BS: CHIGGERS

Subject: CHIGGERS
From: vikinglass
Date: 03 Jan 00 - 09:34 PM

Once upon a time in a genealogy chat room, there was a man from the land of Oz who knew not what chiggers were. Are there any songs with chiggers in them? I know what they are and how they feel when they bite.....you creative folk may need to write a song if there are none out there. Just think of the potential of such a song.

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: Barry Finn
Date: 03 Jan 00 - 09:56 PM

Don't know a Chigger from a Jigger, would this count:

Hog-Eye Man

"Oh, I won't wed a nigger, no, I'm damned if I do
He's got jiggers in his feet an' he can't wear a shoe"

Barry

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: paddymac
Date: 03 Jan 00 - 11:41 PM

Well, Dear Barry, the kindest thing I can say about your attempt at humor is that it is a flop. You've done much better at other times.

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: MarkS
Date: 04 Jan 00 - 12:09 AM

These have got be among the most unlovely creatures on earth,and the most undeserving of having a song written about them. May whoever writes such a song have a bundle of Spanish Moss shaken over his bed!

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: Bert
Date: 04 Jan 00 - 10:35 AM

When I was living in Alabama I had friend who was allergic to the little buggers. His legs would swell up badly so he goes along to the quack. Now the doctor gives him some bright purple stuff to put on them. This is OK, and helps a lot. 'Till his girlfriend arrives from out of town, sees the tube of ointment in his bathroom, and recognizes it as the stuff they use for crab lice.

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: KathWestra
Date: 04 Jan 00 - 10:37 AM

I have a friend who insists (tongue firmly planted in cheek) that we really ought to be calling them "subdermal Americans".

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: Áine
Date: 04 Jan 00 - 10:55 AM

Hi guys! I found a song about chiggers and it even has a sound file:

http://www.writetrak.com/chigger.2001.html

Sorry I can't do the 'blue clicky thing', but my C drive died last night and my html notes were on it.

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: Áine
Date: 04 Jan 00 - 11:02 AM

Here's another one from the Camp Fire Girls Songbook:

The Chigger

(Tune: Polly Wolly Doodle)

Oh, there was a little chigger
And he wasn't much bigger
Than the head of a tiny pin.
But the bump he raises
Just itches like the blazes,
And that's where the scratch comes in.
But the bump he raises
Just itches like the blazes,
And that's where the scratch comes in.

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: Gary T
Date: 04 Jan 00 - 02:44 PM

Assuming Barry was quoting a verse (presumably from "Hog-Eye Man"?) to answer the question raised, I think it's a safe bet that the "jiggers" in the song is simply a variant of "chiggers".

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: Barry Finn
Date: 04 Jan 00 - 02:59 PM

Thanks Gary T, it was a verse from Hog-Eye Man & not knowing what a Jigger or a Chigger is I figured it may be something that was being asked about. Sorry paddymac, it wasn't an attempt at humor only trying to help. Barry

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: paddymac
Date: 04 Jan 00 - 06:35 PM

Barry - You are a fine gentleman. I'm not normally given to the "PC" thing, but the more that I've learned about the history of the irish people around the globe, the more "sensitized" I seem to have become toward similar treatment of other peoples.

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: vikinglass
Date: 04 Jan 00 - 08:39 PM

Thanks to all who contributed to this deep and meaningful thread. I never knew there were any songs about chiggers. I'm a new mudcatter and thought I would take a stab at starting a new thread. Who knows? I might get hooked on this site.

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: paddymac
Date: 05 Jan 00 - 01:10 AM

Any sentient lass, viking or other, is always welcome here.

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: Metchosin
Date: 05 Jan 00 - 01:56 AM

What are "chiggers" and what do they do to you that requires the dreaded "blue ointment"? Are they what we call "no-seeums" up here in more northerly climes?

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: Gary T
Date: 05 Jan 00 - 08:42 AM

No, "no-seeums" (as I understand) are flying insects, like tiny gnats. Chiggers are tiny mites (arachnids, not insects) that burrow into the skin and cause itching, raising a small (approx. 5 mm) red bump. The critters are typically picked up in grassy/woody areas, and are not visible to the unaided eye. It's typical of a weekend camping trip to get home and find that several of them have taken advantage of the free food and lodging that your body provides them.

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: KathWestra
Date: 05 Jan 00 - 10:50 AM

Gary T.'s description is accurate. They're also mostly Southern, warm-lovin' little critters. I grew up in Michigan and never heard of them, much less experienced their effect (which is HELL). My first close encounter was on a birding trip in Virginia. Once you've met these l'il guys, you'll never forget them!

