This is a view of the the northern section of the East Creek Trail.
When I got back to the hotel after his hike I found 13 seed ticks and one adult tick on various parts of my body.
Seeds tick are not a seprate tick species as many believe they the larval stage of any tick species. Compared to the adult they are tiny, lighter in color and sometimes difficult to see. Immature ticks have only six legs while adults have eight.
I also had more chigger bites than I could count. These itched so bad it was maddening. It took about 3 weeks for the itching ot go away.
This is the back of the patient who was infested with chiggers. Treatment consists of any of the following: 1) topical steroids applied twice daily 2) oral antihistamines. 3) prednisone, 1 mg/kg per day until the itching resolves.
Chiggers do not burrow under your skin, as many people believe, nor do they feed on animal blood. They actually feed on the fluids in skin cells. To get the fluids, they attach themselves to a skin pore or hair follicle and inject a digestive enzyme that ruptures the cells. The enzyme also hardens the surrounding skin tissue, forming a sort of straw for sucking the skin cell fluids. The whole process irritates the skin, causing an itchy red bump that continues to cause discomfort for several days. Chiggers are only about 1/50th of an inch (0.5 mm) in diameter and so are too small to be seen with the naked eye. This invisibility is the reason so many people believe chiggers burrow under the skin.
Source:Howstuffworks.com