Everything You Should Know about Chiggers in Bed

Your bed is your comfortable, safe sleeping zone where you retire after a long stressful day. So, when you go to bed you expect to have a relaxing and enjoyable sleep without disruptions. Regrettably, bugs like chiggers can make your bed very uncomfortable and your sleep very unpleasant.

If you’ve discovered chiggers in your bed and you don’t know what to do, here is everything you should know about chiggers in bed.

Can Chigger Live in Your Bed?

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Also referred to as trombiculidae, harvest mites, berry bugs, red bugs, scrub-itch mites, and bush mites, Chiggers are tiny six-legged wingless organisms belonging to the family of mites. When the larvae mature it becomes a mite. These bugs are commonly found in garden weeds, tall grass, and indoors.

The chiggers’ larvae bite causes severe itching and blisters (vesicles) and hemorrhage into the skin. This kind of internal bleeding is referred to as purpura. These arachnids prefer to hide in shady and humid environments. So, you are likely to have chiggers in your bed if you sleep in a dark, humid room like the basement.

Their tiny legs have claws that enable them to cling to warm, humid walls and fittings in your bedroom. They’ll eventually find their way to your bed and attach themselves to your skin. When they bite you, they inject saliva into your skin, causing itching and blisters.

Their saliva carries digestive enzymes that’ll liquefy your skin cells, causing severe itching. As your body reacts to these enzymes, your skin will develop a rash characterized by reddish bumps that resemble welts, pimples, blisters, or hives. These bites usually happen around your crotch, back of the knee, waistline, or ankle.

Unfortunately, the claws on their feet enable them to stay attached to your skin for several days as they draw blood. Therefore, you’re likely to carry chiggers from the fields to your bed. Once chiggers latch onto your skin, they can remain attached to you for about three days before they drop off and continue with their next stages of life.

In most cases, these bugs stay attached to humans for one to two days because of the severe itching and scratching triggered by the bite. Regrettably, even a single is long enough for you to transport these bugs home and into your bed. The good news is that since chiggers can only thrive in shady, humid environments, they won’t survive in your bed for a long time.

Experts claim that chiggers can’t survive in a typical bed for over five days because it bedroom doesn’t offer them a conducive environment to thrive. Unless you sleep in a basement that floods regularly, you can rest assured that the chiggers that find their way into your bedroom will be gone in a short while. However, make sure you don’t carry chiggers from your backyard or garden into your home by following the right steps to control chiggers.

For instance, you can remove the tall grass and weeds in your backyard or the kitchen garden, and drain any stagnant water around the house to make the conditions around your house unfavorable for chiggers to complete their life cycle. So, if something continues to bite you in bed even after you’ve ensured that the environment in your bedroom is unfavorable to chiggers, then the most likely culprit is a bed bug. Unlike tiny mites, bed bugs thrive in bedrooms.

If you really want to keep chiggers away from your bedroom, you need to ensure that your pets don’t carry the tiny mites into the house. So, if you have your dog or cat running around the backyard all day and don’t do anything to prevent it from bringing bugs into your house, you’ll always have chiggers lurking around. Sadly, chiggers are too tiny to be spotted with the naked eye.

Since chiggers are the larval version of mites, they are difficult to see with your naked eye.

Therefore, you have to take preventive measures to control them and keep them away from your bedroom. To know if there are chiggers in your bed, follow these quick steps:

• Check your skin for red welts because they are the initial sign of chigger bites.
• Check your skin for chiggers. Although these bugs are too tiny to be seen with the naked eye, you can know if you have them on your skin if you experience prolonged and unexplained itching and blisters.
• Check your clothes and bedding for signs of bugs and mites.

How to Get Rid of Chiggers in Your Bed

As noted above, chiggers are too tiny to be spotted with the naked eye. Therefore, if you really want to get rid of them in your bedroom, you have to apply extraordinary tactics like removing all your clothes and taking a shower as soon as you arrive home from the field before you even get to bed. This will help you to get rid of any chiggers that may have latched onto your skin or clothes throughout the day.

If you have pets that live inside your house and have access to your bedroom, make sure they are thoroughly disinfected when they are coming into the house from the woods. You can also discourage them from going out of the house if you suspect there are mites in your backyard. If you suspect there are chiggers in your bed, disinfect the entire bedroom, bed, and bedding.

You should also disinfect your whole house and fittings to get rid of any chiggers that might escape your bedroom. Secondly, always keep everything in your house, particularly in your bedroom clean to make it hard for these bugs to survive. Clean your bedding and sanitize the bed and other furniture in your bedroom regularly.

Since you don’t know when chiggers will cling onto you or your pets, it’s important to spray the interiors of your house with an effective insect repellent, especially your bedroom. This will kill any mites that latch onto you out there. You should avoid areas you suspect to have chiggers like your backyard, garden, park, wooded areas, areas around water sources, etc.

When you are washing your clothes and bedding, use hot water and strong detergents that will kill any mites attached to them. Chiggers can also attach themselves to your mattresses, couches, box spring, and carpets. So, always vacuum these items regularly to remove any mites attached to them.

Scrubbing yourself thoroughly when taking your daily showers will help to remove any chiggers latched onto your skin. Chiggers don’t like to be exposed to the direct heat from the sun, so basking in the sun after taking a shower will help to get rid of the itchy bugs. If your daily work involves walking in the fields, make sure to wear protective gear like boots, long pants, long-sleeve shirts, and gloves to prevent chiggers from latching onto your skin.

These protective clothes should be thoroughly cleaned and dried before they are stored away from the main house. Keep them in the garage or store them away from your living room or bedroom. Lastly, always apply chigger-repellent lotion on your skin before venturing out into the fields, especially if you suspect that there are chiggers in your backyard.