I hate chiggers.  I want them all to die.  We used to go to Kansas every
summer and I had this thing about being barefoot.  I loved it.  And of
course, being young and stubborn, I couldn't understand why every one told
me to keep my shoes on.  Then I found the chiggers.  Or they found me.  You
can see where they have buried themselves in your skin.  I found a few ways
to kill them.  The most common is to paint clear nail polish over the area
that they are at and let them suffocate.  Pretty much anything with a
strong odor that will stay on seems to work.  Even a period of time with
fingernail polish remover works.  Personally I would think the nail polish
would be safer.  Going to higher elevations works every time.  Whenever I
would go back home they never could make it home with me.  Hot water
immersion is supposed to help.  It never helped me.
 
Malikah (my 5 year old daughter) and I were taking our two girls for a walk
over to the park.  On the way we ran into this older gentleman.  He asked
us if those were weasels.  I told him he was close and said they are
ferrets.  Then he comes up asking my daughter what their names were.  Well
they are both crawling on her and as if on cue when she points and says
this one is Minerva, Minerva gives her a kiss and then she says this one is
Frumpstiggle, then Frumpstiggle gives her a kiss.  It was too cute.
 
Then he asks if he can pet popsicle.  I almost lost it.  It was hard trying
not to laugh.  Malikah was looking at this man like he was insane.  I told
him that he could and you could obviously tell he was nervous about it.
But as soon as he started petting Frumpstiggle she turns to his hand.  Poor
guy gets a panicked look like she's going to rip his entire hand off and
she starts kissing him.  This big slow smile spread over his face.  Then
after that we had to stand there letting him pet them and answer all the
questions (are they good pets, what do you feed them, are they litterbox
trainable) I think he honestly fell in love with them.  When we put them
back down and they both started wardancing he just giggled and giggled.  I
bet there's going to be a new ferret owner in my neighborhood.
 
Beth, Minerva & Frumpstiggle the marsh wiggle
in Denver, Colorado
[Posted in FML issue 2435]