Chigger

This chigger, along with three others, was embedded in my daughter's leg after having been outside a lot the last week. I could see the dark orange color in the center of a swollen area that looked like a mosquito bite. I was able to kill and remove it with its "straw" intact. The chigger creates this straw using its digestive juices and our body's immune response to the juices. The chigger uses it as a makeshift proboscis to feed on the broken down skin cells. Fascinating stuff!