On Sunday I was able to join all the army wives, girlfriends, and children awaiting their missed soldiers while they were at SERE training. The kids were dressed in red, white, and blue and "Daddy is my Hero" t-shirts. Welcome homes are always great days. Jareth completed the entire training and was awarded a coin as seen above and a certificate of completion. With these, the only other souvenirs he brought back were the memories that will forever embed his mind and a horrible case of chiggers.
What are Chiggers?
Chiggers are juvenile Harvest Mites. They are tiny — measuring about 1/100th of an inch — six legged, and red.
Chiggers are related to ticks, and belong to the arachnid family. In the United States, they are primarily found in the South, Midwest and Southeast during the warm summer months.
The reason why this mite’s bite is so legendary is that the red, itchy welts they inflict on their unsuspecting prey seems an impossibility for such tiny creatures. For anyone who has suffered a full scale chigger attack, they can attest to the power of its bite. One common myth about the chigger is that they feed on human blood. Actually, the chigger’s diet consists of liquefied human skin cells. Only the juveniles of this particular type of mite feed on humans and animals, and once they have gorged themselves (and survived the attack), they drop to the ground and continue their cycle of life as vegetarians.
This is just an example picture but don't be fooled- Jareths were very similar from knee to ankle!
source: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-chiggers.htm & http://images.rxlist.com/images/SlideShow/bad_bugs_s17.jpg
1 comment:
Cool coin!
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