When I did field work, we'd always keep 'sulfur socks' in the back of
the truck when it was warm out. Pour a bag of sulfur in an old long
sock, knot the top of the sock, then beat it against the bottom half
of our legs before setting off across a field.

Never, ever, had chiggers those years. Growing up in Dallas, they were
just part of the summer -- kept mom's (hopefully clear) fingernail
polish handy and off we'd go...but not one bite after acquiring my
first sulfur sock. Hmmm, wonder just whose old sock that was?

I did once get Poison Ivy so bad I had to go to a minor ER...but
that's a different story :)

John

"Rusty Mase" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 18 Jun 2004 16:10:18 GMT, "Chris"
wrote:

BTW, it's not just my confort that is the issue. I have a hairless
dog and
it gets covered in them while doing her business outside. At last
count she
has 32 current bites.

I think the sulfur affects small insects like chiggers and fleas
both
with inhaled sulfur dust and inhaled sulfur dioxide. Most insects
breath through small pores in their sides and cannot escape the
sulfur
fumes. So the stink is part of the cure.

It will not hurt anything that I know of and you can put the dust on
your socks and skin if you want to use it as a repellent. It is
just
that you have to isolate your house from your yard temporarily and
avoid contaminating your other clothes with the stink.

As kids in the 1950's we used to make ourselves insect proof by
getting pharmaceutical grade sulfur, putting it in empty pill
capsules
and swallowing the pills. Of course our body odor was likely enough
to run everything off.

Rusty Mase