00:00 Chiggers are terrible and make you itch, and this episode of the podcast is all about them.

04:23 Chiggers are not insects, but rather the larvae of the harvest mite, which are arachnids that liquefy your cells into a slurry that they can drink from a straw made of your body.

08:32 Chiggers are parasitic larvae that feed on skin cells, and they need a complete first meal in order to progress to the nymph stage and grow into adults, but once they bite a person and start itching, they are easily brushed off and die, leaving behind a welt and an itch.

13:01 Chiggers spend hours looking for a good place to feed on human skin because their tiny mouth parts don't pierce skin easily.

17:33 Chiggers bite in areas where they can easily access their mouth parts, such as the back of the knee or armpit, and they are light and temperature sensitive.

21:47 Chiggers don't seek out humans as prey, but rather bite any vertebrate animal they come across, and they are more likely to bite children with thin skin.

26:12 Chiggers inject saliva into your skin that breaks down skin cells and creates a tube, called a stylus stone, which they use as a straw to slurp up your skin cells.

30:35 Chiggers inject saliva into your skin that breaks down skin cells and creates a tube, called a stylus stone, which they use as a straw to slurp up your skin cells, and the persistent itch is caused by your body's reaction to the stylus stone forming a hollow tube of temporary scar tissue in the wound area.

34:50 Chiggers can be controlled in your yard by taking care of your yard and not providing them with long stalks of grass to climb up.

38:51 Injecting an infected tooth with a large needle directly into the root caused intense pain and made the person sob uncontrollably, and the temporary crown was dislodged, resulting in the need for a refitting.