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: Bert
Date: 05 Jan 00 - 11:16 AM

here

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: paddymac
Date: 05 Jan 00 - 11:45 AM

Bert - Thanks for the great link. It should be very informative and helpful to "all ya'all what don't live heah in the south."* The best preventative I've found is yellow sulfer powder, usually available at any drug store. Just dust yourself around the ankles, waist, wrists and neck. Avon's "Skin So Soft" is also claimed to be effective. I know it's good in re skeeters, but I can't testify to its efficacy in re chiggers.

* for those who might not speak "southern," the phrase "all ya'll" is the plural form of "ya'll," which a linguist would probably term a "collective singular noun". *BG*

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: vikinglass
Date: 05 Jan 00 - 10:01 PM

Paddymac and all ya'll interested in knowing another preventative remedy for chigger bites: my granny used to soak rags in kerosene and wrap them around her ankles and wrists when she went blackberry picking. All ya'll know how blackberry pickin' can be, right?

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: Banjer
Date: 06 Jan 00 - 05:20 AM

From somewhere in my distant dusty memory bank I recall a part of a ditty that went something like:

You'll find no chiggers on me,
You'll find no chiggers on me
You may find a lot of chiggers
On a lot of other figures,
But you'll find no chiggers on me!

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: Midchuck
Date: 06 Jan 00 - 08:55 AM

This thread produced an association from many years ago: Oscar Brand's song "The Old Gray Bustle." (A parody of The Old Gray Bonnet, of course.)

One verse went:

Put on that old green ointment
The Crabs' disappointment
And we'll kill the bastards where they lay!

'Though it burns and itches
It'll kill the sons of bitches
In that good old fashioned way!

Sorry.

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: Bert
Date: 06 Jan 00 - 10:21 AM

I don't know whether they are 'mostly Southern' Kath, or it's something to do with the fact that folks up north WEAR SOCKS;-)

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: vikinglass
Date: 06 Jan 00 - 07:57 PM

Bert, hardy har har.....only you sophisticates from the North would think of wearing socks.

Banjer and Midchuck....great job with the chigger songs. Keep 'em comin'

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: paddymac
Date: 06 Jan 00 - 11:18 PM

Vikinglass - Ahhh, blackberry pickin'. Hot & sweaty stoop labor, but well worth it for the jams & jellies and pies and wines and brandies. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: vikinglass
Date: 06 Jan 00 - 11:21 PM

weee doggies........you gotta be suthern to know 'bout that

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: Banjer
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 06:02 AM

I read into this thread that chiggers could be thought of as a 'Yankee tourist detterent' Wouldn't surprise me at all if some enterprising 'Sothron gentleman' didn't start breeding them as a cash crop!!

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 07:41 PM

I think some "chigger" songs started off as something else. The original verses of OH, SUSANNA in the database might offend, so this is what I found in Ronald Herder's 500 Best-Loved song Lyrics:

When I jumped aboard the telegraph
And travelled down the river,
The electric fluid magnified
And killed five hundred chigger.

When the bullgine bust, the horse run off,
I really thought I'd die,
So I shut my eyes to hold my breath,
Susanna, don't you cry.

Seems to fix the song pretty well, without being TOO euphemistic.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: Mary G
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 02:19 AM

re: blackberry picking....I know how to do it pretty painlessly...and I don't even like them but what they heck they are free for the picking here...they are the northwest equivalent of kudzu..

simple...just take your pruning shears with you..shear as you go...pick the close clumps, clip the branch and go further in...of course from each dropped branch another blackberry bush will grow so that is something to consider.. mg

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 02:43 AM

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.

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: roopoo
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 03:34 AM

Funny that Avon "Skin So Soft" got mentioned. An old (89) Wyoming woman I met in 1992 in a sheep shearing shed full of mozzies recommended it as an insect repellent: '50% skin so soft, 50% water - they cain't stand it!' (Apologies for the attempt at dialect, but I'm only a limey). We are getting more ticks and mozzies in certain areas over here due to climate changes. God forbid we acquire chiggers!

mouldy

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: Banjer
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 04:03 AM

Leej, you are a constant source of wonderment, old man... What happened to all the dead chiggers that you suffocated? Are they still on board? Are you a true 'Chigger Figure'?

Subject: RE: BS: CHIGGERS
From: Banjer
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 04:12 AM

Skin-so-Soft has been used as a very effective insect repellent for as long as I can remember. Of course from what I remember quite a few of those Avon products could repel more than bugs!! Like the time my little brother went out one of his first dates. I think he used a whole bottle of that Wild Country....couldn't get near him for a week!