I had encountered chiggers in Texas when I was very young, and ran into them again a few years ago near Bowling Green.
Heading west on I-40 after that, I passed the Shiloh battlefield; got to wondering after that what the Yankees at the battle thought of chiggers.
I lived in texas in 1962 and had to deal with them. I had completely forgotten about them. What expands the problem for me now in central KY is that my property has fields and woods. I weedeat the transition area between the two and apparently that is where most of the chiggers are. If you wear long pants and shirt and use bug spray it’s not a big deal. When you are wearing shorts and no shirt or bug spray, and your body is covered in green after a few hours, well, you can count on a LOT of them. And it seems to be worse a week later.
Apparently a really hot bath immediately after exposure also helps. They back out of you and go on to meet their maker.