It’s summertime in Florida and that brings many wonderful things like long days at the beach, pool, lake or one of the state’s thousands of freshwater springs.
But summer also brings more bugs, and itchy bug bites from pests like chiggers (also known as red bugs), no-see-ums and mosquitoes. The worst part? You sometimes can’t even see the bugs that are biting you.
Some of them, like chiggers, can even latch onto your shoes, socks and clothes and hitch a ride back inside with you.
Here’s how to tell the difference between mosquitoes, chiggers and no-see-ums by their bites and how to treat and prevent them.
How do you know if you have chigger bites? What is a chigger?
Chiggers are the tiny, parasitic larval stage of prostigmatid mites, also known as harvest mites, according to ScienceDirect, Baptist Health and the Cleveland Clinic. They’re most commonly called “red bugs” by many in the South. This is because when they’re most visible to the human eye as adults, they are typically red. When they’re in their larval stage, you can’t usually see them.
Like bed bugs, Chiggers feed on human flesh and their bites leave behind and itchy and uncomfortable rash. But they don’t burrow into the skin like ticks, so they’re easy to remove.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, identifying factors of a chigger include:
But you aren’t likely to see the nearly invisible pest when it’s biting you or hitching a ride on your clothes.
Rashes from chigger bites are most common around the ankles, behind the knees, at waist level near the beltline and in the armpits, according to Baptist Health. The physical look of chigger bites can vary from person to person, but almost always appear as small, red spots. They can appear raised or flat and look like small acne bumps or blisters.
“Chigger bites aren’t serious, but they can become infected, especially if you scratch them,” Baptist Health says. “Crusting or pus around a bite may indicate the presence of the contagious bacterial skin infection impetigo. Bites can also be the site where another bacterial infection called cellulitis develops.”
What are no-see-ums and why do they bite? What does a no-see-um bite look like?
Another family of invisible pests that plague Floridians every summer are accurately called “no-see-ums,” but are also known as “biting midges” or sand flies.
Unlike chiggers and bed bugs, no-see-ums don’t feed on your skin. Their life cycles and habits more closely resemble those of mosquitoes, as they feed on blood and lay eggs in moist places, such as muddy salt marsh areas.
No-see-ums, like chiggers, are nearly impossible to see with your naked eye. But if you could see them with your naked eye, you’d see that they resemble small, gray, hairy mosquitoes.
“These insects are gray, and their wings are covered with small hairs producing patterns that allow entomologists to identify different species,” pest control company Terminix says.
“Larvae may resemble small, whitish worms or caterpillars. As the nickname ‘no-see-um’ implies, they may be difficult to see with the naked eye, especially when they have not fed.”
A bite from a no-see-um is often slightly more painful than a mosquito bite, but the two bites look incredibly similar. A telltale sign that your bites are no-see-ums and not mosquitoes is if they’re clustered together in groups.
“No-see-um bites often resemble itchy bumps on skin like mosquito bites but aren’t,” pest control company Mosquitonix says. “These tiny pests cut into the skin rather than piercing it, leading to more intense irritation and longer-lasting welts.”
Mosquitoes, chiggers and no-see-ums: How to tell the difference between their bites
With nearly invisible insects like chiggers and no-see-ums, the best way to tell what you’ve been bitten by is by looking at the actual bites themselves.
“If you have a swath of itchy skin lumps that looks like many mosquito bites or welts, it’s a good bet you’re dealing with chiggers,” Everyday Health says.
Mosquito bites are less likely to be grouped like chigger and no-see-um bites. They are characterized by very itchy, raised, red welts, usually ranging in size from a pinhead to a quarter (around one to six millimeters in diameter).
If you have an allergic reaction to mosquito bites, they can appear even larger than that, up to several centimeters in diameter, and even have bruising around the bite site.
Chigger and no-see-um bites are smaller, usually more itchy or painful and are often grouped together in specific places on the body, as mentioned above.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, symptoms of chigger bites include:
Chiggers will attach to your clothing and move onto your skin. You can get a chigger bite if you walk through an area where chiggers live, including:
According to Mosquitonix, there are some of the defining characteristics of no-see-um bites:
How to treat, prevent chigger, no-see-um, mosquito bites
The treatment for these three bug bites is the same. The goal is to soothe the itching and bring down the swelling. This is because scratching, although it may provide temporary relief, can cause more problems and open the door to infection in the long run.
There are several ways to alleviate itchiness from bug bites and find relief.
You can put an ice pack or cold compress on the bug bites for 10 to 15 minutes to reduce swelling and slightly numb the area. It is also recommended to use either topical or oral antihistamines to reduce itching, such as hydrocortisone cream, calamine lotion, or an antihistamine gel (which reduces itching), as well as Benadryl or Claritin.
Prevention for these bites is the same: Use bug repellent containing DEET or picaridin, to effectively keep these biting bugs off of you.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: How do you know if you have chigger bites? How to identify chigger, no-see-um, mosquito bites
Reporting by Lianna Norman, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Florida Today
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
