Whats biting me?
By Buttons
United Kingdom 
From late may I notice some plants have black eggs on the very top which look like black caviar. Ants crawl over them.The only plants that seem to have it were three Honeysuckle and some mini fruit trees. This year after I noticed it I cut them right back. I have come back from holiday and I still got biten badly and so does my dog,
The dog gets little orange marks where he has been biten and its very itchy and sore. The vet told me it looks like its Harvest Mites known as "chiggers". Can anyone tell me how to get rid of it. Third summer in a row its happened but have lived here 10 years. Please help!. thanks.
31 Jul, 2009
Answers
As we all get ticks whenever we venture into the forest here, especially the poor dogs, we regularly give them a product called 'Frontline'. This poisons all insect pests like fleas and ticks, so I'd guess it would work with harvest mites too.
In the garden I suffer all the time with bites which seem to come from small black flies, or worse from horse flies which draw blood when they bite.
1 Aug, 2009
i think the black structures are not linked to the bites. the ants were probably on black fly as they 'harvest' honey dew from all aphids.
chiggers are a tiny red spider-like creature. the larva [6 legs]burrow into the skin and kill a cell and feed on the cell contents. [not blood suckers despite being red in colour]. it is the response to the chiggers saliva / enzymes that cause the itch. the adults have 8 legs and are vegetarian.
if you have found them then you have to wash your clothes in a hot wash or have them dry cleaned. a cold wash wont kill them.
they are found in very localised areas within a garden. Apparently within a yard distance there can be one colony and then nothing else. I did a google and found then interesting in a gross way. cant suggest anything for the poor dog though. couldnt the vet suggest anything?
1 Aug, 2009