Will Sulfur Eliminate Chiggers in the Lawn?

Chiggers

• To control chiggers, you must know a bit about their behavior and life cycle. Adult chiggers are usually around 1/20 inch at full maturity; they overwinter in overgrown grass and weeds and other protected areas. Once soil temperatures warm above 60 degrees Fahrenheit, adult female chiggers begin laying up to 15 eggs per day each. After emerging from the eggs, developing larvae climb up vegetation to a point at which they can easily attach to a host. Chiggers will feed on their hosts for about four days, then drop off, leaving a red, itchy welt at the feeding site.

Sulfur Chigger Control Recommendations

• The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) recommends several sulfur compounds for application to parts of your body -- not to the lawn -- as an effective chigger repellent. Specifically, the MDC recommends powdered sulfur, which is also called sublimed sulfur or flowers of sulfur and is available at pharmacies and grocery stores. It can be applied to the parts of your body that chiggers are likely to attack, such as the openings of your pants, socks and boots. Sulfur powder can be applied directly to legs, arms and waist. The MDC also recommends a half-and-half mixture of talcum powder and powdered sulfur used to the same effect.

Effectiveness and Problems

• Sulfur used in this manner will not kill the chiggers, nor will it compel them to leave your lawn. It will simply repel the chiggers and deter them from biting people who walk near them. Sulfur compounds can be very effective when used as a chigger repellent, but sulfur has a famously bad odor that, for some, may outweigh its usefulness as a chigger repellent. Sulfur also can irritate the skin of some people, so if you plan to use sulfur as a chigger repellent, it is important to test the sulfur compound you plan to use on a small, inconspicuous part of your skin prior to applying it to clothing or exposed skin. Other common insect repellents used for mosquitoes and ticks also repel chiggers.

Other Control Methods

• Different control methods are needed to actually eliminate chiggers from your lawn.Chiggers persist in overgrown grass and weeds, so keeping grass close cut and eliminating unwanted vegetation can eliminate chigger habitation sites. Insecticides can help control chigger populations: Find chigger "hot spots" by placing squares of black cardboard in various areas of your lawn and observing where chiggers climb up the cardboard. Treat the areas where chiggers seem to be more of a problem than they are in other parts of the lawn, as this will be more effective and efficient than treating the entire lawn. Insecticide chemicals commonly recommended for lawn chigger control include chlorpyrifos, carbaryl and diazinon, but diazinon was phased out for residential use by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2004. Be careful if you choose to use insecticides. Always follow label instructions exactly.