Chigger Basics
"Many people think of chiggers as blood-sucking insects, like fleas, ticks or mosquitoes. There are two problems with this belief. The first is that chiggers are not insects, and the second is that they don't eat blood. Chiggers are the larvae of harvest mites, and they consume the cells of their host's skin.
Harvest mites are arachnids -- they're related to ticks and spiders. Adults are small and red, and they have eight legs. They live in the soil, so people often find them while digging in yards or gardens. Adult harvest mites eat other insects and their eggs. They can be beneficial to human beings, since they often eat the eggs of other pests, such as mosquitoes"...........
http://animals.howstuffworks.com/ara....htm/printable
It gives you the whole rundown there including pictures. Looks like we were all a little bit wrong....lol!