Tiny Red Bug: Clover Mite Vs Chiggers - Kapture Pest Control

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• Tiny Red Bug: Clover Mites or Chiggers?
• What Are These Tiny Red Bugs?
  • Clover Mites
  • Chiggers
    • How To Control These Tiny Red Bugs
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People commonly mistake chiggers for clover mites due to their similar appearance. Clover mites pose no threat to human health but they destroy lawns and plant foliage whereas chiggers target and consume live skin cells. A few specific qualities including size help distinguish these tiny red bugs from each other. While clover mites are tiny, chiggers are almost invisible.

What Are These Tiny Red Bugs?

Tiny red bugs can start popping up along your window sill, making you curious as to what they are exactly. Clover mites and chiggers are tiny little troublemakers and are easily mistaken because they share the same color and size. The two bugs have significant differences between them and solving this problem demands specific knowledge. Tiny red bugs belong to the arachnid family making them relatives of spiders. The hidden nature of clover mites together with chiggers allows them to attack their hosts without being detected. They may be tiny but chiggers will especially make their appearance known.

Clover Mites

Clover mites are harmless vegetarians within the pest world. Clover mites disregard personal space boundaries while they multiply rapidly. Although these small red bugs pose no threat to humans they can still wreak havoc on gardens and lawns. Clover mites love fertilizer and well-fertilized lawns so when conditions are right, they multiply to numbers in the thousands. Warm weather spells that begin as winter comes to an end encourage the clover mites to venture out. These tiny red bugs can easily fit through window screens and through cracks around windows, doors, and other external openings. Once inside the home, clover mites can quickly increase in their numbers and become a nuisance. While they won’t do any harm, many still do not find it appealing for clover mites to be crawling around their home. If you forcefully try to kill one by smashing it, this tiny red bug will leave a red streak on the surface.

As the name mite implies, clover mites are not insects. Mites are relatives of spiders and ticks. While one of the larger mites, a full-grown clover mite is still slightly smaller than a pinhead and has a reddish-brown body. The big difference between clover mites and other types is their two front legs, which are at least twice as long as their other 6 legs and are often mistaken for antennae.

Chiggers

While clover mites are little, chiggers are even smaller tiny red bugs—substantially so. A clover mite is about 1 mm in size, which is visible to the human eye. Chiggers are less than half that size, coming in at about 1/150 of an inch!

These little parasites are the juvenile form of certain types of mites, and they’re always on the lookout for their next meal—you! While clover mites consume plants, these chiggers specifically target skin cells for their food source.

Their bites usually result in intense itching near your waistline or ankles. Chiggers stay hidden from view but they will still damage your body without you realizing it. The bites stay visible for several days and produce intense itching that lasts for many weeks, which pushes you to the brink of insanity. It’s a common myth that chiggers burrow into your skin but the truth is their bites release certain enzymes that break down your skin cells. If not careful, the intense itching and skin cell breakdown can open the door for infection to set in. Medical evaluation should be sought to stop infections from developing while obtaining proper treatment to alleviate itching.

You can locate chiggers in brush piles that border wooded areas. These creatures usually inhabit regions where small rodents live. Next time you take that hike through the woods or high fields, proceed with caution, knowing that these tiny red bugs are there waiting to hitch a ride on you.

How To Control These Tiny Red Bugs

The tiny size of these red bugs makes them invisible until you find your skin covered with bites from chiggers or discover clover mites accumulating in your window corners. To prevent infestations from forming you must use prevention methods and awareness. You have control over your home environment and a few simple actions can lower the chances of these pests becoming permanent houseguests.

1. Mow Your Lawn Regularly: Chiggers are attracted to high grass and overgrown areas. Cutting grass to below three inches keeps those sections in check.
2. Create a Chigger-Free Zone: Create a barrier between your home and areas of brush using mulch or gravel. This limits chiggers’ ability to easily travel as hot, dry areas can be detrimental to them.
3. Prevention: Protective clothing does not prevent chiggers from entering your property but will help prevent bites when you wear it outdoors and secure your pants into boots. Utilizing two-sided tape to cover the lower part of your pants helps to trap chiggers during walks through infested areas. The tape will capture the chiggers when you walk through areas so they cannot crawl under your clothing.
4. Shower Immediately After Outdoor Activities: Washing your body quickly after being in the chiggers’ favorite environments is an easy way to remove any little straggling pests that might have hitched a ride on your pants leg. The hot water will quickly remove them, sending them down the drain.

Call the Professionals

Using Kapture’s professional pest control services on a regular basis is the best way to protect your property from tiny red bugs like clover mites or chiggers in a safe and effective way. These pests can go unnoticed and are hard to locate. You may notice the chiggers because of the bites you receive but knowing how and where to treat an infestation can be difficult for those who don’t have the proper training. Harmful chemicals can be risky to apply if you have pets and children in your home. Kapture Pest Control is the go-to professional pest control option. We can treat your home and yard with effective treatments that will give you peace of mind. Along with treatments, we monitor your property on a regular basis when you sign up for a protection plan. This is an added benefit to ensure pests and tiny red bugs are taken care of and stay gone for good.

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