what the F are CHIGGERS???

Here's a picture of my Mom's foot, currently covered in Chigger bites:

Disgusting, right?? And this was taken more than a week after the fateful incident. We went hiking / camping the weekend before last (I liked it, minus the ridiculously hot temperature inside the tent - how cute am I with my little doggie backpack?):

and when we came out of the woods and Mom took off her socks at shoes, she had little tiny black dots all over her legs and feet. She then noticed the dots were MOVING and needless to say, freaked out. The little buggers wouldn't come off, and apparently got lots and lots of biting done before she was able to scrape them forcibly from her skin. You can see the line where her sock ended and the bug spray began... and YES, she says they itch as bad as they look, probably worse. Despite having been to the Dr., who informed her the little buggers must have been CHIGGERS, and gave her a prescription, and the many many applications of calamine lotion and hydrocortisone cream and benadryl and claritan and ice packs and oatmeal rubs and alcohol and aloe... she still itches.

Moral of my story: don't go into the woods in coastal NC in July. It's just a bad idea.