
all understand that there is n 'chigger
weed'' growing upon the prairies of Texas
weed upon which chiggers do most de-
delight to congregate. 1t seems to be q
weed all the chiggers' own, as no other liv-
ing creature appears to have any use tor 1t,
therefore since the chigger weed is the
chiggers' weed, who viii have the hardi-
hood to assert that the chigger does not
raise its own weed2 II it does, then, of
course, the chigger is an agriculturist and
legitimate subject for agricultural litera-
ture l rather think the chigger is an agri-
culturist, for I find it freely admitted to
our Alliance meetings. l am an Alliance
man myself 1 attend the meetings regu-
larry, walking across a mile or so Of prairie
to do it. mention this mile or so of prai-
RE to show how earnestly devoted to the
cause am I. Well, always find the CHG
ger well represented when I get there, and
how could this be thus were the chigger
not an agriculturlstl TRINITY.
Tarrant county, Texas
There are no chiggers in Texas
Don't be startled. Give US time to explain.
The chigger (also written chigre) is small
insect native to the West Indies and South
America-so say our best authorities. It
attacks the feet of man, penetrating the
skin and rearing numerous progeny under
it. Unless promptly removed it is the
cause Of troublesome sores, which, if neg
lected at first, are troublesome to heal (see
Webster).
But there Is an animal here that our peo-
pie enormously call a ''chigger.'' 1t is not
large animaI-not near so large as an ele-
phant-but it is host within itself when
one concludes to take numbers into consid-
Grafton. While individually not so large as
an individual elephant, as we have already
sert that were all the "chiggers" of Texas
thrown together into one mass they would
be larger in bulk than would be all the ele-
plants roaming over our prairies under
similar manipulation. OF course this offers
an argument well calculated to establish the
fact that we have the 'chigger" in numer-
Gus representation.
The ''chigger," so called, is, as such,
strictly confined to Texas, the upper South
ern states and the southern borders of some
of the lower Northern states. You never
hear of it in the lower Southern states east
of the Mississippi river, but you there hear
of something else: the 'red bug" There
are more 'sred bugs to the square inch in
either Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi,
Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and North
Carolina, than there are ''chiggers'' to the
square mile in Texas. The .'red bug'' has
its home anywhere over there, and is al
ways st home to callers-the ''chigger'' Of
Texas has Its home in partially shaded
places only, and while usually at home
when called upon, one don't get into its
company near so often here as do our cous-
ms further east get into company with
their fred bug
To shorten long story, the "chigger'' Of
Texas, and the "red bug Of the Southern