Bugged (bites)

[treevet]

I have been heating my house (and past 2 houses) entirely with wood for over 40 years. I get bit in the process of bringing the wood inside to my IWB add on. Week or two ago I was buried in snow and quit burning for less than a week. The bites stopped. They act just like chiggers in that they hit me in my chest cavity, underarms, but most often on the back of my head in the hair above my neck.

I wheel the wood in from the driveway to the garage and then in the basement to the stove on a wood dolley. That is why I never get bites on my ankles/groin, like I do while doing treework and they come up from the ground. They are coming from my arms and maybe neck while loading the wood I guess.

Anybody else have this going on and if so have any solution. May try putting on some repellent. Chigger bites last forever. Arrrrgh. :-(

 

[zogger]

Never happened to me. Have had real bad ants in wood, just chuck them to the side, maybe resplit the piece, etc, but never any chiggers in wood. Could it be something else? Some dried fungus or moss or something on the wood? I have seen some sort of itchy dried moss before. Not poison ivy vines, a real moss.

 

[Jakers]

i use deet when they become an issue for me. dont have many chigger problems here in MN where i live but when i was working out in the dakotas i ran into a lot of them in the tall grasses. id spray my socks and legs up to my knees before puting on pants then my boots and pants lightly to my waist line. never got a bight after that. kinda sucks to do just for wood hauling but at least you could take a shower right after you are done. i had to wear it for 16 hours before i was done for the day

 

[treevet]

thanks for responses y'all. I have moved my splitting stuff, tw5 and conveyor, this year to a new property and still the issue. I have to assume it is from the ground storage I guess and will have to try the deet like suggested. Blousing trousers has worked in past when I get them while doing tree work. Hard to cover upper openings. Load stove 3x a day.

 

[Whitespider]

My firewood is stacked out in the open... in full sun... that just ain't an environment bug are attracted to.
I move several cord in the basement each fall... never have had a bug issue... heck, don't even see a spider.
I do see the occasional snake, or find an occasional mouse nest as I'm moving it... never any bugs.
*

 

[branchbuzzer]

Never happened to me. Have had real bad ants in wood, just chuck them to the side, maybe resplit the piece, etc, but never any chiggers in wood. Could it be something else? Some dried fungus or moss or something on the wood? I have seen some sort of itchy dried moss before. Not poison ivy vines, a real moss.

I would suspect something along these lines too. Chiggers and other mighty mites are tough to spot for sure, but the way it sounds it's more than just getting bit from insects off the wood, more like an allergic reaction to something. This is like a sure thing every time, and bugs are usually a bit more random.

- Is the wood all the same species and all from the same source
-Are you possibly rubbing your head or neck with your hands ( say wiping sweat ) while you work and not realizing it, transferring whatever it is.
- Something else you are wearing while working like a cap or certain pair of gloves that got contaminated somehow or cleaned with some soap or fabric softener for example.
- People can develop allergies to things as they get older that they didn't have when young

These are probably remote possibilities, but it doesn't hurt to try to narrow it down

 

[Jakers]

funny i didnt catch that earlier too. id say it most like likely would be an allergic too. not to rule out bug bites tho

 

[poloman]

Try throwing down a coating of diatomaceous earth. Make sure you get the kind without added pesticide. This stuff is cheap. It kills insects mechanically and it is harmless to all other kinds of animals including you. Try not to inhale the fine dust though. My guess is that you have some kind of harvest mites. These burrow into your skin and some actually breed there.
Hope this helps...


Live a positive life!

 

[treevet]

You know I went to a doc a few years ago and he gave me some med to put on for allergy but he was not sure and it did not work. The bumps seem so random where they are and in cavities like chiggers that I am almost certain they are bites but not positive. Thought someone else might suffer from this to make me more certain. I am not one prone to allergic reaction and have been cutting for 44 years this year. I am a bit of unusual specimen that at 65 next month I am the sole climber in my 2 man business and still can pretty much do anything.

So years and years of dealing with wood, dead and just cut and in the tree and the only thing I get is chiggers. Cannot see why I would have an allergy related to burning but assume it is insect. I have maybe 4 bites now...2 on the back of my head and 2 in the middle of my chest which goes in a little and they would stop moving there and dig in. I sometimes get them in my armpit area too on the outside...it is a dilemma even more now that no one else gets this on a firewood forum. Gonna try the non allergenic repellent and see what happens.

 

[haveawoody]

treevet,

This is the first year I've noticed being quite itchy after moving some firewood around.
I'm not a great distance from you so I think some new critter in our area, bet with the mild winters chiggers or some odd mite have set up camp.
For me at least it seemed to be much worse in the softer woods I was moving in shoulder season, poplar, silver maple etc.
Now we have had a few real cold snaps the problem seem to either be gone or nearly gone, but then again I'm not moving much softish wood now..

Mites and chiggers hate alcohol so you can get some relief of the itch site and kill them fast with just a tiny amount on the source of the itch.
It's also a very quick way to tell if it's mites because an allergy gets no relief from alcohol, you have to drink it to get relief from it

 

[c5rulz]

Are you sure this itching thing isn't correlated to spending time with shady women?opcorn:

 

[treevet]

I wish!!

 

[TreeTangler]

Does the itching seem to get worse at night?

 

[treevet]

Hey, I know if you guys cut wood you have had chigger bites. If i go in a rough area in a warm season that has weeds and is not kept up...I get chigger bites. This is just like them. It swells up worse than a skeeter bite. You tear at it as it drive you crazy, usually for at least a week. I usually dig my fingernail in em cause the pain is better than the itch. Way worse than PI. Itch all day and all night and if you have enough, you can't get a decent night's sleep. Not so bad now but still...

 

[wampum]

I see you are from Ohio,I am right on the Pa. Ohio line,not far from you.For years I heard of deer ticks and lyme disease but I never saw one.I guess they have been in the mountains for years.This year I noticed a red circle on my wife about 2 inches in diam.At the center was a set of legs.So she went to the Doc and sure enough it was a deer tick.He had a little plastic tool and removed it and gave us the tool.He gave her an antibiotic to play it safe and we went home.About a week latter she had one on the back of her neck.This one was bigger and was not a deer tick.I guess deer ticks are small and a field or wood tick is about double in size.

Since the cold weather set in I have not seen any,but before it got cold I saw one on my pant leg and one on my wife's sleeve.The nurse told us this is the worst year she ever saw for ticks. Be careful if you get a red circle it may be a deer tick.
http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/

 

[woodchuck357]

I would guess an allergy is causing the itch, bugs travel. Around here the critter that likes to hide in firewood is the brown recluse spider, and they seem immune to all bug sprays.