Itching for Relief

Itching for relief

Author: Ron Fuller Special to the Democrat-Gazette
Publication: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: Web Edition Articles (Little Rock, AR)

Date: December 14, 2015

Celebrating chiggers? Really?
After I quit laughing, I began to ponder what in the world was behind the folks at the Butler Center putting giant terrifying metal chiggers with menacing mandibles on the wall outside the Butler Center's Ron Robinson Theater.

Chiggers are part of the Arachnida class, live in nearly every place on Earth and are part of the mite family. They are relatives of ticks, for goodness' sakes.

They inject a digestive enzyme into a hole they bore in the skin, which then melts and rots parts of your inner skin, causing severe irritation and swelling. The red pimple-like bumps have been making people crazy since the first caveman scratched himself silly. They often cause secondary infections and, in some parts of the Earth, carry a form of typhus.

Before I come under loud criticism from the art community, I must say I do appreciate modern metal sculptures, and have several in my home, including metal chickens and a pelican that my wife adores. However, the picture in the paper on December 4th reminded me of a 2007 made-for-television movie named Ice Spiders. In this poorly acted film, a number of mutated killer spiders escaped from--you guessed it--a government lab, and spent the next hour terrifying, ripping off body parts, eating and killing Olympic skiers.

The metal chiggers are dead ringers for these killers. It was as horrible as any of the old B movie bloodbaths from the 1950s.

While I suppose I can see the humor of giving cute names to one of the nastiest and most reviled bugs in Arkansas as well as on the entire planet, I think placing them in a prominent wall outside a theater seems a bit over the top, even humor-wise.

All one has to do is Google up this menacing bug to see it is a mighty poor representative of the River Market and the city of Little Rock. If you are near the Butler Center, you may wish to direct your frightened children's eyes toward the submarine visible on the other side of the river.

We had to work a long time to overcome our hillbilly image, thanks to a 1930s Arkansas movie actor named Bob Burns and his lurid descriptions of our fair state. Reminding our visitors we are "chigger infested scratchers" is just about the same thing.

This nasty little red bug leaves welts, infections and red spots that can linger for weeks on a person's legs. In the days before Off and other bug repellants were used, scratching children were the norm every summer.

As a child growing up in 1950s Arkansas, I well remember my grandmother making us wear long-sleeve shirts, tying cord around the bottom of our pants legs, and rubbing coal oil on our ankles so we could avoid the nasty chigger bites while picking blackberries. In spite of her best efforts, they managed to make their way under our armpits and other sensitive places. My father, a World War II Pacific veteran, used Flit or Black Flag--which in the 1950s contained DDT--to keep these spreaders of terror off our young and tender legs, mostly to no avail.

Those of us who played in the woods and pastures know all too well the indignities of an infected bite on or near our little private parts.

I like art in public places a lot, and certainly support interesting artistic concepts. But giving "giant, menacing-looking chiggers" that appear like something out of a horror movie a prominent place of honor in an area frequented by tourists is just plain silly.

Am I missing something here?

------v------

Ron Fuller lives in Little Rock.

Editorial on 12/14/2015
Caption: Colin Thompson arranges eight steel chiggers, each with a name, at the Butler Center Galleries in the Little Rock River Market District.