JP, well bust ma britches, sorry, but I couldn't help but have that hearty laugh when I heard your story, feel kind of sorry for ya (well, sort of, not really, but sort of) :evil:.
I have to say that chiggers sounds something like what I know as scabies. Been in contact with that a couple of times here, having had some particular people come to stay at my house. Scabies is a mite that lives below the surface of the skin, surfacing to feed on the dead skin cells and then going back under the skin (probably to finish off their above-surface meal). The way to rid scabies sounds very similar to that of chiggers. Smothering the dudes, like putting something all over the skin so that they can't surface. I looked in my health book many years ago to see what they look like and man, oh man, are they ever ugileeeeeee!!!! Anyways, the itching from the scabies mite, even after they are smothered carries on for a couple of weeks. We had a child that had them and had been treated for excema for about 6 months before he came to our home. I thought that rather weird. When his itching continued on for a couple of weeks and we became itchy too, I took him to the doctor to see what was up. This doctor said that he had been diagnosed, it was not excema, but scabies. Nasty stuff. Good luck with the chiggeradoo. Have a great, most wonderful day, to love and live, health. Cindi
here's a link to a picture of what this particular hideous little thingy looks like
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scabies