Chiggers Bite Children on Lanyu, Parents Need to Take Precautions
For people living in the city, chiggers really are terrifying little things, because they can be fatal.
The old film "Song of Lanyu" begins its plot with chiggers; a man who went to the island to do research disappeared for many years, and his son came to the island to look for his father, who may have died from a chigger…..
After years of coming and going to Lanyu, I unexpectedly began to have the chance to learn about this little thing called the chigger. That sounds a bit lighthearted, but every time I encounter chiggers I spend several days cautiously and fearfully, and only after the incubation period passes with no symptoms appearing can I finally relax. That is because this little red mite always likes to bite children, which makes me, as a mother, need to worry for several extra days.
I remember that time it was discovered like this.
At the dinner table on Lanyu, the child happened to raise his hand. A sharp-eyed Lanyu friend caught a glimpse of the red bite mark and said with certainty: "He was bitten by a chigger." If not for that reminder, I as his mother would have thought it was just a mark from scratching, and might have missed the treatment and observation because of that.
At first, when I heard it was a chigger, I truly felt enormous pressure inside, because this can be fatal. But the Lanyu friends all seemed relaxed as they chatted about each person's chigger experience, and although on the whole no one mentioned anything urgent, some even said: "When we were little we got bitten all over a lot," which felt a bit like showing off a strong immune system.
But inside I still felt very uneasy, and planned to go see a doctor first thing the next morning. At night I followed the Lanyu method: after the child fell asleep, I gently opened his armpit, shone a flashlight on it, and saw a red dot in the middle of the skin, which was where the chigger had bitten. Then looking very carefully with all my eyesight, there indeed was an extremely tiny bright red dot in the middle, and that was the chigger. I took a thin toothpick and tried to flick it away from the red dot; although it was a toothpick, compared with the little red mite it felt as thick as a wooden post, and it took several tries before I flicked the red dot off, which also woke the child up.
At dawn the next day, I immediately took the child to Lanyu's only hospital, the Lanyu Health Station. The doctor took one look and confirmed it was a chigger bite, but also looked completely unbothered and said: "It's all right, just observe whether there is any fever." The consultation was brief; I asked the doctor many questions about chiggers, and then it ended with receiving a tube of tetracycline eye ointment and a few packets of medicine.
Eye ointment?! Yes, eye ointment, because the way to deal with the chigger virus is tetracycline, and this is also an ointment that can treat some eye infections. After returning I obediently applied the ointment, but did not take the medicine packets, and with several days of observation, only after returning to Taiwan and passing the incubation period with no fever did I lift the alert. This was the first chigger encounter, and although tense, it was fairly simple.
The second time the child encountered it again. This time, besides the armpit, the bite was also on the back of the ear. Because of the previous experience I was no longer so nervous, and I also went to the Lanyu Health Station to get tetracycline eye ointment. But at night, when I again used a toothpick to look for the chigger, it was not smooth at all; because the bite area was very sensitive, it hurt as soon as I touched it, and I still could not get the tiny chigger off, so emotionally I could not relax. Some also said that once bitten by a chigger you become immune, and told me not to worry.
Over the next few days I used the Lanyu way: soaking in seawater to drown the chigger. As soon as afternoon came we went to the seaside to play in the water. It was easy to soak the armpit in seawater, but the back of the ear seemed not so easy, so we splashed water while swimming. Fortunately the weather afterward was suitable for getting into the water to swim, and after soaking in seawater for many days, we also got a deeply tanned skin color. Every night I still tried with all my eyesight to get rid of the chigger, but it was not so smooth; after poking a few times, worried that the bite opening would be hurt, I stopped touching it.
But seeing that the little red dot was still there, I could not lift my tension, and in the afternoon I took him to soak in seawater again. Just like that, repeatedly soaking in seawater and checking for the red dot, many days passed. Only after enduring until the incubation period passed with no fever did the alert finally lift. Compared with last time, when the chigger could not be flicked off, I worried for several more days! It did not reach the point of a black scab, and there was no fever, and the bite opening slowly faded away.
For more professional agricultural technology information, please scan the QR code to follow WeChat: NongXunNET
Please indicate the source when reprinting.