The remedy we had when I was a kid was to seal off their entrance point on the skin with fingernail polish, thereby suffocating them. In the summer in Kentucky I was quite the sight at 11 years old: my blond hair was green from all the chlorine in the swimming pool, my nose was red and peeling, and I was spotted with at least a dozen red nail-polish chigger-holes. No wonder I got all the girls.