Another side effect of the dewberries and the woods in gener

Another side effect of the dewberries and the woods in general was that they boasted flocks, gaggles, murders, bunches (who know the right term for a ‘whole lot of’) of chiggers - which we knew as redbugs. These were tormenting creatures about the size of the point of a pin - thus the second phrase of the song. Once they got onto one of us (or all of us actually), they migrated to a constricted area, e. g. Under the waistband of our undies, or in the seam between the leg and the butt or the armpit. There they burrowed in and began to feast. As they resided there for a while their little bodies caused our bodies to react to this foreign object and raise a red bump - like a mosquito bite. And this bump itched like crazy. And we scratched like crazy. My dad tried to get rid of the chiggers by using a sterile needle to extract them from their subdermal burrows. While doing this he sang the song above to the tune of Polly Wolly Doodle…. That’s my story and I am sticking by it.