THE IRRITATING HARVEST MITE OR 

 ''JIGGER." 



Fis. 8(1. The Irritating Harvest Mite ("Jigger") on right; tlio American Har- 

 vest Mite on left. Greatly enlarged. After Riley. 



The riglit-hand figure in the accompanying iluistration is a fair 

 representation of a niicroscoijic pest, a mite, not a true insect, which 

 causes human beings more suffering in proportion to its size than any 

 insect. Dr. Lugger, way back in 1896, speaks of them as "iiot common 

 in Minnesota," but if his statement is correct, they certainly have 

 been on the increase since then, for now a picnic party enjoying a sum- 

 mer (lay almost anywhere in our wooded areas is almost sure to be 

 more or less afflicted, and to pay for its pleasure twenty-four or thirty 

 hours later, a tax not anticipated. As a result of the attacks of this 

 mite red blotches from. the size of a nickel to that of a half dollar 

 appear on the skin, accompanied by an intolerable itching. This in- 

 flammation may last for several days, driving the sufferer to distrac- 

 tion. After a while it gradually disappears. The unfortunate victim 

 ascribes it frequently to "rash" or "hives" or "poison ivv," not real- 

 izing that it is the work of a tiny animal, barely visible to the naked 

 eye, which lives normally upon low plants in shady places, and is rarely 

 found in localities well exposed to the sunlight. But let a warm 

 blooded animal frec|uent places where they are found, and, to use a 

 slang expression, "there's something doing"' for these tiny creatures 

 c|uickly forsake their vegetable diet for one of blood. In the case of 

 human beings the skin, easy of access, is attacked, and those with tend- 

 er skin are the chief sufferers. 



