What is a CHIGGER??????????
A chigger is a mythological beast of burden used by the Romans to build aqueducts. The Great Wall of China was actually built to keep the chiggers out. Chiggers were also the cause of the dinosaur extinction. They are invisible, invincible, and intrusive! Ok, so some of those things are lies, but what is a chigger? I did a little research to give you a scientific answer that might make your summers a little less itchy.

    nice picture that has nothing to do with the article... enjoy

“Chiggers are the immature stage of certain mites belonging to the family Trombiculidae. More closely related to spiders than to insects, chiggers belong to the class Arachinida, along with scorpions and ticks. The term “chigger” commonly is used to describe the parasitic larval stage of mites in the genus Eutrombicula. These common mites cause most of the itchy, summertime bites that occur after walking outdoors through grassy or brushy areas.”
Taken from : https://insects.tamu.edu/extension/publications/epubs/e-365.cfm

So in summary Chiggers are baby spider/scorpions that live in the grass and bite your private parts because they are rude. I also found out that they do NOT burrow into skin. They just bite you and suck your yummy blood. The best way to prevent chigger bites is to wear bug spray with DEET, wear pants, (I need to remember to do that more), long sleeves, and keep your yard mowed. They don’t like the shorter grass, so keeping a well maintained yard really helps. After you go outside try to take a soapy shower and scrub with a cloth or one of those fluffy scrubber things that my wife has. This will help remove any mites that might be on you before they get too comfortable.