Trombiculosis
Guides
Trombiculidae
chiggers, harvest mites, berry bugs, red bugs, scrub-itch mites, aoutas
Trombiculidae is a family of mites commonly known as chiggers (North America) or harvest mites (Britain). The family includes species whose larvae are parasitic on vertebrates, including humans, causing skin irritation through a unique feeding mechanism. Only the larval stage is parasitic; nymphs and adults are free-living predators. Several species serve as vectors for scrub typhus in East Asia and the South Pacific. The family was formally established by Henry Ellsworth Ewing in 1944, though references to chiggers date back to sixth-century China.