The jigger, or chigre is a small flea found in the West Indies and South America. The female burrows under a person's skin, especially beneath the skin of the foot. At first a slight itching is the only indication of the insect's presence, but the jigger's abdomen soon swells up with eggs to the size of a pea, and a painful ulcer is formed in which the colony of young jiggers make a temporary home. Rubbing the exposed parts of the body with tobacco leaves is regarded as a preventive. In the South the same name is applied to the unrelated harvest mites which attach themselves like ticks to the human body and make painful red swellings or "jigger hites."
Jiggers (insects)
The jigger, or chigre is a small flea found in the West Indies and South America. The female burrows under a person's skin, especially beneath the skin of the foot. At first a slight itching is the only indication of the insect's presence, but the jigger's abdomen soon swells up with eggs to the size of a pea, and a painful ulcer is formed in which the colony of young jiggers make a temporary home. Rubbing the exposed parts of the body with tobacco leaves is regarded as a preventive. In the South the same name is applied to the unrelated harvest mites which attach themselves like ticks to the human body and make painful red swellings or "jigger hites."
