REMEDIES FOR JIGGER BITES. 89 



season in the boots or shoes as a protection. Sulphur 

 ointment is also a good remedy against the effects of 

 these mites, though when that can not be obtained, 

 saleratus water and salt water will partially allay the 

 irritation. 



"Their normal food, apparently, consists of the 

 juices of plants, and the love of blood proves ruinous 

 to those individuals who get a chance to indulge it. 

 For, unlike the true jigger, the female of which de- 

 posits eggs in the wound she makes, these harvest 

 mites have no object of the kind, and when not killed 

 by the hands of those they torment, they soon die vic- 

 tims to their sanguinary appetite."* 



An excellent remedy for the bite of these "red- 

 bugs" is the bathing of the affected parts in a very di- 

 lute solution of .carbolic acid one part of acid to 

 fifty parts of water. Diluted alcohol can also be used 

 to advantage. 



In making a side excursion this morning, I got into 

 a tangled mass of young pines, saw palmettos and 

 scrubby undergrowth, which was the worst I ever en- 

 countered. 'Twas a veritable semi-tropical jungle. 

 Long grape vines, smilax of various kinds and other 

 thorn-bearing upright shrubs and twining vines 

 everywhere impeded my progress. For half an hour 

 I tried to force my way out before I was successful. 

 I could not see twenty feet ahead for most of the 



-Amer. Naturalist, VII, 1873, p. 18. 



