What a pretty log cabin bed
& breakfast!!!
We stayed here recently while looking at land in Tennessee. Lovely weekend. Lovely land. It would be a wonderful place to retire, but, then on second thought, so is North Carolina, my adopted home state.
What brought us to Tennessee? A mailer. We responded to an ad about lake front lots for sale, called Jason and made our reservation for as early as possible, 3PM. The cheap lots (waterfront and beautiful for $29k) were all sold at 9AM. Our appointment was for 3PM… by then the only lots available were so tilted I wouldn’t want to build on them – and I’d be afraid to walk on them!!! One mis-step and you’d roll down the hill into the water!!!
Actually, there were 110 lots total, by 3PM, there were 80 sold. Many of the lots remaining were over $100k, one with spectacular views of both the lake and the Great Smoky Mountains – was listed for a mere $400k.
We had a great time though. The log cabin B&B was great, breakfast was delicious each morning. Sunday morning we met a Polish lady who happened to have that very B&B listed in her Polish travel guide! As our conversation continued I discovered that she is a travel journalist for National Geographic’s Traveler magazine (Polish version). What a GREAT job!
I got ate up by chiggers our last day in TN. Maybe I sat on a “nest” of the newly hatched critters. A short time later, the backs of my knees began to itch. I mean really itch. Much worse than a mosquito bite. By mid-morning I had about 25 to 30 bites between my knees and hips, with 8 to 10 behind each knee.
Needless to say, I took my pants off in the car because it seemed I was continuing to be bit, even when I couldn’t see what was biting me! Later that evening, and all the next day the itching was unbearable. And, the backs of my knees were so swollen I could not stoop or squat.
Monday evening I went to the walk in-clinic, and before leaving I got a steroid shot… it helped a lot!!! It’s 10 days later, and they’re mostly healed now, but still get itchy sometimes.
Look them up online – nasty critters – larvae state of a mite – related to scorpions and spiders. They bite like a tick, their spit liquifies your cells, which they slurp up, the body fights it by creating a tube called a stylostome around the liquified cells. The reaction to the stylostome is what causes itching. You never feel the bites, only the itch, and that starts only after many minutes of “slurping.” yuck!!!
“It may give you some consolation to know that when a chigger is removed before it has fully engorged, it cannot bite again and will eventually die. Seems only just, doesn’t it?” (Taken from the Missouri Department of Conservation site, link provided above.)
For those of you who are tech savvy, and able to use the photo to get the name of the B&B we enjoyed so thoroughily, PLEASE KNOW THAT I HAVE NO REASON TO ASSOCIATE THOSE NASTY CHIGGERS WITH THE WONDERFUL B&B EXPERIENCE WE HAD. Most likely the chiggers who dined on me were picked up while tramping through lake front lots, pasture land, and woodlands searching for the perfect lot on which to build a retirement home. I absolutely, in a heartbeat, would return to the B&B for the great company, food, and scenery. And my husband agrees! : )
What an interesting story, too bad it came three weeks too late! I’m new to this area and the only part of my body where these ugly little creatures have not taken over is my tongue! All along I was blaming my dogs thinking they were flea bites but the only difference was the persisting itching! A neighbor mentioned the “chigger” name and believe me I have learned the full extent of the real meaning of the word!
So live and learn: No longer will I admire those little white flowers nor enjoy walking amid the tall grasses around the area! I heard of some solutions to stop the itching: dub alcohol on the bites(it will hurt for a minute vs a couple days of itchness), apply nail polish on the bites or dab them with alcohol, at this time I will partioned my body on thirds and try each one!
Comment by Maria Legler — September 19, 2008 @ 1:47 am
Update: So, a few days later I got that steroid shot, it helped some. But now I’ve got an atrophied area on my behind… how lovely! It seems, according to some web research, that it will pass, but let’s see, chigger bites were in July… it’s late September. The steroid related atropy on my behind, and still the purplish areas behind my knees, where most of the bites occurred.
I found that a topical ointment worked best, Lanacort, I applied a few times a day. Ice also felt WONDERFUL!
Comment by ladyonaquest — September 23, 2008 @ 1:51 am