Last summer I bought 4 acres that had a pretty serious chigger infestation. I'm looking for a solution that doesn't include spreading 100s of pounds of poison onto my land. Please help.

Four acres is a lot of of area to treat! Probably the easiest treatment is elemental sulfur at a rate of 5 lbs/ 1000 sqft. I do not know how cheap you can find sulfur but you are looking at about 871 pounds of sulfur to cover four acres. I do not know how well this will work but I think I would try to just treat the acre immediately around my house. Here is a link you might want to read.

Chiggers

Maybe someone has a better idea but that is the easiest method I know of.

Good Luck,
Chad

If you have fire ants you might let them take care of the chiggers for you. Give them a full year unrestricted and then come in to kill the fire ants with one of the methods on the list.

I've heard beneficial nematodes work against chiggers but I don't know anyone who has tried it.

Would guinea hens or chickens work against them?

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David Hall
Moderator
Dirt Doctor Lawns Forum

I don't think any kind of poultry would work, because chiggers are too small to be a tempting meal for a bird. I doubt the birds can see them. Sulfur does a pretty good job, but generally chiggers are only a problem during late May and June. When it gets really hot and dry, the chiggers seem to die off.

We have 20 ac that we just visit & it didn't take us long to discover the worst chiggers we'd ever experienced. We did the ol' scouting thing: pour the powdered sulphur in a sock, tie it off, then 'dust' pants legs, shoe tops, waistline, etc, every time we go to the land & have not had a chigger bite since. Or a tick either. We also powder the dog & she only gets a couple ticks now & then.
Plano Patty

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Plano Patty & Jim