jigger

(A)

(also ‘chigger’ or ‘chigger mite’, ‘red bug’, ‘harvest mite’ – scientific name: Tetranychus irritans and T. Americanus — for the right pronunciation of chiggar, please click here)

a jigger/chigger

not an insect but the larval stage of a mite (‘mite’ = a small arachnid, the group that spiders belong to, and closely related to ‘ticks’); orange, yellow or red in colour; 1/20 of an inch, (cannot see it with naked eye; can see only under a microscope); does not live in any animal; does not drink blood, but feeds on (eats) the juicy skin to develop into adults, and so attaches itself to any mammal, including humans, and once fully fed, drops to the ground to undergo the other stages to become an adult ‘mite’ in the soil; 3,000 species throughout the world, mostly found infecting the people of Africa, Asia and southern US & S. America

(B)

(also ‘chigoe flea’, ‘chigger’)

a jigger/chigoe flea

a kind of insect – a kind of flea (scientific name – Tunga penetrans); small and dark; size: only 1 mm long; three pairs of legs (i.e. six legs); no wings; the female flea burrows into feet of mammals, including humans, feeds on the blood of animals, lays eggs (in some species, the eggs drop to the ground, and the other stages of its life cycle take place in soft sand, but in some species the larval stage is also spent in the host animal)

Special Features (?):
These two types – the larvae of the mite and the flea – are very dangerous.

a person’s foot infected with jigger

They infect people by attacking their (mostly) feet and hands; and once they attack, the person attacked suffers a lot. Their presence under that skin is very painful and itchy.

Of these two, the ‘chigger mite’ or ‘red bug’ is less serious, the lesser of the two evils, as it drops off the animal or human it attaches itself to, once it is fed, but the ‘chigoe flea’ is considered a curse!

In some serious cases of ‘chigoe flea’ infection, the fingers or toes of the people infected must be cut off (amputated)!!

The more serious issue in some African countries, such as Kenya and Uganda, the infected persons are condemned as outcasts! The infected persons are more worried about the social boycott than the actually physical suffering!!

Figures of Speech: {only with the word ‘jigger’}

jigger or, more commonly, jig (noun) =

(a)

a coloured person (black) with typical African black features

(b)

a hand-car – a railway carriage operated by hand

jiggers for measuring

(d)

a machine used in pottery

(e)

a measuring hour-glass shaped or box-shaped device used to measure drinks by a bar-tender, usually to make cock-tail drinks

to jigger (verb) = to move or to make something move in jerks, with sudden forward movements

Note: ‘Jigger’ is often used to refer to a person who dances with quick and twisting dance movements, called a ‘jig’, e.g. “My friend is a talented jigger; he’s invited to every dance show!”, and also to a person who operators/works a jigger, a kind of machine; and ‘jigger’ is also used to refer to a person who manipulates something by moving or arranging something in a different way that others find it difficult to understand, e.g. “Our financiers are jiggers who know how to jig the numbers and make us believe what they do is great!” However, it is to be noted that ‘jig’ or ‘jigger’, though it has several common harmless meanings/definitions both as a noun and a verb, is used to refer to a black person, an Afro-American, and so is now considered a serious insult. Therefore, we are advised not to use this word to refer to any person in formal conversations!

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