THE HARVEST MITE OR "JIGGER" 309 



Control. Where cats and dogs are absent there is not much 

 danger of serious trouble. If pets are kept, a rug or mat should be 

 provided for the animal to sleep on, and this should be given 

 frequent shakings and brushings. Bedding where pets have 

 slept which is suspected of harboring these bisects should be 

 burned. In badly infested houses where carpets are used, these 

 should be taken up and the floors washed thoroughly with hot 

 soapsuds, the cracks being sprayed with gasoline or kerosene. 

 General cleanliness, thorough ventilation of rooms, and the use of 

 insect powder, repeated if necessary, as well as the use of the 

 vacuum cleaner, all tend to keep down this pest. Rugs are 

 always preferable to carpets in a house, for evident reasons. Upon 

 the cat or dog itself pyrethrum powder may be used, rubbing it 



FIG. 317. The irritating harvest mite, or "jigger," on right. The American harvest mite 

 on left. Greatly enlarged. (After Riley.) 



into the hairs of the animal. Bathing with a solution of creolin 

 according to directions on bottles is a means of killing the pests 

 and is, for a time, repelling. 



The Harvest Mite, or "Jigg er -" This is an eight-legged 

 animal when mature. It has only six legs during the larval stage, 

 but is not a true insect. It is frequently called "jigger "or " chigger," 

 and was given the name of "Leptus irritans" by Riley. Its life 

 history is at present a matter of investigation. It lives on low 

 vegetation in more or less wooded areas, and must be dependent 

 upon vegetable tissues, although plants are forsaken immediately 

 for a warm-blooded animal when opportunity affords. This mite 

 (Fig. 317) is not to be confounded with the so-called " jigger flea" 

 or " chigoe" (Sarcopsylla penetrans Linn.), the female of which 

 burrows into the flesh of the host. 



